In complete solidarity. K. Satchidanandan
On 4 June 2014 07:18, Karthik Navayan <nava...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Please send your endorsement to pensionparis...@gmail.com > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Sowmya Kidambi <sowmyakrishkida...@gmail.com> > Date: Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 4:42 PM > Subject: Fwd: For Endorsement - Concerned Citizens' Statement for > protecting the Freedom to Speech and Expression > To: Karthik Navayan <nava...@gmail.com> > > > 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 > > > > -- > *Sowmya Kidambi > Director, Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency (SSAAT) > Department of Rural Development, > Government of Andhra Pradesh > +91-9676123426 > > > > > > -- > B.Karthik Navayan, > http://karthiknavayan.wordpress.com/ > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "FEC-Fourth Estate Critique" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to fourth-estate-critique+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to > fourth-estate-criti...@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/fourth-estate-critique. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Website: http:// satchidanandan.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. 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