In an interview to the Indian Express, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam sought to defend the criminal cases slapped by Delhi Polic...
In an interview to the Indian Express, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam sought to defend the criminal cases slapped by Delhi Police on those who had protested against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act.
“Students [are being] chargesheeted based on ideology,” the Express asked. “This is perhaps the first riots case where debates, protests are being linked to violence; when civil society, academics are being questioned. There is fear on campus that being anti-Bharatiya Janata Party could get you named in a chargesheet linked to violence.”
Sitharam simply denied this, arguing that “there’s no question that young people should have freedom”.
Delegitimising protest
More troubling, however, she went on to delegitimise the act of protesting. Protests that happen now acquire a certain “halo” and attract a “a lot of international voices quickly” said Sitharaman. Rather than address why the anti-CAA protests are being criminalised, the minister indulged in whataboutery, bringing in the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been denied a visa as a result of allegations of his role in the 2002 Gujarat Riots.
The Modi government has long used the bogey of international support to attack political activity it does not like. This when there is very little doubt that the mass protests that took place across the country in December last...
