Assamese intellectual, two others booked for sedition

GUWAHATI: A sedition case was slapped on leading Assamese intellectual Hiren Gohain, journalist Manjit Mahanta and RTI-farmer activist Akhil Gogoi on Thursday even as protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 continued in Assam.

Police slapped on the trio charges under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging war against the State), 123 (concealing designs to wage war against State) and 124A (sedition).

At a meeting organised by the Forum Against Citizenship Amendment Bill on Monday, several speakers had raised the question of an “independent Assam”.

Gohain, an eminent Leftist social scientist who chairs the organization, had said, “The present movement is democratic and aimed at protecting our secular Constitution. If this democratic movement is not heeded by the government, then, maybe, the people will raise the question of independence.”

However, Gohain said on Thursday that his statement has been misinterpreted. “I had said the question of independence would come up only if the government continues to ignore democratic protests,” he said.

Guwahati police commissioner Deepak Kumar said the protest meeting was organized “without any prior permission”.

Former DGP Harekrishna Deka, a Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer himself who was present at the meeting, slammed the police action as an “act of cowardice”. “I know Gohain did not speak of independence per se. If speaking against the Bill can be sedition, the government should also be charged with sedition for bringing in a Bill that goes against the Constitution,” Deka said. “The government is trying to curb freedom of speech,” he added.