No democracy without dissent: sc on activists

‘SAFETY VALVE’ Top court issues notice to Maha govt; 5 to be under house arrest

NEW DELHI/PUNE/MUMBAI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stopped Pune police from taking custody of five activists who were arrested a day before for alleged Maoist links, and placed them under house arrest in their respective homes until the case is heard again on September 6.

A three-judge SC bench headed by chief justice of India Dipak Misra also asked the Maharashtra government to file a response by September 5 to a petition by historian Romila Thapar and others that alleged the arrests were aimed at muzzling dissent.

“Dissent is the safety valve of democracy, the pressure cooker will burst if you don’t allow the safety valves,” justice DY Chandrachud, a part of the bench with justice AM Khanwilkar, said.

The SC bench questioned the rationale behind the arrest nine months after violence on January 1 left one person dead and four others injured in Bhima Koregaon, where hundreds of thousands of Dalits were celebrating the bicentennial of a war between the British and the Peshwas.

“There are wider issues raised by them (petitioners). Concern raised is that you are quelling dissent. Democracy is not safe if you quell dissent and that is what they are worried about,” the court said.

In near-simultaneous Pune police raids across five states on Tuesday, lawyer and trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj, poet P Varavara Rao, activist Gautam Navlakha, and lawyers Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves were arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy, creating fear and enmity between groups, and under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The arrests were part of an investigation into the Bhima Koregaon violence.

Navlakha’s transit remand from his house in Delhi to Pune was stayed by the Delhi high court on Tuesday evening and he was put on house arrest, and following a late-night hearing, Bharadwaj’s transit warrant was also recalled by the local magistrate.

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