A week after various socio-political and cultural activists staged a protest event here criticising the Left Democratic Front government for the arrest of CPI(M) workers Allan Shuhaib and Thaha Fazal under the Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act (UAPA), a group of women are planning to undertake a fast on Friday in support of the youths.
The event is being held under the aegis of the “Allan, Thaha Solidarity Committee”. The organisers said that the “group of mothers” would fast from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. near the Central Library on Friday. They said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, purportedly conceived ahead of converting India into a “Hindu Rashtra”, had led to widespread protests across the country. This was preceded by the repealing of Article 370 of the Constitution that ensured special rights for Jammu and Kashmir and amendments to the UAPA and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act.
The LDF government in Kerala, which had opposed these measures, had framed the two youths under the UAPA and handed over the case to the NIA, they alleged. Allan and Thwaha should not be “made scapegoats in the fight between political parties with various ideological interests”, they said.
FB post goes viral
Earlier, a Facebook post by Allan’s mother Sabitha Sekhar, slamming “dictators with egos” went viral on the social media. Written as a letter to mark New Year wishes to her son, Ms. Sekhar said that the lives of all dictators in history had ended miserably. “We need to wait patiently. Our time too will come,” she said. Ms. Sekhar tells her son that the establishment can only imprison his body, but not his thoughts. “The books that you read will sharpen your thoughts and you can live your life with more clarity,” Ms. Sekhar says.
