Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Supreme court has protected it’s image to come for the rescue of not merely those who have become victims of high-handedness of Maharashtra police but to all the freedom lover, dissenters who respect the constitution and rule of law.
The highest court of the land has ordered stay on the demand for transit by Pune police. It is a great relief but we would like to request the courts to look into the larger conspiracy in it. The police which fail to act against goons threatening people in the street as well as online but very active to raid the houses of people who are peace lovers.
‘Dissent is the safety valve of democracy’ , said justice Chandrachud, adding that if you press the it too long it too much, the cooker will burst’. I would say democratic dissent is the essence of democracy. At the time political leadership in the country failed to raise voice against injustice happening against people it the social movements, civil society organisations, voluntary organisations which have kept the flag flying. Can you imagine what will happen if all these are closed or criminalised but the power has done it. It is trying to crush them and finish the protest against the invasion on our national resources by the cronies. Conditions have been created to eliminate them and convert movements and voluntary sectors into service provider for charities.
Imagine through what happened yesterday to these top activists who are well connected , well educated and well known could face such humiliation and harassment then what would happen to those who are not famous, not lawyers, not professors and working in less than the minimum ages.
Dear friends, it is time not to pull each other’s leg. It is time to stand together. The idea of India is being tarnished in front of us. The dreams of our constitutional forefathers are deliberately being made to shatter. Speak up unitedly against such brutal assault on us. Don’t calculate too much. Speak when you feel our constitutional vales are being attacked.
We hope the Supreme court will discuss this issue in details as how much right police have to arrest people. I mean how can Pune police do it’s manmani in Delhi. I think the Delhi High Court has raised some very valid questions in this regard. Justice Muralidhar, known for his tremendous conditions for human rights asked Pune Police as why the copy of FIR not made available to accused in his mother tongue or a language known to him. I think the courts must issue clear guidelines to police all over the country in such cases.
These are much difficult times but then they are also best for standing up and reiterating the values of democracy and human rights which are dear to us. It would be good for Maharashtra police to get justice the families of late Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare. We don’t know where is the case going. The needle of suspicion is well known and in fact established yet the same organisation does not stop from threatening people. Mob lynchers are walking free and waiting for more prey without an iota of fear of law.
There is a man accidentally a failed filmmaker threatening people on social media and asking for names of those differ with this government policy. Nothing happens to him. He is a respected panelist on a channel which will issue open threat to people and incite violence. They live in well protected walls of being sarkari patrkars or spokes person of the ruling party.
Let us ask the courts to fix up accountability of the police and investigation agencies for what they do as any innocent being released after several years of illelegal incarceration must be compensated. While we can’t expect too much from the courts, people at large and political parties must see the dangers and discuss these issues in details. We must know the modusoperndi of the ruling dispensation on such issues. Intimidate through police, physical harm through goons, character assassination through selective leakages and justification through paid party patrkars in the studio and then rumour through trolls in the digital world. We need boycott all of them. Strengthen alternative media, support those who stand with people right, ignore small differences and speak up as silence will be criminal.
