Status Update By Koyamparambath Satchidanandan Please send your endorsements if you are in agreement with the statement. Please also circulate among other interested individuals/groups. OPEN STATEMENT BY CONCERNED CITIZENS TO PROTECT OUR CONSTITUTIONAL AND DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS TO FREE SPEECH AND EXPRESSION I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. ~Voltaire No democracy can claim to be one, unless freedom of speech and expression are guaranteed by statute and where the state machinery works to ensure compliance not only in the behavior of government, but of its citizens. The curbing of expression with threat and through terror, increasingly more menacing, should be condemned and stopped, if our country is to become a mature democracy. Indeed, the expression of varied and differing opinions strengthen the political discourse and empowers people to make informed choices. In the last fortnight there has been a resurgence of attacks to curb the right to free speech and expression of Indian citizens who did not share the euphoria, hope and enthusiasm associated with recent election results. It is important to note that such attempts to curtail the right to free speech and expression of writers, academics, activists and ordinary citizens have been recurring incidents over the past two decades, irrespective of the political party in power. Last month, a widely respected and well known Kannada writer, U.R.Ananthamurthy was sent a one-way ticket to Karachi as well as threatened with phones calls asking him “when he was going to leave” for saying “ I would not like to live in a country ruled by Modi.” In another incident, a youth, Syed Vaqas, along with four friends from Bhatkal, Karnataka were arrested for sending a message (when the election results were announced) caricaturing the BJP government’s election slogan “aab ki bar antimsanskar (modisarkar).” A third incident is about a 31-year-old naval engineer from Goa, Devu Chodankar, for his alleged inflammatory comments against Mr. Narendra Modi on social media. More recently, in Bihar members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) disrupted a People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) seminar, to discuss the detention of Professor G.N. Saibaba of Delhi University (arrested for alleged Maoist links) and its implications for human rights. Or take the case of the two girls from Palghar, Maharashtra who were arrested for criticizing the shutdown of Mumbai for Shiv Sena’s chief Bal Thakeray’s funeral in 2012, even though the Constitution of India guarantees plurality of diverse political opinion. All these incidents signify acts of political expression that were reinterpreted as not conforming to mainstream positions. In the two recent cases in Karnataka and Goa, the representatives of police in Goa and Bangalore have stated in the newspapers that these cases do not warrant arrests; but the PMO has remained silent on this blatant attack on curbing citizens’ free speech and expression. As concerned citizens of a free and democratic India we protest against the continuing intolerant legislative attempts at criminalizing dissenting opinion and those in certain sections of society that take law into their hands to disrupt peaceful discussions and dialogue. In particular, we oppose the use of the draconic Section 66A of the IT Act. The IT Act has been worded deliberately to give unbridled powers to the State to clamp down on free speech. Section 66A prescribes criminal punishment of up to 3 years for merely sending messages which can cause ‘annoyance’ or ‘inconvenience’ or ‘danger’ or ‘insult,’ and gives unfettered discretion to enforcement agencies to enforce it. The recent incidents signify abuse under this provision that gives freedom to those in power to violate the fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution. We believe that voicing of dissent, expression of concern, constructive criticism and adversarial dialogue are an integral part of deliberative democracy. The ongoing attempts to quell political dissent or dialogue among citizens through draconian laws for ulterior motives poses a grave danger to Indian democracy. We the undersigned demand that the Government of India and all State Governments respect and protect all constitutional rights to free speech and expression, and personal liberty as guaranteed by Article 19 (1) (a), and Article 21 of the Constitution of India. We fully support the right of all citizens to freely express their views, dissenting or otherwise. We demand the concerned authorities follow due process and drop the exaggerated criminal charges against all these individuals. We strongly condemn the use of social policing, boycott and other means of state coercion to silence citizens, legitimized through regressive legislations such as the IT Act. We demand that section 66A of the IT Act should be deleted. We urge the Prime Minister, and the Government of India and all State Governments to respect the right of citizens to express their thoughts and views, guaranteed by the Constitution of India, without fear of retribution. Signatories: Achin Vanaik Achyut Das Afroz Alam Sahil Amar Kanwar Amba Kak Amit Bhaduri Amit Sharma Amita Baviskar Ammu Joseph Anand Pathwardhan Anant Bhatnagar Ania Loomba Aruna Rodrigues Aruna Roy Arvind Ojha Ashish Kothari Ashish Sen Ashok Khandelwal Ashok Rao Babloo Loitongbam Bhanwar Meghwanshi Bharat Dogra Bhaskar Prabhu Bhupendra Yadav Bina Sarkar Ellias Biraj Patnaik Cynthia Stephen Darryl D’Monte Deep Joshi Deepta Chopra Devasahayam M G Dilip Simeon Dinesh Mohan Dipa Sinha DL Tripathi Dr. A Gopalakrishnan Dr. Anand Teltumbde Dr. Anandlakshmy Dr. Divya Singhal Dr. R. Padmini Dr. Shaikh Ghulam Rasool Dunu Roy EAS Sarma Ela Bhatt Gautam Shonti Geeta Kapur Harsh Mander Harsh Sethi Henri Tiphagne Indira Chandrasekhar Jagdeep Chhokar Jarius Banaji Jasveen Jairath Jayadev U. K. Jayati Ghosh Jean Drèze Jyotsna Jha Kalyani Menon-Sen Kavita Srivastava Komal Srivastava Koninika Ray Krishan Takhar Lakshmi Krishnamurty Lal Singh Lalita Ramdas Lawrence Liang M. Hasan M.K Raina Madan Gopal Singh Madhu Prasad Madhuri Krishnaswamy Mallika Sarabhai Mamta Jaitley Manisha Sethi Manoj Mitta Megha Kumar Meher Engineer Mrinal Pande Nachiket Udupa Nandini Sundar Nandita Das Neena Rao Neeta Haridkar Nikhil Dey Nisha Sidhu Nishat Hussein Nityanand J P L Mimroth Pamela Philipose Paranjoy Guha Thakurta Parthiv Shah Praavita Kashyap Prabhat Patnaik Prabhu Ghate Pradip Prabhu Praful Bidwai Prafulla Samantra Prakash Burra Prashant Bhushan Prashanto Sen Prem Krishan Sharma Radha Kant Saxena Rajendra Prasad Rajni Bakshi Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu Rakesh Sharma Ram Rahman Ramaswamy R. Iyer Ramesh Nandwana Ranesh Ray Rani Sarma Ranjana Ray Rashid Hussein Ravi Kiran Jain Renuka Mishra Renuka Pamecha Revathi Narayanan Reyhana Datta Rohit Prajapati Romila Thapar S.G. Vasudev Sachin Jain Saikat Ghosh Satish Satish Deshpande Satya Sivaraman Sejal Dand Shabnam Hashmi Shankar Singh Shanta Sinha Shiraz Balsara Shomi Das Shripadh Dharmadhikari Siddhartha Basu Siddhartha Sharma Sister Geeta Sister Mariola Smita Gupta Soumya Datta Suchi Pande Sudha Bharadwaj Sumi Krishna Sunanda Bhat Swati Narayan Tarun Bharatiya Teesta Setalvad TM Krishna Utsa Patnaik V Suresh Vandana Mahajan Vasanth Kannabiran Vipul Mudgal Vivan Sundaram Vrinda Gover Yamuna Soma Zoya Hasan Koyamparambath Satchidanandan Jayashree Thotekat
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 09:58:42 +0000
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