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Delhi Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena has granted sanction to prosecute author Arundhati Roy and Kashmir-based academic Sheikh Showkat Hussain under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for remarks made during a 2010 seminar. The seminar, titled “Azadi — The Only Way,” was organized by the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners and discussed the separation of Kashmir from India.
The sanction follows an FIR filed on the directions of a court after a complaint by Kashmiri activist Sushil Pandit, identified at the time as a BJP supporter. Pandit alleged that the seminar propagated “separation of Kashmir from India,” thereby jeopardizing public peace and security.
The event, held at the Little Theatre Group auditorium, was disrupted by BJP members. Then Home Minister P. Chidambaram defended the police’s initial decision not to file an FIR against Roy and others involved.
Roy and Hussain are charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153B (assertions prejudicial to national integration), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), and 505 (public mischief), along with Section 13 of the UAPA. The LG had previously granted sanction for their prosecution under IPC offenses in October last year.
The CPM criticized the decision on social media, stating, “Defies logic except the fascist kind. Timing is suspect since courts are on vacation, as are lawyers. Shameful and Condemnable!” Trinamool MP-elect Mahua Moitra also condemned the move, tweeting, “If by prosecuting Arundhati Roy under UAPA BJP trying to prove they’re back, well they’re not. And they’ll never be back the same way they were. This kind of fascism is exactly what Indians have voted against.”
Former Home Minister P. Chidambaram reiterated his stance against the prosecution, tweeting, “There was no justification then to register a case against her on the charge of sedition… There is no justification now to sanction prosecution against her.”
