Hitting out against the arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, volunteers of India Against Corruption (IAC), Mumbai chapter called the sedition law as an “archaic law formed by British that is now being used against Indians ” and criticised the Mumbai police for its alleged misuse.
Reacting to the arrest, Mumbai coordinator of IAC, Mayank Gandhi termed it as “McCarthyism”. “The practice of McCarthyism in America, when few people making their point were labelled as communist and jailed, is what we are now seeing in our country too. We are seeing shades of emergency,” he said.
“We believe in freedom of speech hence, we support everyone who practices it. The IAC will do everything that upholds freedom of expression. The sedition law is an archaic law that was created by the British and is now being used against the Indians who are trying to highlight issues of corruption. Anyone who speaks against corruption has been termed as anti-national,” said Preeti Menon from the IAC.
In addition to this, the IAC has also alleged that ill-treatment is being meted out to Trivedi. “ IAC volunteers went to the police station to meet him and plan his defence, but the police did not allow it,” IAC said in a statement. “In the court, they (police) did not allow IAC people to meet him, in fact, they roughed and bluffed IAC volunteers also, who gathered in support of an artist at the court. After the judgment at Court, when Aseem tried to address the press, at that time also he was badly roughed up and pushed in to the police vehicle where his head banged against the vehicle body. We are shocked at the way an artist and
an activist is being treated by the police (sic),” it
read.
IAC stated that “He (Aseem) says he has nothing to say in his defence; in fact he prefers to be jailed then live in farcical freedom where laws are targeted at activists and our fundamental right to freedom of speech is denied (sic).”