Zero Hour mention of Ritabrata Banerjee in the Rajya Sabha on 7-4-17

Date: 
April 07, 2017

Ritabrata Banerjee raised the issue of how the draconian UAPA is being misused against Human Right and Political activists, innocent villagers mostly belonging to the religious minority at Bhangor. BJP and TMC MP’s jointly rose up in a bid of not to allow Banerjee to speak. But they must remember that the voice of the Left cannot be stifled

Sedition charges in the country are being used recklessly and with political motive. UAPA is slapped in a wrong manner. Invoking sedition provisions and using them against writers and artists, religious minorities, women tribals and other marginalised sections by raking up baseless charges are completely unacceptable and a brazen violation of democratic principles and basic human rights.

There have been a series of actual terror cases where the judiciary has had no harsh words at all whereas in some cases harsh words are being used in judgements. —Malegaon, Ajmer Dargah, Samjhauta Express, Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid, and Modasa in Gujarat. All involved bomb blasts and killings authored by Hindu right-wing groups like Abhinav Bharat. Let alone being declared terror organisations, the accused are brazenly acquitted.It is revealing to contrast the Gadchiroli and Gurgaon verdicts with the one dispensed by Jaipur’s National Investigation Agency Court on 8 March 2017, where Swami Aseemanand, and six others were acquitted in the Ajmer Dargah bomb blast case, which had killed three persons and injured dozens in 2007. During Ramnabami communal religious and political outfits have flexed their muscles with procession with arms. Unfortunately contrary to the culture of Bengal children and women were provided with arms to participate in the procession

Recently, in West Bengal the state government has acquired 13 acres of land for the establishment of a power grid substation. More than 90 people objected and although an alternative land was available the land sharks in the area forced the govt. to stick to the acquired land. A clash between the common people and the land sharks saw the participation of a huge mass against the land sharks. Two people got killed. The police said those two were not killed by their bullets. The state govt. imposed UAPA against 36 villagers mostly belonging to the religious minority. 15 people were detained under UAPA but incidentally nobody was arrested for the killing of the unarmed and innocent villagers though the police said that they were not killed by police bullets. Gross misuses of UAPA against the poorest of the poor have become the order of the day in Bhangar and are used at random against the political opponents in Bengal.