Delhi, June 16 : How often do you post on Facebook and twitter and about what? If your posts are political in nature and critical of the BJP Government at the center or Prime minister Modi Himself, beware, you may be heading for trouble. Similarly if you pun upon or are satirical about the Prime Minister or his men, you may be under fire from the police forces in the country. Particularly active in this regard have been the Goa, Karnataka, and Kerala Governments in the south. The Parivar too is not far behind in this regard too.
Incident 1: Naval engineer Devu Chodankar got into trouble in Panaji last month when he posted some comments on Facebook which were deemed to be anti-Modi. Though he withdrew them later, a sessions court ordered his arrest and rejected his anticipatory bail plea after inputs from the local cyber crime cell said there was a “larger game plan to promote communal and social disharmony”.
The police went on to file an FIR under Section 153(A), 295(A) of the IPC, besides Section 125 of the Representation of People Act and Section 66-A of the Information Technology Act. Justifying these sections, some of them non-bailable, police inspector Rajesh Job told the court that Chodankar’s custody was being sought as his interrogation was “essential” to find out if there was a greater conspiracy behind the posts.
Incident 2: Syed Waqas, an MBA student in Bangalore, was arrested for allegedly circulating offensive messages against Modi on WhatsApp. And on May 15, author Amaresh Mishra, who wrote the script for the Saif Ali Khan-starrer ‘Bullett Raja’, was arrested from his Gurgaon residence for posting messages on his Twitter account, that was later closed by the UP police.
Incident 3: On Tuesday , cops in Kunnamkulam booked seven persons, including five students and a staff editor of the Government Polytechnic College there, for reserving a slot for Modi in a ‘hall of shame’ page in their magazine ‘Litsokniga’ that included the likes of Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Ajmal Kasab, Velupillai Prabhakaran and Veerappan. Not a great list to be in, but protests and questions have risen on the correctness of the police action.
Incident 4: On Friday, 11 others, including the staff editor and students’ editor of Sree Krishna College’s in-house magazine `Name’, were booked in Guruvayur for inserting an unpleasant clue in a crossword puzzle. Police had registered the case against these students as the magazine was found to have used “objectionable and unsavoury” language against Modi, garbed as a crossword puzzle. The Guruvyaur Sree Krishna temple managing committee, which runs the college, had sought an explanation from the principal in connection with the case. Those arrested, were let off on bail soon. They were charged under various sections of the IPC including 153 (wantonly giving provocation, punishment for defamation and printing matter known to be defamatory).
State administrations in succession have been showing eagerness to arrest, brow beat and simply instill fear in people for being even slightly critical of the prime minister, especially in the social media, which is what found him his many new voters. The real challenge for the Prime Minister and his government is to be statesmanlike and denounce such arrests. It is important for the government to send the right messages to the public – that criticism of India’s policies, its past or its politicians isn’t equal to being anti-national. It only helps better governance, which is the reason-d-etat of the Modi Government.
