Left And Right-Wing Extremism: Double Standards?
On Tuesday we saw multi-city raids carried out by the police and the arrests of five human rights activists and lawyers. The police have accused them of being part of a larger Maoist plot that is working against the government and one that was also allegedly behind the violence that broke out in Bhima Koregaon in January when there were clashes between a scheduled caste gathering and a right wing group. For the moment, the Supreme Court has ordered all the activists be kept under house arrest and have asked the Maharashtra government for a reply about the arrests. These latest arrest follow five arrests that took place in June where once again it was human rights activists and professors who were raided and arrested. This was also connected to the Bhima Koregaon violence and a Maoist conspiracy. In that case, the police were supposed to present their chargesheet this coming week, but have instead, got a 90-day extension.
