Prominent Indian scholar and writer Anand Teltumbde is waiting to be jailed as the government has initiated many cases against him after he compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Adolf Hitler.
A few weeks ago, professor Teltumbde was booking a cab outside Mumbai’s airport when the security officers approached him and locked him in a jail in Pune. He was released after eight hours and court orders that his arrest was illegal.
Last year, the police in Maharashtra had accused Teltumbde and other well-known writers, academics and lawyers of “conspiring to topple the Indian government”. Officers raided their homes and confiscated hard drives and documents. The police have put nine of them in jail under the pretext of broad antiterrorism law and accused them of helping Maoist insurgents, trying to procure grenade launchers, inciting a riot and plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Teltumbde told the New York Times that he cannot describe the humiliation, while denying the accusations.
Human rights activists have condemned the crackdown on intellectuals who critcise Modi.
Teltumbde had called the prime minister a “narcissist par excellence” who could prove to be more dangerous than Hitler at a literary festival in 2017. He said that Modi’s politics, which are rooted in Hindu nationalism, amounted to “fascism plus something.
In the same speech, Teltumbde had said that Modi had “enacted the carnage of Muslims in 2002”, referring to religious riots that killed more than 1,000 people in Gujarat when Modi was the chief minister of that state. Modi has never been charged with a crime in connection with the violence.
A few weeks ago, professor Teltumbde was booking a cab outside Mumbai’s airport when the security officers approached him and locked him in a jail in Pune. He was released after eight hours and court orders that his arrest was illegal.
Last year, the police in Maharashtra had accused Teltumbde and other well-known writers, academics and lawyers of “conspiring to topple the Indian government”. Officers raided their homes and confiscated hard drives and documents. The police have put nine of them in jail under the pretext of broad antiterrorism law and accused them of helping Maoist insurgents, trying to procure grenade launchers, inciting a riot and plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Teltumbde told the New York Times that he cannot describe the humiliation, while denying the accusations.
Human rights activists have condemned the crackdown on intellectuals who critcise Modi.
Teltumbde had called the prime minister a “narcissist par excellence” who could prove to be more dangerous than Hitler at a literary festival in 2017. He said that Modi’s politics, which are rooted in Hindu nationalism, amounted to “fascism plus something.
In the same speech, Teltumbde had said that Modi had “enacted the carnage of Muslims in 2002”, referring to religious riots that killed more than 1,000 people in Gujarat when Modi was the chief minister of that state. Modi has never been charged with a crime in connection with the violence.