Press Release on Convention against the new Criminal Codes and the case against Arundhati Roy and Shaukat Hussein held on 21 July 2024, Jalandher, Panjab
A Brief Report on the convention against the New Criminal Codes and the case against Arundhati Roy and Prof. Shaukat Hussain held at Jalandhar on 21-07-24
“We must not harbour any illusion about the present government being weak. It will be in an offensive mode more than what it was in its earlier avatar. On the other hand, Arundhati Roy symbolizes how to struggle, write, speak and smile in difficult times. The power that be fears only this smile and the people's struggles. Arundhati Roy is the voice of these struggles; and the government is terror-stricken because of this voice. That is why she is being implicated in criminal cases. If the opposition would not raise its voice against such injustices, the people would also not care about it." This is how the veteran journalist Bhasha Singh charaterized the present situation in the well-attended convention organized at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall, Jalandhar by more than three dozen mass and democratic organizations of Punjab to oppose the recently implemented criminal codes and the sanction given by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi to prosecute Arundhati Roy and Professor Sheikh Shaukat Hussain under the draconian UAPA. The representatives of the participating mass organizations of peasants, workers, farm labourers, employees, students, youth and literary and cultural figures presided over this convention held on 21 July, and it was coordinated by the Association for Democratic Rights, Punjab and Rationalist Society, Punjab.
The convention was addressed by Professor Jagmohan Singh, President of the Association for Democratic Rights, Mr. Rajinder Bhadaur Organizing Secretary of Rationalist Society, and Advocates N.K. Jeet and Daljeet Singh besides Bhasha Singh.
Professor Jagmohan Singh pierced through the claims of the central government that the new criminal codes have come out of the hegemonic shadow of the colonial laws and discerned in them the spirit of the infamous Rowlatt act. Their real intent is to turn the Indian state into a police raj, he said. While characterizing the intended prosecution of Arundhati Roy and Professor Shauket Hussain and the punishment meted out to Medha Patekar in a so-called defamation case as an attack on the right to expression and to struggle, he also focused upon the relationship of these fascistic manifestations of the working of the present regime with the agenda of the pro-corporate new liberal policies to loot and exploit the natural resources and wealth created by the Indian people.
Advocates Daljeet Singh and N.K. Jeet said that the new criminal laws are aimed at annihilating the democratic rights of the people achieved through their heroic struggles. These laws also contravene various human rights covenants to which India has been a signatory.
Mr. Rajinder Bhadaur hoped in the categorical sense of the word that this convention would prove to be a mile stone in the struggles of the people of India against the fascist machinations of the Modi regime. He was confident that the people would succeed in these ventures as they did in the instance of the withdrawal of the three draconian farm laws.
At the end of the convention, a protest demonstration was taken out against the fascist steps of the present government. The protest march culminated in a brief rally which was addressed by Dr. Parminder, Vice President of the Association for Democratic Rights. In his address, he said that the emerging consciousness and movement of democratic rights in Punjab would prove to be a mile stone in the people's struggles in the country and a warning to the government to desist from embarking upon the oppressive anti-democratic acts. He said that the people of Punjab always kept the anti-colonial legacy of the Ghadarites and Bhagat Singh alive in their beings and would continue their protests till the new criminal codes and case against Arundhati Roy and Professor Shankat Hussain are annulled.
The convention also demanded through various resolutions that the four new labour codes, Digital media regulations, Personal Data Protection Act, Public Security Act, Maharashtra Public Security Bill and all the black laws like UAPA be annulled forthwith; cases registered under sections of IPC 295/295A be withdrawn; intellectuals and activists arrested in Bhima Koregaon case be released; all the convicts who have completed their sentences be also released; an end to the displacement of the tribal people in the name of development by the corporates and their incarceration and killings in false police encounters; journalists and lawyers arrested under Public Security Act in Kashmir be released; fraternal fratricide and sexual violence against women in Manipur be stopped; and also an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza by Israel and the sole right of the Palestinians to their land are accepted.
The convention also demanded that the Punjab government must get a resolution passed in the legislature for annulment of these new criminal codes. All the resolutions were moved by Mr. Narbhinder Singh and the people passed them unanimously by raising their hands. The proceedings of the stage were conducted by Mr. Jaswinder Phagwara of the Rationalist Society.