In Solidarity with K. Satyanarayana

(Samaj Weekly)

The signatories, from across different professions, include leading names such as Professor Noam Chomsky, Barbara Harris-White, Jan Breman, Susie Tharu, Sumit Sarkar, Tanika Sarkar, Prabhat Patnaik, John Harris, Gyan Prakash, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan and Utsa Patnaik; leading writers and poets like K. Satchidanandan, Mridula Garg, Geeta Kapur and Gita Hariharan, artists like Sudhir Patwardhan and Vivan Sundaram.

It should be evident from the vast range of signatories, both people of eminence as well as students that Prof Satyanarayana commands great respect across different kinds of people cutting across ideological lines. We attaching the statement along with this letter for publication in your publication.

– subhash gatade

We, the undersigned academics, journalists and concerned citizens strongly condemn the fresh round of harassment and arrests of academics and activists by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is trying to implicate them in the Bhima Koregaon case. After Partho Sarathi Ray, the NIA has now summoned Prof Satyanarayana and senior journalist KV Kurmanath to appear before it on 9 September. And even as these summons were being served, the NIA has also arrested Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor of the Kabir Kala Manch in connection with the same case.

Dr. K. Satyanarayana is Professor at the Department of Cultural Studies at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. He has been instrumental in establishing Dalit Studies as an academic discipline and has a formidable reputation as a scholar and teacher.

In a message to friends, in which he shared this news, Satyanarayana has said that he was directed to “appear before the NIA as a witness under section 160 Cr.PC and also u/s 91 of Cr. PC on 09.09.2020. My co-brother K.V. Kurmanath, a senior journalist, was also summoned to appear at the same time and date”. They have been summoned ostensibly to record their statements but it is evident that it is meant to coerce him and KV Kurmanath to make statements that will implicate their father-in-law, the revolutionary poet, Varavara Rao.

Satyanarayana has categorically stated the last time his flat was raided by Pune police in August 2018, under the pretext of collecting evidence against Varavara Rao, that he was in no way connected to  the Bhima Koregaon case.

In his message to friends, Satyanarayana has underlined that the NIA notice aggravates their family distress at a time when, as it is, Varavara Rao’s health condition is not good and the pandemic is fast spreading in Mumbai. There have been worrying reports about Varavara Rao’s deteriorating health condition in the media.

We see this attempt to harass K. Satyanarayana and KV Kurmanath and the arrest of Kabir Kala Manch activists as all of a piece – as part of the frenzied attempts by an insecure regime to browbeat critical and dissenting voices of scholars, journalists and concerned citizens in order to muzzle all kinds of democratic aspirations. We affirm that we stand with them and will continue to support critical voices like theirs, despite the attempts to scare us into submission.