Read all the reactions.
The Maharashtra police arrested Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha, and raided the homes of several others as part of its probe into the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave in Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune on December 31 last year. Others whose premises were reportedly searched this week were Father Stan Swamy, Susan Abraham, Kranthi Tekula and Anand Teltumbde.
With inputs from agencies
Here's what people said about the arrests:
1. Rahul Gandhi
)
One respects only one ideology based on Nagpur and the other respects all the different states, all the different ideas, all the different cultures and all the different people of this country. That fight is on and I assure you that we are fighting that battle
Source: PTI
2. Ram Madhav
)
'Few activists are now scared to go to jail and they are requesting to keep them in house arrest. In the coming days, Naxalism will end. Already Naxalism has come down in districts by the efforts of police and government, but there are some activists who are staying in cities and supporting naxalism. It should also be ended.
'Naxalites are enemies and some of their supporters are professors and human rights members."
Source: DNA
3. Kiren Rijiju
)
As Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had declared that Maoists are No.1 threat to India's internal security. Now the Congress president openly supports the front organisations & sympathisers of the Maoists. Keep national security above politics
Source: PTI
4. Pune Police
)
We have all the digital evidence to expose this large conspiracy about how to mobilise cadres, how to take action against security forces, which sort of weapons need to be procured and how to raise funds.
Source: PTI
5. Mayawati
)
"Through such government-sponsored terror, BJP dispensations want to divert people's attention from their failures. The display of unity by Dalits at Bhima-Koregaon did not go well with the BJP."
Source: PTI
6. Brinda Karat
)
This is the most brazen attack on civil liberties and democratic rights by the Modi government. We do not think it is the Pune police or the Maharashtra government. This is coming straight from the Centre
Source: PTI
7. Supreme Court
)
Dissent is the safety valve of democracy and if you don't allow these safety valves, it will burst.
Source: PTI
8. Sambit Patra
)
It is a new low for the Congress. It is working to finish off itself. It is no longer a mainstream party, but has become a fringe party...Naxals are Naxals when you arrest them, but they become HR (human rights) activists when we arrest them.
Source: DNA
9. Mallikarjun Kharge
)
"Human rights are being crushed. Even if one speaks about human rights, he or she is arrested based on mere suspicion. Such people are terrorised, threatened. I say this is an undeclared emergency. People talk about emergency, but this is an undeclared emergency," Kharge said.
Source: PTI
10. Aakar Patel
)
The police in India have repeatedly used counterterrorism laws against government critics and social activists, and often, they have targeted the same people by filing multiple cases against them.
Source: DNA
11. Arundhati Roy
)
It is a coup against the Constitution. It is a very dire situation, potentially more dangerous than the Emergency
Source: AFP
12. Vernon Gonsalves
)
If any person from the minority community merely says that the Modi government is communal, he is labelled a terrorist, said Susan Abraham - wife of Vernon Gonsalves
Source: PTI
13. Shashi Tharoor
)
I will strongly disagree with those who hold extreme left or extreme right views, but I will defend his right to hold that view. That is the essence of freedom.
Source: PTI
14. Twinkle Khanna
)
Freedom is not lost all at once, it is lost in units of one, one at a time, one activist, one lawyer, one writer till finally it's each one of us
Source: DNA
15. Raghav Chadha
)
"They are silencing & persecuting all opposition before 2019. First they came for AAP and we were silent, they came for dissenting intellectuals we were silent, now they've come for social activists and lawyers, how long can we remain silent, who is next?"
Source: DNA
16. Swara Bhasker
)
Indian jails are only for writers, human rights activists and academics... And doctors who saved the lives of children.
Source: DNA
