<
https://theconversation.com/celebrated-novelist-arundhati-roy-faces-prosecution-in-india-for-a-speech-she-gave-in-2010-215524>
"Booker Prize-winning writer Arundhati Roy, author of
The God of Small
Things, has been charged, along with retired law professor Sheikh Showkat
Hussain, for allegedly seditious comments supporting the separation of Kashmir
from India.
They were speaking at a 2010 Delhi conference, the same year right-wing
activist Sushil Pandit filed the complaint on which these latest charges draw.
Nearly 13 years later, on October 10, Delhi’s lieutenant governor V.K. Saxena,
with the approval of Narendra Modi’s government, sanctioned the prosecution.
Roy and Hussain are accused of making statements promoting social enmity,
prejudicing national integration and inciting offences against the state and
public tranquillity.
It’s the latest in a series of prosecutions and arrests using India’s Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act, which was amended in 2019 to allow the government
to designate individuals as terrorists, without following any formal judicial
process.
Roy and Hussain are not being prosecuted under sedition law, though. (In May
2022, the Indian Supreme Court ordered a hold on prosecuting such cases, while
the Indian government reviews the colonial-era sedition law.)
As India hurtles toward the 2024 national election, liberal-left civil society
and independent media have become prime targets of the Modi government."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
