25/04/2026
Artists in Support of Workers in Noida
We, artists, writers, theatre workers, cultural activists strongly condemn the repression, illegal detentions and disinformation campaign unleashed by the UP police against trade unionists, ordinary workers, and people who stand in solidarity with them, including artists and intellectuals.
The agitating workers in Noida were raising entirely legitimate demands regarding minimum wages, overtime payment, dignity and abusive working conditions. Instead of addressing these issues, the state government responded with arrests, intimidation and a false narrative of ‘conspiracy’.
Recently UP police picked up some activists, writers and journalists without giving any reason. The police refused to disclose whether they were in custody or to reveal their whereabouts.
Recently, the union Home Minister claimed that Maoism is finished in India and now the task is to target 'urban Naxals'. The infamous bulldozer government of UP, which has been protecting its own ra**st leaders shamelessly, has taken the cue and unleashed repression against the workers’ struggle. It is seeking to criminalise the very act of supporting workers.
Senior leaders and MPs of Left parties, central trade union leaders going to meet the workers were stopped by the local administration and they had to sit on dharna in protest. Lawyers are being denied entry to court premises and threatened for performing their legal duties. Trade union leaders have been placed under house arrest.
Arrest procedures are being violated: no arrest memos, no information to families. A disinformation campaign is being run to brand the workers’ movement as a ‘conspiracy’ with ‘Naxal’ links. Activists who called for peaceful protest are being labelled ‘masterminds’.
This pattern is sickeningly reminiscent of the repression after the North East Delhi communal violence of 2020 where instigators of violence are free and those working for peace jailed.
The state is not only violating all rules of law and procedure to hide its failure but trying to declare the protesters as ‘anti-national’.
We reject the attempt to criminalise dissent and to arrests those writers and journalists who speak up. We demand:
- Immediate release of all activists, workers and intellectuals detained in connection with the Noida protest.
- Public disclosure of whereabouts of all detained persons and an end to illegal detentions.
- Stop the disinformation campaign against activists and withdrawal of false ‘conspiracy’ charges.
- Strict adherence to legal procedure in arrests, access to lawyers, and information to families.
- An independent inquiry into police conduct, including denial of food and medicine to detainees.
- Immediate action on workers’ legitimate demands.
We appeal to all cultural groups, writers’ collectives, theatre workers, students and democratic citizens to raise their voice against this attack on workers and on the right to organise, speak and dissent. We condemn raids on bookstores, the jailing of intellectuals, artists and journalists.
We call upon all democracy-loving citizens to unitedly fight against this false narrative of ‘conspiracy’, which is nothing short of an assault on the values enshrined in our Constitution.
Bangla Manch Delhi
IPTA, West Bengal
Janasamskriti Delhi
Jana Natya Manch Delhi
Janvadi Lekhak Sangh
Jatan Natak Kendra, Haryana
Kishore Mahal, Tripura
Paschimbanga Adibasi o Lokshilpi Sangha
Praja Natya Mandal
Pratyay Natya Kala Kendra, Maharashtra
Tamilnadu Progressive Writers’ and Artists’ Association
Tripura Sanskriti Somannay Kendra
West Bengal Democratic Writers Artists Association
