'Wake Up Everyone, Don바카라�t Be Afraid': Manipur Journalist In Jail Awaits Justice

For more than a month now, Ranjita Elangbam has been getting hundreds of phone calls from unkn­own numbers and strangers speaking in 바카라�strange languages바카라�. She also gets the feeling of being foll­owed바카라�the creepy sensation of unseen people watching her from the shadows, vehicles pulling up besides her on the road and then zipping away. And all these started after her husband, journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem, was arrested under the draconian Nati­onal Security Act (NSA) for criticising chief minister N. Biren Singh in a Facebook post. He has since been sentenced to jail for a year as the government considers him a 바카라�threat to the security of the state바카라�. Critics and activists say it is yet another attempt by the BJP governments바카라�in Manipur and in Delhi바카라�to stifle dissent and free speech. But the unfazed state government has refused to back off.

Beyond the obvious is what many see as the right-wing바카라�s attempt to push its own version of nationalism in the Northeast, a sliver of a landmass in India바카라�s far-east where many identify their Indianness in the context of their own tribe or community. Kishorechandra, 39, could have been doing precisely that when, on November 19 last year, he uploaded a video on Facebook, calling the chief minister a 바카라�puppet바카라� of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Using expletives in this video, Kishorechandra went on to criticise Biren Singh for organising a function to commemorate Laxmibai, the queen of Jhansi, who, the journalist said, had no role in the freedom movement of Manipur. Kishorechandra, a father of two girls, was working as an anchor­-reporter with ISTV, a local news channel.

He was charged with sedition on November 21 but was granted bail on November 25 by a local court which said that there was nothing seditious in his post. 바카라�바카라�The said words, gestures made by the accused person cannot be termed as seditious. It appears to be mere expression of opinion against the public conduct of a public figure in a street language,바카라� the chief judicial magistrate of Imphal said. Two days later, Kishorechandra was re-arrested, this time under the NSA, which allows the state to put an accused in jail for a year without trial. There was no explanation how Kishorechandra was a threat to the nation.

BJP바카라�s state spokesperson Tikendra Singh defends the crackdown saying that Kishorechandra was a serial offender who had 바카라�crossed all limits바카라� in the name of freedom of speech. 바카라�Every Indian should try to follow the Constitution strictly but that particular person crossed the limit. And this is not the first time. This is the third time and he had started doing it habitually. Under such circumstances, the government shouldn바카라�t be silent,바카라� Singh says. Kishorechandra was earlier arrested briefly in August for calling the BJP the 바카라�Buddhu Joker Party바카라�.

The chief minister gave a more clear interpretation. 바카라�I have no problem with criticism. I can tolerate it. However, I cannot tolerate the humiliation of my leaders. He (Kishorechandra) was both abusing and humiliating national heroes like the Rani of Jhansi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. What he said was beyond the freedom of expression,바카라� Singh said at a public function on December 24.

Lawyers say the government is trying to scuttle his efforts for bail by delaying court proceedings in the Manipur High Court. The court had asked the state and Centre to furnish documents by February 1. 바카라�The government failed to furnish the documents. Now the court has postponed the hearing to February 22,바카라� says Shreeji Bhavsar, advocate at Human Rights Law Network.  Kishorechandra바카라�s lawyer N. Victor sees it as a 바카라�rarest of the rare cases바카라� in India. 바카라�It involves Article 19(A), the right to freedom of expression. It바카라�s got nothing to do with communal harmony or anything else. It바카라�s against the rights of the journalist.바카라�

Activists also see a pattern in the use of such stringent laws against dissenters in BJP-ruled states in the region, where the party is in power in six of the seven states. Last month, three people of Assam바카라�intellectual-writer Hiren Gohain, journalist Manjit Mahanta and activist Akhil Gogoi바카라�were charged with sedition over their opposition to the citizenship amendment bill. Since 2016, when the BJP came to power in Assam for the first time, police have slapped at least 245 sedition cases, though most of them are against militants.

Human Rights Alert director Babloo Loitongbam, who briefed the UN special rapporteur on the issue, says the space for dissent is shrinking in India. In the Northeast, he sees another agenda. 바카라�There is a strong feeling in the Northeast that the right-wing is trying to create an ideology of Hindi, Hindu, Hindutva. Suddenly, Jhansi Rani has been eulogised and compared with freedom fighters here, which has absolutely no historical connection. Kishorechandra바카라�s reaction is a reflection of it,바카라� Loitongbam adds.

What surprised many in the episode is the role played by two journalist groups바카라�the All Manipur Working Journalists' Union and Editors Guild, Manipur바카라�which refused to help Kish­o­rechandra. Though the journalists바카라� union later changed its stand, it was disturbing for Ranjita. 바카라�The Indian Journalists바카라� Union and Press Council of India have been helpful. Two media houses and journalists have been helping at their personal level in Manipur but I think there should have been more voice in protest against the arrest,바카라� says Ranjita, who works as an occupational therapist in a district hospital. 바카라�Today, it바카라�s him, tomorrow it will be someone else. There is a fear among the people for expression. But I want everyone to join this battle so that freedom of exp­ression remains intact in our country.바카라�

The journalist바카라�s arrest has sparked widespread protests, raising questions on freedom of expression and fuelling the debate on the need to scrap draconian laws like the NSA. Senior lawyer Colin Gonsalves says Kishorechandra바카라�s case doesn바카라�t hold water. 바카라�Sedition law is applicable only when words are coupled with strong actions. When the Balwant Singh case came to the Supreme Court for sedition, the judge asked only one question to the state prosecutor 바카라�what did he do after raising the slogan Khalistan zindabad? Did he throw a bomb or anything? If he didn바카라�t, that바카라�s not sedition바카라�,바카라� says Gonsalves, who is also the founder of the Human Rights Law Network.  The lawyer points out the case of a Uttarakhand journalist who was also charged under the sedition law for putting a poster with 바카라�inquilab zindabad바카라� written on it.

Ranjita knows it could be a long haul. 바카라�It바카라�s tough, very tough to fight the battle all alone. But I바카라�m not tired. I will fight and emerge victorious,바카라� she says.

In his cell at the Sajiwa Central Jail in Imphal East, Kishorechandra waits for 바카라�justice바카라�. He had refused to apologise to the government. 바카라�Wake up everyone, don바카라�t be afraid바카라�바카라�that바카라�s what Kishore­chandra has been saying all along, acc­­o­rding to his wife.

By Preetha Nair in Delhi and Abdul Gani in Guwahati