7 ms·

Children as young as 9 locked up by Indian Police for speech violation

148 points by ycombonator 7y ago

sudhirj 7y ago
No child seems to have been locked up. The kids are being questioned without parents or lawyers present, and the case itself is baseless, but not sure where locked up bit comes in.
- QuercusMax 7y ago
  Are they free to go? Sure sounds like they're being held against their will, which is one form of being "locked up". If I lock you inside my house and prevent you from leaving, I can be charged with false imprisonment, even though you're not in a prison.
  - sbmthakur 7y ago
    The kids were questioned in the school which is certainly wrong. But that doesn't mean they were "locked up" somewhere. Locked up (in India at least) usually means being jailed.
    - saq7 7y ago
      Jail in India means being held involuntarily at the police station. Usually, but not necessarily, in cells. They were locked up
      - rgrs 7y ago
        interrogated at police station, not held. Clickbaity article.
        saq7 7y ago
        They are children. Do children have no special protections in India? Is interrogation much better? This tactic of defending the government by trying to distract from this heinous set of events by arguing semantics is not new, but doesn’t deserve to be HN.
        nsenifty 7y ago
        Not interrogated at police station. The police went to the school. No kid is detained or under arrest. They are free to go but they probably don't know that, being kids. Is is morally wrong? Yes. But the article is click-bait.
- saq7 7y ago
  As another commentator mentioned, these kids aren’t free to leave. As you said, there aren’t any lawyers or parents present. Not sure how you aren’t classifying their situation as locked-up. They have no liberty or agency, and putting them in a cell will not change their predicament in the slightest. They are locked up
NickBusey 7y ago
Anyone being locked up anywhere for a "speech violation" is a travesty.
- umvi 7y ago
  While I agree with you, "hate speech" is a controversial topic outside the USA (and even inside the USA).
  - frockington1 7y ago
    What are the arguments for censoring hate speech? Not saying you are either for or against censorship, just trying to understand the other side
    - d-sc 7y ago
      Hate speech can have harmful physiological effects on those it targets.
      - ne0flex 7y ago
        >physiological effects I think you mean psychological.
      - claudiawerner 7y ago
        Very true; I'm reminded of the funny example used in debates on these matters, in which a legal professor is saying he'd rather have somebody break his left leg than to publish something alleging sexual misconduct with a student, and further, there are absolutely non-physical harms which can cause just as much, if not more, pain and anguish than physical harms. In this view, the idea that speech should be able to contain any content by law is about as ridiculous as saying that actions in general should be able to contain any content. The first amendment in the US is on a very shaky metaphysical model which does not accord with what we know about the brain or trauma.
    - danharaj 7y ago
      Free speech is important because speech has consequences. If speech didn't matter, then it wouldn't be a right worth enshrining. One has to grapple with the fact that speech has power regardless of whether they think it is an inviolable, unrestricted right. If it has power, it has the power to be abusive.
azifali 7y ago
The children have been questioned for 4-5 days at a stretched and a parent has been detained without being named in the police report illegally. It is absurd, to what length that this nationalist government would go to remain in power. I feel sorry for these kids and all those who are suffering at the hands of this government.
- keanzu 7y ago
  > The children have been questioned for 4-5 days at a stretched and a parent has been detained without being named in the police report illegally. Where is your source for this? The linked article states: "Three times in the six days, the Karnataka police has questioned children" and "a student’s mother and the school’s head teacher were arrested on sedition charges". > this nationalist government This appears to be a slur of some sort. What kind of government would you want for your nation other than a nationalist one?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - simongr3dal 7y ago
    Of course you wan't a government with the nations interest at heart. But I don't think the phrase is just a slur. Governments that are described as nationalist have a tendency to find enemies within its own borders by claiming that a subset of the population aren't true nationals because they don't originate from the country or because they don't share some cultural norm.
    - booboolayla 7y ago
      Just as a hypothetical... Is it possible for a minority within a nation to be hostile to the majority? And if so, how do you propose to deal with the issue of having a fifth column within your borders?
      - dependenttypes 7y ago
sbmthakur 7y ago
