BJP worker who shared Mamata meme gets bail
RULING SC asks Priyanka Sharma to apologise to Bengal CM; Cong, BJP trade charges
Humour, wit, sarcasm survive in a free society. They have no place in autocracies. Dictators laugh at people. They don’t like people laughing at them. Bengal, today is a case in point. ARUN JAITLEY, Union minister, on twitter
NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing leader Priyanka Sharma, four days after she was arrested by the West Bengal police for allegedly posting a morphed image of chief minister Mamata Banerjee on social media.
The top court, however, asked her to apologise to Banerjee at the time of her release.
Sharma was arrested on May 10 after she allegedly superimposed Banerjee’s face on actor Priyanka Chopra’s photograph from the Met Gala event in New York. The 26-year-old leader of BJP Yuva Morcha has been charged under IPC Section 500 (defamation), and sections 66A (offensive content) and 67A (distributing sexually explicit material) of the Information and Technology (IT) Act.
A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna said on Tuesday, “The detenue shall, however, at the time of her release, tender an apology in writing for putting up/ sharing the picture of complainant on her Facebook account.”
The court clarified that the apology order “is being made in special circumstances of the case and shall not operate as a precedent”.
Hearing a petition seeking the release of Sharma, the bench said, “Your freedom of speech ends where it violates somebody else’s right.” The court said, the apology demanded of the Sharma was for herself. “We are asking her to apologise on behalf of anyone else, but for herself”.
Arguing the case for Sharma’s release, senior advocate N K Kaul opposed the apology part of the order saying, “It will have a chilling effect on the freedom of speech, and the tweet had already been deleted.” Kaul also tried to impress on the court that Sharma was not the creator of the post and she had only shared it as had been done by many. Kaul said, “Is humour that offends somebody enough for arrest?”
But the bench deflected the argument observing that the matter would have been different if the person sharing it was a common man. “But she is a member of BJP, the insinuation has a different meaning when it’s done by a member of a political party,” observed Justice Khanna.
But Justice Banerjee who is heading the vacation bench insisted that “she should tender an apology as this is not done”. Sharma had approached the top court on Monday because a strike in West Bengal had stalled work in the lower courts. Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid said, “I think there is a vast area of law in which the courts still haven’t clarified the extent of freedom of speech...what does reasonable restriction actually mean? Hopefully this will be done some day.” BADURIA/BASIRHAT/KOLKATA: Baduria is a small municipal town situated some 50km from Kolkata. It is a part of the Basirhat parliamentary constituency (PC), which will go to polls in the last phase of 2019 general elections, on May 19. The place gained notoriety in July 2017, when communal violence erupted after a derogatory social media post on the Prophet Mohammad went viral. Those attacked by a violent mob of Muslims included the local police station and the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA from Basirhat South. The violence, which also spread to Basirhat town, was ultimately contained after a week, but it seems to have left permanent fault lines, not just in Baduria, but the entire PC, and probably beyond.
HT visited Baduria a year ago, just before the panchayat elections. Communal polarisation, which was talked about in hushed voices then, has completely crystallised now.
There is a small disagreement about the share of Muslims in Basirhat PC at the local tea shop.
Finally there is a consensus that the number is more than 50%. Then there is an attempt to identify parts where Muslims are not in a majority. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can manage a lead from these places, we are told.
There is a caveat, though; it will happen only if voters are allowed to exercise their franchise.
This is not an unnecessary concern. Anandabazar Patrika, West Bengal’s biggest Bengali newspaper, led with the headline Ato Hingsha Kano (Why so much violence) on May 13, a day after the sixth phase of polling in the state. TMC cadre attacked and vandalised Union minister Babul Supriyo’s vehicle in Basirhat PC a day before, we are told. The BJP candidate, Sanyantan Basu, had a piece of advice for the central forces which have been brought to oversee polling. Shoot above (the waist), not below.
The local BJP leader, who has made a makeshift office at home instead of the small dilapidated office HT visited earlier, says he expects the electorate to behave like kumro (Bengali for pumpkin): green from outside and saffron from inside.
The people you see roaming around with the TMC will vote for us on polling day, he tells us. The TMC violence is largely meant to scare people from indulging in such behaviour.
The 2017 riots are not the only religious issue dominating Baduria and the rest of Basirhat PC this time.
The Trinamool Congress has fielded Nusrat Jahan, a Bengali actress – some say probably the first Muslim superstar in the Bengali film industry – as its candidate.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee introduced her as someone who organises Kali Puja at her home despite being a Muslim.
Conservative Muslims have made this as an issue against the TMC candidate. Apparently videos are also being circulated where Jahan is speaking against Triple Talaq, an Islamic practice banned by the apex court. For sections of Muslims, clearly, Jahan might not be Muslim enough.
The BJP is hoping that the conservative Muslim backlash against Jahan will damage the TMC’S prospects. Abdur Rahil Quazi, the Congress candidate, who is a local and also the only
Jaitley ji, I agree with you but how come I was charged with sedition for (the) meme on Modi? Are you saying Modi is a dictator? DIVYA SPANDANA, Congress leader