CPI general secretary D. Raja and academic P. K. Vijayan have blamed the “red scare” under the Manmohan Singh government for the crackdown on dissent.

Raja and Vijayan were addressing a meeting held on Monday to call upon the Supreme Court to uphold the acquittal of former Delhi University professor G. N. Saibaba and others.

In October, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court had acquitted Saibaba, former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Hem Keshavdatta Mishra, Uttarakhand journalist Prashant Rahi Narayan Sanglikar, tribals of Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district Mahesh Kariman Tirki, Vijay Nan Tirki, and recently deceased Pandu Pora Narote who were convicted in 2017 for links with banned CPI(Maoist).

On an appeal by the Maharashtra government, the apex court ruled that the charges against Saibaba and others were “very serious”, and the convictions could not be set aside on a mere technicality.

At the “Kis-Kis Ko Qaid Karoge” event, organised by the Campaign Against State Repression at H. K. S. Surjeet Bhavan here on Monday, Raja said: “When the UAPA was debated in Parliament… that time, that government argued that Left-wing extremism was the single-largest internal security threat… Left-wing extremism questions the government of the day, fights the government of the day in the interest of the people in order to defend their livelihood, in order to put an end to exploitation, discrimination… Why can’t you (the UPA government) talk about Right-wing extremism? Right-wing extremism tries to redefine Indian nationhood... rewrite the whole history, it is the most dangerous politics.”

He added: “Now the UAPA is used to suppress dissent, an agitation by people for justice, for their own rights.”

Hindu College associate professor P. K. Vijayan — part of the committee for the defence and release of Dr G.N. Saibaba — said: “Our fight should not only be focused on this (releasing Saibaba). This is the symptom of the disease.”

After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called naxalism the “single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country” in 2006, Vijayan said: “Citizens began to suspect each other… After Saibaba’s arrest, agitations for jal-jangal-zameen came down.”

He compared it to the “red scare” in the 1950s US.

Saibaba’s wife A. S. Vasantha said: “The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities — which India ratified — the Nelson Mandela rules (UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners) remain only on paper… History tells us that truth ultimately triumphs. I appeal to everyone to always be prepared to take this struggle forward.”

Saibaba, arrested in 2014, is paralysed from waist down. He has 19 chronic and acute medical conditions that include high blood pressure, bilateral kidney stones, and kyphoscoliosis inducing rib crowding.

Jailed JNU student Hem’s father, K. D. Mishra, said: “There are hundreds of political prisoners for whom no one speaks about… This repression will only increase unless there is a big protest against this.”