Colonial Reality of India’s Criminal Laws Remains Despite the New Hindi Names

21/06/2024

The Wire / by Rajshree Chandra

The argument that we are in the process of decolonizing laws is a bogus one and it reveals our hypocrisies more than anything else.
… Arundhati Roy today is now going to be being tried under many provisions of IPC along with the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for a speech she gave in 2010, 14 long years ago.
Fourteen years ago, she was charged with sedition (S. 124 A) based on a complaint that her speech (in Delhi) advocated separation of Kashmir from India and therefore “jeopardised public peace and security”. Fourteen years later, charges have been upgraded, and she is now also charged under the anti-terror law UAPA for reasons that are legally confounding but politically quite apparent.
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SKM condemns prosecution sanction of Arundhati Roy, Showkat Hussain under UAPA

20/06/2024

Deccan Herald / pti

The Delhi LG, earlier last week, gave his sanction to prosecute Roy and Hussain for allegedly making provocative speeches at an event in 2010.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday condemned Delhi LG V K Saxena’s approval to prosecute author Arundhati Roy and former Central University of Kashmir professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
… “The slapping of UAPA reflects that the present government, although cut down to size in recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, nonetheless wishes to continue with its older line of clamping down on any dissent and branding it as ‘anti-national’,” the organisation added.
The SKM claimed the National Investigation Agency has sent to jail 16 leading intellectuals and activists with “false charges” in the Bhima-Koregaon case.
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Talons intact – Indian democracy is not free from fascism yet

22/06/2024

The Telegraph / by Asim Ali

The electoral setback for the BJP marks an important check on the accelerated process of “fascistization of the regime” as I had noted in my column for The Telegraph last month
The last fortnight has been marked by a widespread sentiment of relief at the failure of the Narendra Modi regime to come back with a full majority. The relief is understandable. The sentiment, which seems out of place, represents the exultation at the triumphant redemption of Indian democracy from the clutches of fascism.
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Also read/watch:
▪ India: Arrests, Raids Target Critics of Government (Amnesty International / Oct 2023)
▪ AI Report: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target the civil society (Amnesty.org / Sep 2023)
▪ Arundhati Roy: #Me Too Urban Naxal (Scroll.in / Aug 2018)

▪ Video: PUCL and over hundred organisations present: Repeal UAPA – Persecution by Prosecution

Lawyers, the persecuted, their families and others will present how UAPA is being used to persecute activists and silence dissent. The 3 days will see State-wise sharing from AP, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, J&K, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana & UP

► Repeal UAPA – Day Three (en + … | 2h 51min | Jan 2021)
► Repeal UAPA – Day Two (en +… | 2h 22min | Jan 2021)
► Repeal UAPA – Day One (en + … | 2h 17min | Jan 2021)