Rajnath denies curbs on democratic rights

Lucknow, Sept. 1: Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday allayed fears on any curbs on democratic rights in the wake of the recent arrest of human rights activists, assuring “there will not be any effort to compress the pressure cooker”.

“I want to clarify that there will never be any effort to compress the pressure cooker. All have the right to speak, do whatever they want in democracy but no one will be allowed to

All have the right to speak... but no one will be allowed to destabilise the country or stoke violence — Rajnath Singh,

Union mantri

destabilise the country or create violence,” he said at an event here.

Mr Singh was answering a query on the Supreme Court’s comments that “dissent is the safety valve of democracy. If you don’t allow the safety valve, pressure cooker will burst”.

The apex court had said this while hearing a plea on the arrest of five activists under an antiterror law on charges of indulging in Left wing extremism.“Our government is committed to upholding democratic values, see the record of those arrested. In 2012, too many of them were arrested and at that time also similar allegations were raised,” he said.

“There cannot be a bigger crime than any effort to destabilise any government, taking refuge in one’s ideology for promoting violence, conspiring to destabilise and break the country,” he said. government

Claiming that his has been successful in checking Naxalism, he said the number of Left Wing Extremism affected districts has come down. “Now they ( Naxals) are adopting different measures, working in urban areas and influencing people with their ideology. They want to do violence in urban areas. I have got inputs from my agencies,” Mr Singh said.

The home minister termed the Kashmir issue a chronic problem which will take time to be resolved, he said.

He also wished success to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, expressing hope that he would perform well on the political turf as he had been doing on the cricket field. “There is a new captain in Pakistan, he had been playing on the cricket field till now. Now, he has to play on the political field. Let’s see how successful he is, we pray for his strength to succeed,” he said.