How Gulzar Azmi Helped Wrongly Implicated Terror-Accused Fight for Justice Across India https://thewire.in/rights/how-gulzar-azmi-helped-wrongly-implicated-terror-accused-fight-for-justice-across-india
Under Azmi's watch, the Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind transformed from a socio-religious to a legal aid organisation.'= Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, only a socio-religious organisation until then, soon transformed into a legal aid centre for men across India implicated in terror-related cases. And the man spearheading the legal campaign ever since was Gulzar Azmi, a senior leader at the Jamiat. Azmi was 74 years old at the time.
Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind is a donor-driven organisation and every year during Eid, many people from the community offer zakat (a customary 2.5% of the total income offered to the poor and needy) to the organisation. The organisation, however, did not have a smooth run. In 2014, BJP MLA Ashish Shelar kicked up a storm by urging the Maharashtra government to ban the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind. Shelar accused Azmi of having links with fugitive gangster Chhota Shakeel. The statement led to furore and eventually Shelar was forced to withdraw his statement.
S S on Whatsapp: 23.08.23
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Following their recent intervention at the private event in the HKS Bhavan in Delhi where several citizens had gathered to discuss some pressing issues, within closed doors, the Delhi Police needs to put out an announcement, in the public interest, about what kind of conversations it thinks can be had, between consenting adults, within private spaces, homes, offices, etc. that will not, henceforth, attract its punitive and restrictive attention.
While I am aware of section 144 of the IPC (which remains operational in a state of suspended animation until the draft text of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita translates into actual law) and that it can restrict the number of people who can gather in a public space, I am not aware of the exact police powers that can prevent invited people from gathering in a non-public space. For reasons of transparency, so that we all know what’s what, we should be informed of what we can or cannot do, can or cannot say, in private spaces, in Amrit Kaal.
Is, for instance, a conversation at the dining table within a home, or at lunch time amongst colleagues in a workplace, about, say, the price of tomatoes, permissible, or, can that be construed to constitute a threat to the security of the state?
Is the whisper of pillow talk, overheard through the paper-thin walls of a hostel room or apartment, over a post-coital cigarette, about the resignation of a professor after something that they had written, likely, now, to attract an unexpected midnight knock? Should people, just to be abundantly cautious, apply for anticipatory bail before indulging in pillow talk?
Perhaps, to make things clearer and easier, the Delhi Police could also publish a set of guidelines about permitted silent gestures. So that citizens do not, inadvertently let slip an unauthorised raised eyebrow, an illegitimate refusal to smile, or an untimely roll of the eyes, that can detract from the dignity of India’s G20 Presidency, or from the majesty of some other important national initiative.
Next, it should also inform us about permissible and impermissible thoughts, feelings and stray hunches, that remain unexpressed, but in circulation, within the consciousness and interiority of individuals, without ever finding public expression.
I ask this because I am sure that the Delhi Police and it’s masters in the Ministry of Homicidal Affairs know well that a silence that simmers, contagiously and continuously, can be just as ‘subversive’, in the long run, as speech
In another blow to academic freedom at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad was initially denied entry to the institute on Wednesday, where she was scheduled to give a talk. The faculty intervened after the institute’s security tried to block her entry, the Telegraph reported.
17/08/2023