At NewsClick solidarity meet, Oppn leaders, activists point to founder’s ‘role in people’s movements’

Accusing the BJP of a crackdown on dissent, several opposition leaders and activists have expressed solidarity with NewsClick and demanded the release of its founder Prabir Purkayastha, who has completed six months in custody in a UAPA case.

And a day after the event, NewsClick uploaded a video on its website in a post headlined, “The ‘good fight’ continues”. The post had a sentence about the solidarity meeting along with a video containing Prabir Purkayastha’s old clips, including his statement following an ED raid in 2021. 

Recalling Purkayastha’s explanation behind the launch of NewsClick, the video pointed to the outfit’s coverage of events such as the farm protests and the CAA demonstrations.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, party leader Brinda Karat, CPI general secretary D Raja, AAP leader Gopal Rai, former IAS officer and activist Harsh Mander, and senior journalist P Sainath were among those in attendance at the event held on Saturday.

Yechury said that his friendship with Purkayastha goes back to his days at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and said that he was also arrested during the Emergency. “We are not just here to express solidarity with a person... he has played an important role in all people’s movements,” he said, according to PTI.

“In my last speech in the Parliament, I said it’s our responsibility not to make India a Hindu Pakistan. We have to save ourselves. Voices like Prabir are needed to ensure that.”

AAP leader Gopal Rai also slammed the Narendra Modi government over its “attack on the Opposition across the country”. “The Modi government was here five years ago as well, but the ED was not a household name. What has changed? The ED and Modi are one, it’s difficult to differentiate,” Rai said.

“Five years ago their target was to suppress voices of dissent, they created fear... But they saw who was becoming the voice of farmers, Adivasis, students.”