A people’s hearing on fabricated cases puts the spotlight on the state’s heavy-handedness
Binayak Sen, SP Udayakumar, Abdul Nasar Madani, Soni Sori… names that should be on the tip of every citizen’s tongue. Good men and women. Men and women for whom citizenship is not a word invoked lightly. Good citizenship requires engagement with the State, questioning the State, ensuring that the State does right by its citizens. So why is it that these good citizens, good people doing their duty, are framed by the State, hauled up on trumped-up charges? Why is it that they are charged with sedition, charged with waging war against the State, charged with being ‘militants’ and ‘terrorists’? What’s scary is that Sen, Udayakumar, Madani and Sori are relatively well known their cases a matter of national concern. What about the many nameless, faceless victims of the State’s increasing intolerance of dissent, of legitimate protest? From Kashmir to Koodankulam, from Manipur to Madhya Pradesh, the government has cracked down with all its considerable weight on hundreds of good citizens. People who believe it is their duty to stand up for what they believe in, to argue their case. Here are profiles of some of these good men and women, profiles in courage.
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‘The complainant is always a police officer. So how can there be any justice?’
Vaishali Patil, 42, Raigarh, Maharashtra Read More>
‘The government is using such cases to intimidate us, but they are not going to succeed’
Pushparayan Victoria, 45, Koodankulam, Tamil Nadu Read More >
‘The state is protecting industrialists at the cost of tribals’
Prafulla Samantara, 62, Bhubaneswar, Odisha Read More >
‘We want justice. The government can’t keep quiet for long’
Nongmaithem Michael Singh, 35, Imphal, Manipur Read More >
‘The police has booked me under every possible section of the IPC and CRPC’
Abhay Sahoo, 55, Jagatsinghpur, Odisha Read More >
‘If you act against the system, you are either killed or cases are fabricated against you’
Sunilam, 51, Multai, Madhya Pradesh Read More >
‘Everyone affiliated with the Kashmiri movement will have a case registered against them’
Anjum Zamarud Habib, 50, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir
Read More >
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