Following recent incidents of intolerance and attacks in some parts of the country, such as the recent lynching to death of a young Muslim techie in Pune following a mischievous Facebook post by unidentified source, over 300 academics, theatrepersons, artistes, social activists and writers have urged the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to protect all Constitutional rights to free speech and expression, and personal liberty as guaranteed by Article 19 (1) (a), and Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

In a release issued here on Saturday, historian Romila Thapar, social activists Baba Aadhav, Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze, artist Vivaan Sundaram, writer Mrinal Pande, filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, former bureaucrat EAS Sarma and others, condemned ​the ​growing instances of ‘social policing” in the country and demanded that​ Section 66A of the IT Act be deleted.

“As concerned citizens of a free and democratic India, we protest against the continuing intolerant legislative attempts at criminalising dissenting opinion,” said the release.

They said the “IT Act had been worded deliberately to give unbridled powers to the State to clamp down on free speech. Section 66A prescribes criminal punishment of up to 3 years for merely sending messages which can cause ‘annoyance’ or ‘inconvenience’ or ‘danger’ or ‘insult,’ and gives unfettered discretion to enforcement agencies to enforce it.

“The recent incidents signify abuse under this provision that gives freedom to those in power to violate the fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution,” said the citizens, adding that such attempts to curtail the right to free speech and expression of writers, academics, activists and ordinary citizens had been recurring over the past two decades, irrespective of the political party in power.

Among the incidents cited was of well known Kannada writer, UR. Ananthamurthy, who was sent a one-way ticket to Karachi as well as threatened with phones calls for saying “I would not like to live in a country ruled by Modi”, the hounding of youths in Bhatkal, Karnataka, a Goa naval engineer who was hounded among others.

“More recently, in Bihar members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad disrupted a seminar to discuss the detention of G.N Saibaba of Delhi University (arrested for alleged Maoist links) and its implications for human rights, even though the Constitution of India guarantees plurality of diverse political opinion,” the release said.

Supporting the right of all citizens to freely express their views, dissenting or otherwise, the citizens demanded that authorities concerned should follow due process and drop criminal charges against these individuals.

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