'Kashmiri Muslims in some parts of the country said on Sunday they were facing a backlash, three days after a suicide bomber hit a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy and killed 40 people, with a man being thrashed in New Delhi for allegedly raising anti-India slogans in a charged atmosphere. In another case, four paramedical students in Rajasthan were charged with sedition over social media posts following last week’s terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama...
'The Principal and Vice-Principal of HK Arts College in Ahmedabad have resigned in protest against the trustees caving in to Right Wing threats and disallowing a function that was to be attended by Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, an alumnus of the college, as part of the college’s annual day function on Monday. According to media reports, the programme was cancelled after Brahmchari Wadi Trust, which governs HK College, refused to provide a hall for the function where Mevani, an Independent MLA, was the chief guest. The Trust has some Padma awardees as members.
'In what comes as an attack on the freedom of press, a journalist in the state capital of Chhattisgarh was brutally attacked by the workers and the members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for filming a scuffle between them on Saturday afternoon.
'An Indian politician who posted a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a begging bowl on Facebook has been arrested in the latest example of what critics say is a clampdown on free speech. It follows more than a dozen similar arrests last year in a clampdown on those attacking the Hindu nationalist prime minister's policies or ideology. Sathiyaraj Balu, a member of a local pro-Tamil party, was arrested on Saturday after he posted a morphed picture of Modi with a begging bowl a day before the prime minister's visit to the southern state of Tamil Nadu...'
'“The death of a cow has more significance than that of a police officer,” said actor Naseeruddin Shah in an interview released on December 17. He was referring to the December 3 tumult in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, in which violence by cow vigilantes from the Bajrang Dal left a policeman dead. Shah highlighted these events as an example of India’s fraught communal climate and the impunity enjoyed by people who commit such acts of violence. To all reasonable people, there was nothing wrong in what Shah said.
'Imphal-based journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem was taken into custody in Manipur under the National Security Act (NSA) and sentenced to a 12-month jail term – the maximum period of detention allowed under the Act. On November 21, Kishorechandra, then working as an anchor-reporter with ISTV, a local news channel, was arrested by Imphal West Police in response to a video he uploaded on social media, criticising the BJP-led state government. In Meitei language, he severely condemned the state chief minister N.
'Last September, as the journalist Gauri Lankesh was returning to her home from work, a man approached her in the driveway, his face obscured by a motorcycle helmet. He fired a pistol as she ran toward her house, about 10 feet away. She collapsed before she made it inside. Autopsy reports suggested she had been shot twice in the chest and once in the back. A fourth shot had missed or misfired.
'In yet another case of an arrest for sharing a meme, cartoon or message allegedly insulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an Assam teacher was taken into custody on Monday for his comments on Facebook. According to Northeast Now, Abu Taleb, who teaches Hindi at Lakhipur High School in the state’s Goalpara district, invited trouble when he wrote on the social media platform: “Voting for Narendra Modi’s BJP candidate and garlanding a dog is the same thing”.
'Divya Spandana, Congress’ chief of communications has been booked for sedition for tweeting a photoshopped picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi showing him painting “chor” (thief) on his own wax statue’s forehead. She shared it using the hashtag “ChorPMChupHai”...'
'A 28-year-old woman studying in Canada was arrested Monday in Tuticorin and sent to judicial custody for 15 days after she shouted “fascist BJP government down, down” on board a flight in the presence of Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan who filed a complaint. Lois Sofia, on her way home from Canada, was with her parents who joined her at Chennai for the IndiGo flight to Tuticorin. The incident took place after the flight landed at the Tuticorin airport...'
