Rights activist S.A.R. Geelani on Saturday expressed serious concern about the “very dangerous” trend of rights activists being labelled as anti-national and targeted while those convicted for mass murders and fake encounters walking out free, some even reinstated to the positions they had held.
Everyone should stand up against this new tendency, he said while demanding the release of rights activists Thushar Nirmal Sarathy and Jaison Cooper, detained over a month ago under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), at a protest meet organised by the ‘Committee against Suppression by the State’.
“While the ‘Achche Din’ was in currency during the general elections, what we are witnessing now is draconian laws being used to pulverise and silence activists standing up for human rights and illicit exploitation of resources,” he said, even as a small group of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers gathered outside the hall shouting slogans against him and vandalising posters and banners of the meet. They warned him of dire consequences if he set foot in Kerala ever again.
Mr. Geelani said while India claimed to be the largest democracy, it was a place where draconian laws such as Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and the prevailing UAPA were being used, rather misused, to mute activism.
Mr. Geelani also cast aspersions on the media for helping create adverse opinion on rights activists. “‘Look out notices’ are issued by the police just to malign activists and then they move around other activists’ homes creating an atmosphere of suspicion. In Kerala, specifically, State agencies with support from anti-democracy activists have been doing this to tarnish people’s image,” he said. In the case of Mr. Sarathy and Mr. Cooper, he said they had not done any heinous crimes to be kept in prolonged detention.
Porattam State council chairman M.N. Ravunni and activists C.S. Murali and Jolly Chirayath spoke.
