Around a week after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe against CPI(M) workers from Kozhikode, Allan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal, who have been slapped with charges under the Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act, a group of cultural and political activists on Thursday slammed the Left Democratic Front government for its handling of the case.
Opening a protest event organised at S.K. Square here over the issue, M.N. Karassery, academic and cultural activist, asked if the government was running the police or was it the other way around. “The CPI(M), which leads the ruling front, has always opposed the UAPA, calling it draconian. Then how come two youths belonging to the party were framed under the same law by the Home Department which is run by their party leader and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan?,” he asked.
Mr. Karassery also criticised the writers, artists and teachers who called themselves “Leftists”. “I don’t understand why all those people are still silent. If a similar arrest had happened in Mumbai, people here would have staged protests. Mr. Vijayan would have written a letter against it too.”
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Mr. Karassery said the NIA was considered to be an agency without any accountability towards the legal system and the judiciary. The government had acted according to the whims and fancies of the Centre by handing over Allan and Thaha’s case to it. “They have been accused of being Maoists. However, they have not been found to be involved in any criminal activity. Possession of certain leaflets or books or feeling sympathy for Maoism is not a crime,” he said. He claimed that citizens had a fundamental right to believe in an ideology of their choice, and the law enforcing agencies had a role only if they were found to participate in illegal activities.
K. Ajitha, women’s rights activist, said the government cannot “wash its hands of the issue like Pontius Pilate”. “First, the government committed a mistake by charging them with UAPA. Then, the CM himself called them Maoists. Later, the case was handed over to the NIA,” she said.