Ifra Parvaiz
In the past couple of years, India has seen an incessant attack on dissent. Hundreds of academics, activists, students and journalists have been put behind bars using the draconian UAPA.
Sudha Bharadwaj happens to be one of the biggest names along with 15 others who were arrested in association with the Bhima Koregaon violence. It has been alleged that these activists stirred Dalits at a public meeting which led to violence in Bhima Koregaon village in Pune, Maharashtra in January 2018. The allegations are believed to be fabricated.
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Maaysha Bharadwaj, Sudha Bharadwaj’s daughter told The Kashmiriyat that her mother was arrested on the 28th of August 2018, before which she was under house arrest. She was booked under the UAPA.
Maaysha says that for the Pune police, her mother was an urban Naxal and that she was planning to kill Modi. She said that the police had found a letter to some person called Prashant and that in the letter Sudha had asked him for funds.
Sudha was born in the US, where her parents were completing their post-doctoral degrees. Her mother was a renowned professor at the JNU. Sudha grew up and completed her studies in India. And ever since, she had dedicated her life to fight for the oppressed.
A human rights lawyer and a trade union activist, who has spent her life defending Indigenous people in India and protecting workers’ rights, Sudha is also a member of the Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha.
She has spent almost 3 years in jail now. 2 months of house arrest and then since 28th of August 2018, she’s been in the jail, Maaysha told The Kashmiriyat.
“I was with Maa the day house arrest was over. Pune police came in, and in the morning around 10, they took maa,” she said.
Bombay High Court, on Thursday, said that it has to continue hearing the default bail application filed by Sudha Bharadwaj.
Maaysha also talked about the recent hearing in Sudha’s case last Thursday, on July 15. ” Thursday was our 3rd hearing. Actually, nothing much is happening nowadays in her case. Advocates are trying their best to get Muma bail but it seems it’s really hard,” she told The Kashmiriyat.
She says that the court was just giving them the next dates. And that she cannot say much about the case, hence.
She told the Kashmiriyat that she had met her in February. And that her health is deteriorating. “We talk about my studies and about her health. Her health is not good. She has many health issues so we talk about that,” said Maaysha.
When Maaysha was asked how she was leading her life with her mother languishing in jail, she said, “Oh! it’ll be very difficult for me to elaborate in words how I am living my life after her arrest. We are only two of us in our house and it’s very difficult for me to live my life and handle everything alone. My life, my studies everything.”