Drop sedition charge on Trivedi or we demonstrate: IAC

Trivedi was arrested by Bandra Kurla Complex police on Sunday. The police had received a complaint against his cartoons,which parody the national emblem and national symbols,from a law student. An FIR was registered under IPC Section 124 (sedition),Section 66-A of IT Act (sending offensive messages through communication services) and Section 2 of Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act (imprisonment for disrespect to the national flag or the constitution or any part thereof).

At a press conference later,filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt,IAC member Mayank Gandhi and retired High Court judge Hospet Suresh supported Trivedi and urged him to apply for bail. They also demanded deletion of the sedition law from IPC. The demand was supported by Press Club,Mumbai.

Suresh noted that section 124 was repealed in the UK in 2010 from where India had borrowed it.

“In a democracy,it is my right to say that I disagree with the government. Sedition is a law that silences you,” the retired judge said.

Gandhi appealed to Trivedi to apply for bail and continue fighting his battle outside jail.

Bhatt said section 124 should not have been imposed on the young cartoonist “fighting for freedom of speech.” He said,“If persons are not allowed to express their feelings through art,some people unfortunately may try to say the same thing through the medium of the gun.”

Raj Thackeray backs cartoonist

MNS president Raj Thackeray threw his weight behind Aseem Trivedi on Tuesday and sought dropping of all charges against the cartoonist.

He said satire was in the very nature of the art of drawing cartoons and other cartoonists,including his uncle and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray,had drawn bolder toons in the past.

He said while criminals and traitors were at large in the country,people such as Trivedi were being targeted. “I saw all the cartoons drawn by Trivedi and failed to understand his arrest. People like Afzal Guru who attacked Parliament are not being punished but a cartoon on Parliament has invited such stern legal action. Where has our so-called freedom of expression gone?”

Thackeray said Trivedi cartoons on Parliament,Bharatmata,the national emblem,Constitution and terrorist Ajmal Kasab depicted the current scenario in the country.

“What is wrong with wolves instead of lions [on the national emblem? Aren’t those who run the government like wolves? A man is tired of the corruption in the country and shows Bharatmata being gang-raped. Is the depiction far from truth?” he said.

Taking potshots at R R Patil,Thackeray said the Home Minister had not understood the cartoons. “What is this nonsense of further investigation that Patil has ordered? I appreciate the High Court decision to grant Trivedi bail,” he said.