As I write these words, a young woman is sitting behind tall walls in a prison somewhere in Karnataka, shadowed with the stigma of two amon...
As I write these words, a young woman is sitting behind tall walls in a prison somewhere in Karnataka, shadowed with the stigma of two among the gravest crimes in India’s statute books. The first is of these is sedition,the second is of fostering hatred between communities. If found guilty and convicted of the first, she could be sentenced to spend her life in jail.
Just two words brought this misfortune upon her young shoulders. These were “Pakistan zindabad”. Literally “Long Live Pakistan.”
Nineteen-year-old Amulya Leona Noronha stirred a tumult during a protest against amendments to India’s citizenship law, organised by the Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Issai Federation at Freedom Park in Bangalore on February 20. It was here that she shouted the slogan “Pakistan zindabad” which plunged her into mayhem, as several men tried to drag her away. But before the microphone was snatched from her, she also managed to shout “Hindustan zindabad” or “Long Live India”.
No one allowed her, then or later, to explain why she wished that Pakistan live long. Soon after she uttered these two words, she was arrested. Her father condemned her actions, declaring, “What she said is wrong. She was joined by some Muslims and wasn’t listening to me!” Some men, said to...
