Stalin condemns slapping sedition case against journos by Assam Police

Condemning the slapping of sedition cases against the editor of the online news website The Wire and its senior journalist by the Assam Police, Chief Minister and ruling DMK president MK Stalin on Wednesday described it as an attempt at suppressing independent journalism.

He was reacting to the Assam police filing a fresh FIR against Delhi-based Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of The Wire, and Karan Thapar, a senior journalist with the online publication, after the Supreme Court had granted them interim protection from arrest in an earlier sedition case. The two have been summoned by the Assam Police or face arrest.

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“I strongly condemn the action of the Assam Police in issuing summons to senior journalists S. Varadarajan and Karan Thapar of The Wire. A democracy cannot survive if asking questions is treated as treason,” Stalin wrote on ‘X’, adding, “The summons has been issued despite the Supreme Court granting protection in a related matter only days earlier.”

The Chief Minister also pointed out that “No copy of the FIR and no particulars of the case have been furnished, leaving only the threat of arrest. Section 152 of the BNS is being misused as a substitute for the repealed sedition law to suppress independent journalism.”

Already, the Press Club of India and the Women Press Corps, as well as the Editors Guild, have condemned the action of the Assam Police, describing Sec 152 of the BNS as a colonial relic that has to be discarded.