Sedition case against Adoor and other signatories of open letter to Modi

Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

The controversy around the open letter signed by 49 signatories drawing the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the killing of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities refuses to die down. A sedition case against the signatories, including illustrious filmmakers Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aparna Sen and Mani Ratnam and the writer Ramachandra Guha, has been filed by an advocate, Sudhir Kumar Ojha, at a police station in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district.

Reacting to the news, Adoor Gopalakrishnan was in total disbelief that such a case could be registered. “I am told the court has admitted the petition of an advocate. It is not shocking… it is painful. It proves that whatever we said was correct. We have not fabricated anything.”

Asserting that the fight must go on, he said, “They want to silence everybody. That is the idea with such a petition.”

So, is he likely to counter it soon?

“I do not know what is there to counter. I have not spoken to fellow signatories. I will speak to them and maybe frame a joint response. However, we must admit that whatever we wrote in the letter has proven true. Even now the same things have been going on. They have been killing people for refusing to say Jai Shri Ram. People are being lynched by mobs. What is this? Where is the space for freedom of expression? Freedom to debate? Freedom to eat what you want….”

The signatories are preparing a response. “Our letter was written with a positive spirit and with all respect for our democratic values. We talked of plurality of India. Criticising lynching cannot be equated with sedition. From our side, there will be some message, but it is too early to talk of that. I have not spoken to others. We will soon.”

The open letter had demanded that the killing of Muslims, Dalits and others be stopped immediately, with the distinguished signatories saying, there can be “no democracy without dissent”. “When something terrible is happening and it goes unchecked, like mass lynching... of really poor people... on suspected cases of going to kill a cow.... Whatever we said, we didn’t invent it. It’s going on in front of our eyes. And no one is checking,” Adoor Gopalakrishan said.