Clampdown a bid to muzzle dissent, says petition in SC

NEWDELHI: The arrest of five activists by the Pune police for alleged Maoist links is aimed at silencing dissent and instilling fear in the minds of the people, historian Romila Thapar and four other academics told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The petition filed by the five intellectuals alleged the Pune police action was the “biggest attack” on freedom and liberty of citizens by resorting to highhandedness without any credible evidence. It also alleged no action was taken against right-wing Hindu leaders despite them being named by police in the January 1 violence at Maharashtra’s Bhima Koregaon.

While hearing the petition, the Supreme Court observed that dissent was the “safety valve” of democracy and ordered the five activists be placed under house arrest at their respective homes till September 6.

Besides Thapar, noted economist Prabhat Patnaik, Padma Bhushan awardee and economist Devaki Jain, sociology professor in Delhi University Satish Deshpande and Maja Daruwala, who is a barrister by training and senior adviser to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, filed the petition in the SC challenging the arrests.

The petition sought to “bring on record the gross abuse of police power in the country which intended to stifle, if not kill, independent voices and ideology differing from the party in power.”

“The entire exercise is to silence dissent, stop people from helping the downtrodden and marginalised people across the nation and to instill fear in minds of people,” the petition said.

“The timing of this action leaves much to be desired and appears to be motivated to deflect people’s attention from real issues,” the petition said.

The petition alleged the charges against the activists on the face of it appeared to be indiscriminate, unwarranted and part of a campaign to threaten human rights defenders, independent journalist, writers and thinkers from criticising the government.

“The use of the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act), meant for exceptional and violent activity, against such persons when there has been absolutely no evidence of acts of violence by these activists is deeply disconcerting and calls for an urgent intervention by the court,” the petition said.

The petition by the academics said the police had filed FIRs on January 4 this year against Hindu right wing leaders Milind Ekbote and Shambhaji Bhide based on eyewitness accounts that they and some fringe groups had incited the violence against the Dalit congregation during the 200th anniversary celebration of a British-Peshwa war.

The petition alleged the Maharashtra government and its police did not take any purposeful and decisive action against the right-wing leaders “who were behind” the violence and allegedly instigated the attacks. “The police instead embarked on a motivated process of arresting a large number of human rights activists, lawyers and journalist...,” it said.

PLEA SOUGHT TO ‘BRING ON RECORD ABUSE OF POLICE POWER, WHICH IS INTENDED TO STIFLE, IF NOT KILL’ VOICES THAT ARE IN OPPOSITION TO THE PARTY IN POWER