Tripura violence: BJP seeking political benefit by polarising communities, say SC lawyers

By Sidique Qureshi*
Movement Against UAPA and Other Repressive Laws (MURL) chairperson Justice BG Kolse Patil has taken strong exception to the team of advocates of the Supreme Court, who had visited Tripura on a fact finding mission on the attack on minorities, obstructed by the Agartala police.
Worse, Justice Patil, who is former judge of the Bombay High Court, said, the police issued notices against Advocate Mukesh, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Delhi, and Advocate Ansar Indori under Section 13 of UAPA and sections of IPC.
The charges initiated against them include Sections 153-A and B (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of Religion, Race, Place of Origin, Residence, Language, etc), Section 469 (Forgery for Purpose of Harmful Information), Section 503 (Criminal Intimidation), Section 504 ((Willful Insult with intent to provoke the Breach of Peace/Create Discord) and Section120B (Punishment for Criminal Conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
In a statement, MURL, condemning it as an act of suppression of the voice of dissent by the Tripura government, said, the cases against Advocate Mukesh and Advocate Indori have been registered at West Agartala Police Station which mention “the social media posts circulated by you/statements made by you for promoting enmity between religious groups as well as provoking the people of different religious communities to cause Breach of Peace.”
Meanwhile, Supreme Court lawyers Ehtesham Hashmi and Amit Srivastava along with Advocate Mukesh and Advocate Indori have released their fact-finding report on the Tripura riots, have said that said that if the Tripura government had acted on time, it could have thwarted and controlled the premeditated violence against the minority Muslim community.
However, they alleged, but the the government gave free hands to the Hindutva mobs. Released at the Press Club in Delhi, the report, titled “Humanity Under Attack in Tripura: #MuslimLivesMatter" they has blamed the BJP-led State government for the misery caused to the minority community.
According to them, the BJP-ruled governments both at the Centre, as well as the State, want to benefit from the polarization of the two communities by spreading communal discord in view of the forthcoming elections to achieve their "Hindutva-based political objectives."
They said, the Issuance of such notices to the lawyers/advocates is nothing but a blatant attempt to terrorise and intimidate them from speaking the truth and exposing government fallacies. The invocation of Section 13 of the UAPA is contrary to law, improper and a vindictive act against these advocates.
We and the general public who believe in the democratic process and law of the land, stand in full solidarity with these Advocates in their fight against communalism and religious polarization, they said, urging We the law abiding and peace loving citizens of India to come forward, unite and resist these excesses and inhuman oppressive laws.
---
*Coordinator, MURL

Comments

Gujarat Information Commission issues warning against misinterpretation of RTI orders

By A Representative The Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) has issued a press note clarifying that its orders limiting the number of Right to Information (RTI) applications for certain individuals apply only to those specific applicants. The GIC has warned that it will take disciplinary action against any public officials who misinterpret these orders to deny information to other citizens. The press note, signed by GIC Secretary Jaideep Dwivedi, states that the Right to Information Act, 2005, is a powerful tool for promoting transparency and accountability in public administration. However, the commission has observed that some applicants are misusing the act by filing an excessive number of applications, which disproportionately consumes the time and resources of Public Information Officers (PIOs), First Appellate Authorities (FAAs), and the commission itself. This misuse can cause delays for genuine applicants seeking justice. In response to this issue, and in acc...

'MGNREGA crisis deepening': NSM demands fair wages and end to digital exclusions

By A Representative The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), a coalition of independent unions of MGNREGA workers, has warned that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is facing a “severe crisis” due to persistent neglect and restrictive measures imposed by the Union Government.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Gandhiji quoted as saying his anti-untouchability view has little space for inter-dining with "lower" castes

By A Representative A senior activist close to Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar has defended top Booker prize winning novelist Arundhati Roy’s controversial utterance on Gandhiji that “his doctrine of nonviolence was based on an acceptance of the most brutal social hierarchy the world has ever known, the caste system.” Surprised at the police seeking video footage and transcript of Roy’s Mahatma Ayyankali memorial lecture at the Kerala University on July 17, Nandini K Oza in a recent blog quotes from available sources to “prove” that Gandhiji indeed believed in “removal of untouchability within the caste system.”

Targeted eviction of Bengali-speaking Muslims across Assam districts alleged

By A Representative A delegation led by prominent academic and civil rights leader Sandeep Pandey visited three districts in Assam—Goalpara, Dhubri, and Lakhimpur—between 2 and 4 September 2025 to meet families affected by recent demolitions and evictions. The delegation reported widespread displacement of Bengali-speaking Muslim communities, many of whom possess valid citizenship documents including Aadhaar, voter ID, ration cards, PAN cards, and NRC certification.

Subject to geological upheaval, the time to listen to the Himalayas has already passed

By Rajkumar Sinha* The people of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, who have somehow survived the onslaught of reckless development so far, are crying out in despair that within the next ten to fifteen years their very existence will vanish. If one carefully follows the news coming from these two Himalayan states these days, this painful cry does not appear exaggerated. How did these prosperous and peaceful states reach such a tragic condition? What feats of our policymakers and politicians pushed these states to the brink of destruction?

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Rally in Patna: Non-farmer bodies to highlight plight of agriculture in Eastern India ahead of march to Parliament

P Sainath By A Representative Ahead of the march to Parliament on November 29-30, 2018, organized by over 210 farmer and agricultural worker organisations of the country demanding a 21-day special session of Parliament to deliberate on remedial measures for safeguarding the interest of farm, farmers and agricultural workers, a mass rally been organized for November 23, Gandhi Sangrahalaya (Gandhi Museum), Gandhi Maidan, Patna. Say the organizers, the Eastern region merits special attention, because, while crisis of farmers and agricultural workers in Western, Southern and Northern India has received some attention in the media and central legislature, the plight of those in the Eastern region of the country (Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Eastern UP) has remained on the margins. To be addressed by P Sainath, founder of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), a statement issued ahead of the rally says, the Eastern India was the most prosperous regi...

'Centre criminally negligent': SKM demands national disaster declaration in flood-hit states

By A Representative The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has urged the Centre to immediately declare the recent floods and landslides in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Haryana as a national disaster, warning that the delay in doing so has deepened the suffering of the affected population.

Counterview

Search This Blog