Skip to main content

Academics, activists, lawyers condemn 'misuse' of anti-terror law against farmers

By A Representative 
Gathered at the Press Club of India in Delhi, several senior academics, activists and lawyers, condemning the Government of India’s alleged attempt to criminalize and break a “legitimate” farmers’ protest, have regretted that following the violence on January 26, the government has “activated the criminal justice machinery to lodge FIRs” against farmer leaders under a range of criminal laws, including the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
In a statement following the Press Club meet on behalf of the participants, the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) said, “the familiar playbook of the ruling establishment”, last seen in the winter of 2019, has been revived, pointing out, at that time too “the equal citizenship movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)-National Register of Citizens (NRC), and its young leadership, was similarly vilified, terrorized, charged under UAPA, and arrested.”
Demanding “unconditional withdrawal” of motivated FIRs against the leadership of the farmers’ movement and calling it “a brazen misuse of the police and the law to silence people’s legitimate democratic expression”, the statement said, “The fake state narrative of the farmers movement as a ‘violent conspiracy’ against India, is an exact copy-paste of the narrative we saw last year around the anti-CAA movement..”
The speakers at the meet drew attention to sections the media “pushing” government agenda, pointing out, the farmers’ protest rally on January 26 was “completely peaceful” , with thousands of tractors displaying “with pride the tricolour” on the Republic Day. They expressed alarm on the manner in which several senior journalists and public figures have been charged with sedition, apart from other criminal sections of IPC, one of them simply for a tweet, which was later “retracted”.
Those present at the meet included senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, Secretary of the Gandhi Peace Foundation Kumar Prashant, activist Shabnam Hashmi, economist Atul Sood, and scientist and co-convener of the Nation For Farmers Dinesh Abrol.

Comments

Post a Comment

NOTE: While there is no bar on viewpoint, comments containing hateful or abusive language will not be published and will be marked spam. -- Editor

TRENDING

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.
Post a Comment
»

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”
Post a Comment
»

Modi’s Israel visit strengthened Pakistan’s hand in US–Iran truce: Ex-Indian diplomat

By Jag Jivan   M. K. Bhadrakumar , a career diplomat with three decades of service in postings across the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, and Turkey, has warned that the current truce in the US–Iran war is “fragile and ridden with contradictions.” Writing in his blog India Punchline , Bhadrakumar argues that while Pakistan has emerged as a surprising broker of dialogue, the durability of the ceasefire remains uncertain.
Post a Comment
»