A Petition to Condemn the Government and its Persecution of Arundhati Roy and Sheikh Shaukat Hussain

The recent 18th Lok Sabha (Lower House) Election results may have sent a clear message of dissent to the Bharatiya Janata Party, but this right-wing party continues to test it muscle to reinforce its draconian stance of criminalising dissent. The first targets in their third term is Arundhati Roy and Sheikh Shaukat Hussain.

Arundhati Roy, apart from being a celebrated Booker Prize winner, is a individual who has never shied away from expressing her criticism of government policies on social justice including Kashmir and tribal rights. Sheikh Shaukat Hussain is a former professor of international law at the Central University of Kashmir. They being booked under UAPA, only exposed an intolerant government that is misaligned with the constitutional values it is required to uphold.

Forcing its way into a third term of government, with a significantly weakened performance, this government did not waste any time in raking up charges from opinions Ms Roy and Sheikh Shaukat Hussain expressed at a seminar in 2010 on Kashmiri self-determination and condemning the Indian state’s actions. Based on a draconian law (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act - UAPA) that stifles dissent and strangles freedom of expression, this government spent its last ten years excessively using this law to stifle opposition and manufacture fear across the world’s largest democracy. 

The significance of this government’s actions also sends a clear and sinister message to general citizenry and civil society organisations. However, after ten years of a suffocating and restrained atmosphere in which civil society organisations have continue to function, the cloud of oppression has lifted. And it is this very citizenry and civil society that has pushed back in the run up to the elections, to resist and reclaim this democracy and the values of the Constitutions in stands on.

Sign this petition:

• To DEMAND the withdrawal of charges and further persecution of Arundhati Roy and Sheikh Shaukat Hussain. 
• To REJECT draconian laws like the UAPA that incarcerates citizens for indefinite periods, punishing them without due process, and; that brands dissenters and active citizenry as terrorists and criminals and creates an atmosphere of fear that goes against the thriving of a healthy democracy.
• To SAFEGUARD our capacity as a democratic citizenry to mobilise public opinion as activists, intellectuals, and critics in making our democracy thrive, and; protect and uphold democratic values and civil liberties.
• To STAND UP FOR OUR RIGHTS - to free speech and the right to dissent - as cornerstones of any democratic society and the very principles on which democracy is built and functions. 
  
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