As pressure mounts on the authorities to act against those who instigated the communal violence in North East Delhi causing 53 deaths two w...
As pressure mounts on the authorities to act against those who instigated the communal violence in North East Delhi causing 53 deaths two weeks ago, the Union government seems to have decided that it will attempt to delegitimise activists seeking accountability.
This egregious tactic was on full display in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, when Solicitor General Tushar Mehta went after human rights activist Harsh Mander for allegedly instigating people against the court.
Mander had moved the Delhi High Court seeking registration of First Information Reports against Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for delivering hate speech that fueled the communal violence. These include Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, who led chants of “shoot the bloody traitors” at a political rally in the capital, and other BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma and Abhay Verma.
On February 26, the Delhi High Court gave the Delhi Police a day to decide on registering cases against them. The court even played the videos of the hate speech in the courtroom after Delhi Police officers claimed they had not watched them. On the same day, the transfer of Justice S Muralidhar, who was leading the bench, to Chandigarh was notified in record time by the Centre. The next day, a...
