The activists of Left parties on Wednesday condemned the arrest of activist Teesta Setalvad on the charges of conspiring to send innocent persons to jail in the 2002 Gujarat riot case.
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At a roundtable organised by the CPI(ML) New Democracy here, they also condemned the arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair on charges of hurting religious sentiments of the Hindus through his tweet in 2018.
“We will launch a struggle to uphold the democratic and constitutional rights of the activists who are incurring the wrath of the powers that be. Defending human rights is no crime. An unproclaimed emergency is prevailing in the country under the Narendra Modi’s regime,” said CPI(ML) New Democracy Prakasam district unit secretary Ch Venkateswarlu.
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Condemning the arrest of Ms. Setalvad after the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, CPI(M) district secretary P. Anjaneyulu said she had taken up the cause of petitioners in cases pertaining to violations of human rights. “Mr. Zubair was arrested for being a vocal critic of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre,” he said.
CPI district committee member R. Venkat Rao demanded unconditional release of Ms Setalvad and Mr. Zubair, adding that prosecutions of the dissenters by the governments must be stopped.
“Moving the Supreme Court for justice should not be construed as a conspiracy,” said Samyukta Kisan Morcha Prakasam district convenor Ch. Ranga Rao.
“It is unfortunate that people questioning the BJP government at the Centre are being put behind bars,” said CPI(ML) district secretary Lalitha Kumari.
Organisation for Protection of Democracy State vice-president Ch. Sudhakar also condemned the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh and rationalists such as M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.