A day after five prominent Left-wing activists were arrested in police raids in several states, civil rights defenders today claimed that the country was under "undeclared emergency".
A rally was organised from College Street to Esplanade area in Kolkata, where people from various backgrounds participated to condemn the arrest and demanded the immediate release of the activists.
They also condemned the pan-India crackdown on Left-wing activists.
Civil rights activist Sujato Bhadra said the democracy in India was going through one of its "darkest phases".
"Indira Gandhi had at least declared the emergency officially. But the (Narendra) Modi government has imposed undeclared emergency," Bhadra said.
The National Human Rights Commission said it appears that the standard operating procedure was not followed during the arrest of Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha.
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The Maharashtra police said the arrests were made as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an 'Elgar Parishad' (conclave) on December 31 last year.
Carrying placards demanding the withdrawal of the "draconian UAPA Law", activists and students shouted slogans against the Modi government.
The protesters chanted slogans describing the arrests of five activists as undemocratic and a violation of fundamental rights.
Veteran poet Sankha Ghosh, a recipient of Padma Bhushan, condemned the arrest of the Left-wing activists and said whatever was expected from a "fascist regime" was now proving true.
"Whatever was apprehended during the rule of a fascist regime, that is now proving to be true. This (arrest) is the latest instance of such trend. We have to be prepared for many such incidents in future," the Jnanpith awardee said in a statement here.
West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Bose demanded immediate release of the activists and accused the Modi government of trying to silence every voice of dissent in the country.
"From the killings of Gauri Lankesh, Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabolkar to the arrest of these activists. It seems that an undeclared emergency is going on in the country," Bose said.
The Left Front has called a rally in Kolkata tomorrow to protest the arrest of the activists.
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