'Snooping illegally on phones of lawyers and activists (and maybe others) is of use only to government... After all, the big question here is this: cui bono, that is, who benefits?
'The Indian government wrote to 11 public sector undertakings asking them to verify their records to check if Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa had exercised “undue influence” during his tenure as special secretary in the Ministry of Power between 2009 and 2013, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday... Lavasa made headlines in May when he disagreed with the Election Commission’s decisions with regard to violations of the Model Code of Conduct during the Lok Sabha elections.
'Following severe criticism for arresting two law students under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Kerala government has announced that it will set up a high court judge-appointed committee to look into the charges. According to a report in Asianet, the state has agreed to provide permission for prosecution only after the committee submits its report. The two men — Allan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal — are both CPI(M) workers in Kozhikode, according to a report in New Indian Express. The duo was picked up by police at Pantheerankavu on the night of November 1.
'...In the offending tweet from October 24, @RealHistoriPix called out a BJP MP for not visiting the family of 42-year-old Pancharam Rithadia from Chembur – who killed himself by jumping in front of a train over police inaction in finding his daughter who had gone missing in April 2019. During the funeral last week on October 25, hundreds took to the streets to protest against the police, and some violence also broke out.
'...On Thursday, the Indian Express reported that the Facebook-owned platform said journalists and human rights activists in India have been targets of surveillance by operators using Pegasus. WhatsApp recently made details of this clear in a broader disclosure before a US federal court in San Francisco. It is still unclear the extent of this threat and how many WhatsApp profiles were compromised... Rathod is one of the lawyers handling the Bhima Koregaon case in which nine activists and lawyers have been arrested since June 2018.
Submitted by narendramodifacts on Tue, 10/29/2019 - 15:01
Here are a few recent instances of people being punished for speaking truth to power. Or just doing their jobs. There are, of course, many many more examples like this.
Government employees... beware of speaking up! (Or even just doing your job.)
'A Rashtriya Janata Dal leader was arrested on Tuesday, October 29, in Bihar for posting a video on Facebook, where he questioned Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's ban on liquor and criticised him for his wrong policies, according to the police. Opposition RJD leader Sachin Kumar Choudhary was arrested in Madhubani district after his video criticising the CM had gone viral. Choudhury, who is the vice president of the district RJD unit, was arrested from his village by Madhubani Police IT cell in charge Shailesh Kumar.
'Writer and journalist Doddipalya Narasimhamurthy was arrested from Raichur in coastal Karnataka on October 25, according to a report in the New Indian Express. He has been booked for ‘treason’ among other charges including criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder and extortion. Narasimhamurthy had been in charge of bringing out publications such as Nyayapatha and is the secretary of the Gauri Media Trust, formed after the journalists’s death. He is also the general secretary in Karnataka of Yogendra Yadav’s political outfit Swaraj India.
'A doctor attached to the Agartala Government Medical College & GBP Hospital has been suspended by the Tripura government for a social media comment directed at chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb. The tweets and a Facebook post furnished by the government to the doctor, Kaushik Chakraborty, also include a comment opposing the BJP’s attempt to bring the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill prior to the last general elections. Among other portfolios, the chief minister is also in charge of the health and family welfare department.
'The expulsion of six students of a Wardha-based university for organising a function without permission on campus and writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over contentious issues like mob-lynching and rape cases against political leaders was revoked on Sunday. The students, from Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya (MGAHV), were expelled on October 9 after varsity officials accused them of violating the code of conduct which is in force throughout the state for the October 21 Assembly polls...'
