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

From algorithms to exploitation: New report exposes plight of India's gig workers

By Jag Jivan The recent report, "State of Finance in India Report 2024-25," released by a coalition including the Centre for Financial Accountability, Focus on the Global South, and other organizations, paints a stark picture of India's burgeoning digital economy, particularly highlighting the exploitation faced by gig workers on platform-based services.

India’s road to sustainability: Why alternative fuels matter beyond electric vehicles

By Suyash Gupta* India’s worsening air quality makes the shift towards clean mobility urgent. However, while electric vehicles (EVs) are central to India’s strategy, they alone cannot address the country’s diverse pollution and energy challenges.

Over 40% of gig workers earn below ₹15,000 a month: Economic Survey

By A Representative The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, while reviewing the Economic Survey in Parliament on Tuesday, highlighted the rapid growth of gig and platform workers in India. According to the Survey, the number of gig workers has increased from 7.7 million to around 12 million, marking a growth of about 55 percent. Their share in the overall workforce is projected to rise from 2 percent to 6.7 percent, with gig workers expected to contribute approximately ₹2.35 lakh crore to the GDP by 2030. The Survey also noted that over 40 percent of gig workers earn less than ₹15,000 per month.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Budget 2026 focuses on pharma and medical tourism, overlooks public health needs: JSAI

By A Representative Jan Swasthya Abhiyan India (JSAI) has criticised the Union Budget 2026, stating that it overlooks core public health needs while prioritising the pharmaceutical industry, private healthcare, medical tourism, public-private partnerships, and exports related to AYUSH systems. In a press note issued from New Delhi, the public health network said that primary healthcare services and public health infrastructure continue to remain underfunded despite repeated policy assurances.

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.

Death behind locked doors in East Kolkata: A fire that exposed systemic neglect

By Atanu Roy* It was Sunday at midnight. Around 30 migrant workers were in deep sleep after a hard day’s work. A devastating fire engulfed the godown where they were sleeping. There was no escape route for the workers, as the door was locked and no firefighting system was installed. Rules of the land were violated as usual. The fire continued for days, despite the sincere efforts of fire brigade personnel. The bodies were charred in the intense heat and were beyond identification, not fit for immediate forensic examination. As a result, nobody knows the exact death toll; estimates are hovering around 21 as of now.

When compassion turns lethal: Euthanasia and the fear of becoming a burden

By Deepika A 55-year-old acquaintance passed away recently after a long battle with cancer. Why so many people are dying relatively young is a question being raised in several forums, and that debate is best reserved for another day. This individual was kept on a ventilator for nearly five months, after which the doctors and the family finally decided to let go. The cost of keeping a person on life support for such extended periods is enormous. Yet families continue to spend vast sums even when the chances of survival are minimal. Life, we are told, is precious, and nature itself strives to protect and sustain it.

When resistance became administrative: How I learned to stop romanticising the labour movement

By Rohit Chauhan* On my first day at a labour rights NGO, I was given a monthly sales target: sixty memberships. Not sixty workers to organise, not sixty conversations about exploitation, not sixty political discussions. Sixty conversions. I remember staring at the whiteboard, wondering whether I had mistakenly walked into a multi-level marketing office instead of a trade union. The language was corporate, the urgency managerial, and the tone unmistakably transactional. It was my formal introduction to a strange truth I would slowly learn: in contemporary India, even rebellion runs on performance metrics.

Search This Blog