(New York, February 20, 2016) – Indian authorities should stop charging peaceful activists with sedition for alleged anti-national speech, Human Rights Watch said today. In mid-February 2016, police arrested a student union leader, Kanhaiya Kumar, and a former teacher, S.A.R. Geelani, in apparently politically motivated cases. On February 15, a member of Delhi state legislature from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and others were filmed physically assaulting Kumar’s supporters in a New Delhi court while police stood by.
“The BJP government seems eager to punish peaceful speech – but less willing to investigate supporters who commit violence in the name of nationalism,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities not only need to find out why BJP supporters were apparently involved in an assault inside a court, but also why the police did nothing.”
India: Outspoken Activists Charged with Sedition
