No freedom of speech in TN, charge activists

Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, author Arundhati Roy and a few activists from Tamil Nadu spoke at a protest meet organised at the Press Club of India here by a Delhi-based civil society.

“Chhattisgarh has become a black hole...virtually no freedom of speech and democratic rights of people (is being) taken away. Similar thing (is) now happening in Tamil Nadu,” Bhushan alleged.

“...protest meetings are not allowed, hall and press conference venue bookings being cancelled, mala fide cases being slapped against protesters as happened in (anti-Sterlite) protests in Thoothukudi,” he said. Bhushan, Roy and other activists also alleged that there was a “fascist-situation” in the country.

“Tactics of repression have changed -- from jungles of Chhattisgarh, it has now moved to Tamil Nadu, in semi-urban or semi-rural areas,” Roy said. She said earlier only Muslims were “branded as terrorists” but now even intellectuals, Maoists and poor people are being targeted.

“The kind of language being used, people being criminalised... After demonetisation, if you protested you were called ‘corrupt’, if you speak again on the NRC issue, you are called anti-national and pro-Bangladeshi,” she alleged.

In the name of development, “harmful and devastating infrastructure projects” are being imposed upon the people of the state (TN),” activist Uday Kumar alleged. “Most of these are being done without following right procedures,” he said.