Protest over Kerala anti-rape shutdown arrests

TRIVANDRUM: A group of public intellectuals have condemned the indiscriminate arrests of more than 1200 people, mostly Muslims, after last week’s anti-rape protests.

In a joint statement, they said the police had charged many men with nonbailable offences.

The youngsters from various political parties “were democratically protesting against the Sangh Parivar (Hindu groups supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party) forces.” The signatories included BRP Bhaskar, Dr TT Sreekumar, Dr AK Ramakrishnan, Dr B Rajeevan, Dr J Devika, Dr Rekha Raj, Gopal Menon, KP Sasi and NP Chekkutty, besides many academics and student leaders from across India.

State police chief Lokanath Behera had said there were attempts to trigger communal riots by making a call for shutdown on social media platforms originated from unidentiied handles.

Those imprisoned mainly belonged to the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which had warned cadres against joining the protest.

There were many incidents of clashes with the police and vandalising shops during the lash shutdown on April 16.

“Accusing them of creating communal tension is highly condemnable,” the statement said, accusing the CPI (M) of backing the Sangh Parivar notions that the protest for Asifa is against the Hindu society.

“While it is understood that the law must be upheld during hartals (shutdowns), accusing the protesters of communal polarisation and arresting them on non-bailable charges is discriminatory and unethical.” It said, “there is an apparent lack of democratic growth to accept protests and gatherings that are conducted outside the conventional organisational frameworks or political backing.” They said the Sangh Parivar forces had manipulated the conlict between protesting youth and them as an attack against Hindu community, and as such, there needs to be an immediate release of all the arrested in Malabar.

“Reducing democratic protests and gatherings as mere tools for political gains, and demonising them is dangerous. We demand that the state and police rely on evidence,” it said.

The police had also registered some 350 cases of vandalism by the shutdown enforcers, who came out with no banners or lags as political parties do and went on a rampage.