UPDATED: March 1, 2021 22:51 IST
Fear is the key: Climate activist Disha Ravi being escorted to a local court in Delhi (Photo: AFP)
On February 14, when Delhi Police arrested 21-year-old Bengaluru-based climate activist Disha Ravi and slapped charges of sedition on her, two distinct narratives emerged in the media. One group of people branded Ravi, who has been accused of making edits on a controversial online toolkit to allegedly defame India, an enemy of the state. The other called the Delhi Police action another instance of the blatant abuse of the sedition law by people in power to curb dissenting voices. And it s not just Ravi. In January this year, three sedition cases were filed against Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and six journalists, including India Today Group s Rajdeep Sardesai, for tweeting unverified news about the farmers tractor rally in Delhi on January 26. Last year, Section 124A of the IPC (Indian Penal Code), which deals with sedition, was invoked
West Bengal’s poster wars
With the BJP closing in and rebels coming up within the TMC, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is going all out to show that she is still in the fight
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UPDATED: December 11, 2020 13:55 IST
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses a public rally in the Bongaon area of North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, Dec. 9 (PTI)
Huge TMC hoardings dot the posh locality of Alipore-Belvedere Road in Kolkata. They show a larger-than-life Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal chief minister, a moderately-sized Abhishek Banerjee, her nephew and a miniscule-by-comparison Firhad Hakim (Bobby), state urban development minister. The neighbourhood also happens to be where big corporates, top cops and favoured bureaucrats live. It is also the route of the CM’s daily commute from her humble home in Kalighat to her office in Nabanna the state secretariat in Kolkata.