‘Protect right to expression to uphold democracy’
LUCKNOW: “Each one of us should strive for our basic right to free expression to uphold democracy in the true sense,” said senior journalist Bharat Bhushan, at a programme organised by Rihai Manch in Lucknow on Wednesday. The programme was held to mark 10 years of the infamous Batla House encounter in Delhi.
To recall, in the encounter between Delhi police and alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives, cops claimed that two operatives were killed while two others escaped. A police officer was also killed.
At the programme, Rihai Manch also released a report titled ‘Shock, Conspiracy and Politics 10 years of Batla House’, questioning the encounter and its aftermath. “The encounter had several loose ends that the authorities could never tie up. It seems that it was only to harass people of a certain community,” Bhushan said. He went to draw similarities of the incident with recent arrest of human right activists called ‘Urban Naxals.’ “What Indian Mujahideen was to the previous government, Urban Naxals is for the present government,” he said.
Another journalist Seema Azad, who addressed the gathering before Bhushan, criticised the rise in commercial capitalism. “The rise of capitalism is behind the attempt of the government to gag the voice of people in the country. This infringement of rights follows a pattern that is linked to providing benefits to a bunch of rich corporate,” Seema said, adding. “All major political parties have done this and will continue to do so until people realise this.”