NEW DELHI: A group of feminists condemned the recent attack on three journalists working for a magazine in northeast Delhi. They expressed concerns about one of the journalists being sexually assaulted. “We condemn this politics of intimidation and lawlessness, enabled by the action and inaction of the government and its agencies.
We demand a just inquiry into all instances of hate crimes and violence in northeast Delhi in February and thereafter,” the statement said.
Raising questions on ‘where was the independence for citizens to think, speak, write, educate, agitate, organise, resist, dissent or question?’, they said the capital had turned into an “epicentre of a systematic onslaught of interrogations, arrests, harassment, of activists, students, professors, lawyers and media persons.”
“The idea is to not just silence voices of dissent; but also to cause a chilling effect on communities who have spoken up for democratic rights, constitutional values, equality, diversity, pluralism, justice and peace...
Facts are being twisted into false narratives, peacemakers being blamed for violence, while the instigators and perpetrators continue to roam free,” said the statement.
“We reject the toxic state and patriarchal narratives that seek to deny women’s right to political opinion,” it added. “We assert our democratic right to freedom of speech and expression, to express our dissent against the injustices of the legislature, the judiciary and the executive,” the signatories said.