CPI(ML) Liberation condemns case against journalists in Assam, calls it BJP conspiracy to intimidate media

The CPI(ML) Liberation on Wednesday strongly criticised the filing of a case against senior journalists Karan Thapar and Siddartha Varadarajan in Assam, alleging it was part of a "well thought out conspiracy" by the ruling BJP to silence the media. 

The party demanded the immediate withdrawal of the case.

In a statement, the Left party noted that the summons issued by the Guwahati Crime Branch on August 12 coincided with the Supreme Court’s refusal to take up a petition filed against news portal The Wire, with which both journalists have been associated. “Therefore, the summons can also be said to be in defiance of the judiciary,” the party claimed.

Also Read: Kerala, Tamil Nadu CMs slam Assam police for summoning senior journalists on sedition charges

According to CPI(ML) Liberation, Thapar and Varadarajan have been informed that they are being booked under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita (BNS), a provision related to sedition. The party alleged that Assam under BJP rule has become a “laboratory for dangerous experiments,” where tribals and ethnic minorities are displaced and their lands handed over to corporates.

It further accused the state police of acting as an “instrument in the hands of a fascist regime with a sectarian agenda.”

The CPI(ML) Liberation reiterated its demand for the immediate withdrawal of the case and called for the scrapping of Section 152 of the BNS, describing it as “the old colonial sedition law in a more vicious form.”