Recently the country has been facing an array of protests be it the CAA Protest or others and mishaps; it’s hard to determine in certain scenarios the agenda that the protesters are demonstrating for. To protest for a certain issue, one should have a perspective, an idea of the issue and be determined as to where they want to aim and reach it with the help of the protest.
Protests are supposed to be a democratic way of articulating your disagreement towards the working of the country and the people behind the system.
India has seen very different definitions and certain times misuse of the –“freedom of speech”–a fundamental right given to its citizen by the Constitution. Overshadowing the rules and ethics of protesting, the people and the police interactions have given the protest a rather condemn worthy turn.
There was an incident were admits CAA Protest people were seen holding “I’am Babari” banner display. Netizens took this display viral on the internet as the motto behind this was not considered ant-CAA but anti-national; it was seen as display trying to bring religious differences within the country.
In a recent event during an anti Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) assembling in Bengaluru went astray after a young lady in front of an audience yelled ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. The lady, distinguished as Amulya Leona, additionally yelled ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ before the mouthpiece was detracted from her.
Likewise present at the convention was All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) boss Asaduddin Owaisi, who took the solid special case to her motto on Pakistan.
The lady soon after arrested, with the police, in the end, saying they have slapped a dissidence body of evidence against her.
Leona has been sent to legal authority for three days. Other than Section 124 (A) of the Indian Penal Code (subversion), the Bengaluru police have likewise reserved her under segments 153 A and B of the IPC for (advancing animosity between various gatherings and attributions, statements biased to national coordination).
Indeed, even while dissenters have made some troublesome memories tying down authorizations to dissent in Karnataka, the state has seen a few little and enormous gatherings raising their voice against the CAA and two other approaching activity, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).
A few fights, similar to the one composed in Mangaluru on December 19, had gotten brutal after the police opened fire on the dissidents and lathi-charged them.
In the video that went viral, the girl is seen struggling to complete her sentence when the police and the organisers, including Mr Owaisi tried to take the mic away from her hand by force, she was one of the organisers of the event, given a chance to speak through consent.
There have been arguments that the girl has stood up for Pakistan and other countries claiming that they shouldn’t be hated because of political reasons.
The absurdity or possible anti-nationality of the statement has been highlighted by the right workers as well as many intellectuals. In contrast other like Kavitha Krishnan who has called the snatching of the mic and the arrest of the girl as a “mob attack”.
To site an opinion, nationalism is an idea and a feeling that is of an imagined community; it is not defined by the boundaries but by people’s shared feeling on belongingness. Calling someone anti-national just based on their political affiliations and inclinations is highly problematic. However, the Constitution of India does condemn and have sections that define punishments for the people going against the values of the nation as well as attacking the sovereignty of the nation, but nowhere does it talk about appreciation of another country.
(Second Image: “Free Kashmir” placard displayed in protests in Mumbai against JNU violence.)
Neither does the Constitution of India even mention anything about anti-nationalism, since the Emergency at least because “Anti-national ” as a term in itself is a matter of contestation in terms of it’s meaning.
In February 2018 Mr Owaisi himself made a statement in which he asked to make a law that would punish the people who call Indian Muslims “Pakistani”. So it’s such an irony that two years later something of the same genre happens at one of his presentations.
Though there is a difference between condemning the person and punishing the person, you can punish a person only under the guidelines of the Constitution. However, we don’t see much of that being followed in the current political scenario and seeing the recent events it wouldn’t be long before the government in power introduces laws that define anti-nationalism into the Constitution.
