CHENNAI: DMK president M K Stalin and MNM leader Kamal Haasan on Tuesday slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre for arresting 22-year-old environmental activist Disha Ravi over the ‘toolkit’ row. They said stifling the voice of dissent of young people was shocking and amounted to stifling freedom of expression in a democracy.
They came in support of the young activist, who was picked up by the Delhi police from Bengaluru on Saturday for sharing the ‘toolkit’ in connection with the farmers' protest against contentious farms laws. The police, subsequently, invoked Section 124 - A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code against her.
DMK chief Stalin tweeted that he was “shocked by the police arrest of Disha Ravi on flimsy charges.” He said “silencing critics of the government through authoritarian means is not the rule of the law” and urged the BJP government to “desist from taking such punitive action.” He advised the Centre to listen to “voices of dissent from young persons.”
Kamal Haasan took to social media to express his views against the arrest of Disha Ravi. He tweeted that “stifling the voice of alternative views in the name of treason is an atrocity against the freedom of expression given by a democracy.”
The actor further tweeted, “Threatening students in the name of treason law whenever they fight for the common good is the norm in British imperial times. It’s a shame that it still continues. There must be a public debate on this threatening law.” Politics should not have a negative impact on student, he said, calling on the student community to “end this dictatorship.”
TNCC president K S Alagiri strongly condemned the arrest of the young activist. He said Congress leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Manmohan Singh had never stifled the voice of dissent within and outside the Parliament and had allowed democracy to flourish during their regime. But the present government under Narendra Modi had been targeting the dissenters and trying to silence their voice.
VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan echoed similar views and demanded that the BJP government revoke the case against the woman activist. Besides political leaders, several organisations working for social causes in Chennai and in Madurai came in support of Disha Ravi and demanded that the Centre release her immediately.