Three Opposition MPs on Thursday spoke out against the continued imprisonment of the undertrials in the Elgaar Parishad case.

CPI Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam hailed Stan Swamy, the priest who died in custody after being arrested in the case, as a “martyr.”

Sixteen intellectuals, academics, lawyers and activists were arrested during an investigation into the alleged Maoist links of an Ambedkarite event called Elgaar Parishad on December 31, 2017, which was followed by caste clashes the next day at Koregaon village on the banks of the Bhima river, near Pune, that claimed one life.

The eldest accused, Swamy, 84, died of post-Covid complications in judicial custody in 2020. Telugu author P. Varavara Rao and jurist Sudha Bharadwaj are on bail.

The Elgaar case expanded into a purge of “urban Naxals”— a term preferred by Right-wing commentators to describe those accused of clandestinely working for banned organisations.

Addressing a media conference organised by the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO), Viswam underscored that Swamy, suffering from Parkinson’s, had to move court for humane treatment, including the provision of a straw and sipper.

“It (the court’s intervention) was too late. He became a martyr…. In India now, jail is the norm, and bail a distant dream.”

Stressing the collective demand to release all the Elgaar accused and repeal the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the NIA Act, Viswam said: “Overnight, we can be declared anti-nationals and called terrorists…. This is the style of fascists and reactionary forces all over the world right from the time of Hitler and Mussolini…. Parliament alone cannot solve the problems of today’s India. The people are mightier and MPs must join hands with them.”

Independent Rajya Sabha MP from Assam and former editor Ajit Kumar Bhuyan compared the current situation to the crackdown against insurgency in his state in the 1990s. Bhuyan, who now heads the Anchalik Gana Morcha, was jailed five times during that decade.

Bhuyan said: “It is high time we fight against draconian laws and draconian rulers who are carrying out anti-people policies. As an editor, I fought for years for freedom of speech and the freedom of the press…. The situation today is much worse.”

Bhuyan added: “Indian democracy was expected to be more resilient. But in the last 20 years, the State has only become more draconian. Freedom of speech is a distant dream.”

N.K. Jeet of the CDRO said the organisation would be petitioning the President and the Chief Justice of India, and plans a convention to push the twin demands for release of the Elgaar prisoners and disbanding of the NIA, which “goes against the ethos and federal nature of the country”.

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi MP Thirumaavalavan said: “It (the case) is total injustice and anti-Constitution. They (the accused) are not from any party and they were working for the downtrodden…. These people did not even participate in the Bhima Koregaon celebrations.”

He added: “We will raise the issue whenever possible in Parliament. We must be united and we need the support of everyone.”