New Delhi: A Muslim man from Manipur, enrolled as a PhD scholar at the history department of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), has been arrested by the state police and charged with inciting “communal disharmony” and inciting “disaffection towards the government” besides slapping other charges under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for writing an article critical of the BJP-led state government’s policy towards his community.
Mohammad Chingiz Khan, on April 7, 2019, had co-written an article in the English daily The Pioneer headlined, ‘Pangals victim of manufactured insecurity‘. The Muslims are locally termed ‘pangals‘.
In that article, he gave a number of examples of state action, including the eviction of about 500 Pangal Muslims from a reserved forest, to accuse the N. Biren Singh government of indulging in “a conscious and political sidelining of the Pangals in Manipur.”
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Nearly a year later, the article was translated into Meitelion by another person and published in a local daily, Ichel Express. The police took suo moto cognisance of the translated article published on April 6, accusing Khan of “inciting communal disharmony”, “communal conspiracy”, inciting “disaffection towards the government” and also expressing an intention to cause “mutiny” to the armed forces. The state police particularly called the headline of the translated article “inflammatory”, though Khan had no role in it. Translated to English, the headline would read: ‘Political ploy to push Muslims into marginalisation’.
On April 8, Khan was picked up from his residence under the Mayang Imphal police station in Imphal West district and remanded to six days police custody.
A senior government official told PTI that Khan “raked up a two-year-old issue in his writing when the state is fighting against COVID-19.”
Khan’s arrest has triggered condemnation from various youth organisations and student bodies demanding that he be released immediately. All Manipur Muslim Students Organisation (AMMSO), in a press statement on April 12, accused the government of “stifling the voice of the student community and curtailing the constitutional right of freedom of expression”.
Stating that discussion, debate and scrutinising government’s policies are “a healthy exercise”, the statement signed by AAMSO president Zabed Ahamed asked, “If any individual has (expressed) dissent against a policy, will he be arrested and how many can the government arrest?”
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A statement issued by the Delhi Association of Manipur Muslim Students said, “Vividly, his detention exposes the government’s inability to cope with the ugly truth pointed out about their flawed and reckless implementation of public policies. This is not just an assault to dissenting individuals but to the intellectual world for criticising and exposing the truth.”
Joneyziaur Rahman, general secretary of the North East Student’s Association, Jamia Millia Islamia, reportedly said, “I hereby seek attention of the human rights body, the academic fraternity and the other progressive organisations.”
On April 10, JNU students’ union president Aishe Ghosh too demanded his release.
Thokchom Singhajit, general secretary of the Manipuri Students’ Association, Delhi, told Inside NorthEast, “If the government continues to do such act of arresting and threatening students who speak for egalitarian and independent society, people will stand against them.” The news report also said the student leader “drew attention to other similar incidents” which have occurred during the ongoing lockdown in the north-eastern state.
“Arrest of Victor Konsam for asking ‘How much money CM has personally donated to CM Relief Fund’ on Facebook, arrest of General Secretary and President of Youth Forum for Protection of Human Rights for suggesting the government to shift the location of building quarantine hospital from Langthabal Paddy field to Changangei Airfield, and the arrest of Dr. Laifungfam Debabrata (Boby) Roy, convener of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the UN for his criticism to the way the chief minister control Covid 19 are other such examples,” he said.
Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the student was charged with sedition.