From the article: After a video of parts of the play did the rounds on social media, the accusation was that a child spoke a line in the play that Narendra Modi should be beaten with slippers. However, several media reports have debunked this claim. The child seems to have made a generic statement that anyone who demands documents to prove one’s citizenship should be beaten with chappals. It's absolutely wrong to detain the kid for this. Only the one who wrote the lines for "beating" someone deserves to be questioned and that too in accordance with the law.
- saq7 7y ago
  Which particular laws would you use in this case? Are there no protections for free speech in India? Or is it rather that implied negative speech against the government is not protected by the law? Certainly, strong arming Muslim children by law enforcement is largely protected by the law and what seems like the majority of the public.
  - lpcn112 7y ago
    Lately, the government has been widely cracking down upon all sorts of dissent, claiming the excuse of 'anti-national tendencies', invoking sedition laws. The situation is pretty dire at the moment. Laws exist on paper. Law enforcement agencies however have been historically known to act on behalf of leaders, a behaviour which also seen in many other countries.
sbmthakur 7y ago
The kid wasn't locked up. The title of the post is incorrect and misleading. This is the actual title: Karnataka’s sedition case against parent and teacher for a school play is absurd – and illegal
- saq7 7y ago
  Were they free to go? Did they have parents or lawyers present? Was any adult on their side present? They had the same liberties and agency they would have had if they were behind bars. Zero, to be precise.
  - rgrs 7y ago
    they were interrogated at police station, not locked up
    - saq7 7y ago
      They were children. Do children have no special protections in India? Is interrogation much better? Not sure if you are a pedant who cares to an inappropriate degree about the proper use of words, or more likely, trying to distract from this heinous set of events by arguing semantics.
san_dimitri 7y ago
Looks like this nationalist Indian government is very thin skinned and cannot take any form of criticism directed towards its policies and laws. Sad. Any form of government which takes such extreme steps towards its citizens for expressing their opinion in a non violent manner has lost its credibility to uphold the constitution.
- sbmthakur 7y ago
  The play in the context actually called for "beating" someone. That doesn't sound like doing things in a "non-violent" manner.
  - kposehn 7y ago
    Beating “with chappals” which are slippers.
    - hexagone 7y ago
      Three lines from the play were highlighted. >“The government is telling Muslims to leave India and go away.” In reply, the other child says, “Amma, Modi is saying show documents of your father and grandfather otherwise he is telling us to leave the country.” At this point, another child is heard saying, “Hit them with slippers if anybody asks for documents.” The last one is directed at survey workers who have been (mis)targeted recently. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/asha-worker-conducting-survey-polio-drive-attacked/articleshow/73530592.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/... >Following instances of workers, engaged to conduct Poshan Abhiyan survey, facing hostile behaviour, the state government had issued an ad explaining that the survey had nothing to do with Census and NPR. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/two-women-mistaken-for-caa-nrc-surveyors-attacked-in-rajasthan-west-bengal/articleshow/73538439.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/two-women-mi... >In Kota, the woman attacked was a surveyor from the National Economic Census department collecting data for the National Economics Census 2019- 2020 in Brijdham area. Nazeeran Bano was let off only after she was able to convince the crowd that she, too, was a Muslim, like them. The police later arrested one person for the attack. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/west-bengal-woman-s-house-set-on-fire-over-rumour-she-was-collecting-nrc-data-1639261-2020-01-23 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/west-bengal-woman-s-ho... >The house of a 20-year-old woman was set on fire by a mob in West Bengal's Birbhum district on Wednesday, following rumours that she was collecting data for the proposed nationwide NRC. >Chumki Khatun and her family are now under police protection after the incident happened in Gourbazar village in Mallarpur police station area, officials said. I don't support sedition charges, but there should be a penalty for (1) promoting (even petty) violence against government workers and (2) getting your children to express this promotion.
Apocryphon 7y ago
These are trying times for large democracies.
arsalanb 7y ago
The indian democracy is in shambles at the minute. In Kashmir there are children as young as 19 months being maimed with pellet guns for "unlawful assembly".
- rgrs 7y ago
  pellet guns were used against stone pelters
  - arsalanb 7y ago
    Nah, it's a narrative that has been built around the use of pellet guns and even live ammunition on civilians who are exercising their right to peaceful protest. Surely a 19-month-old cannot be a "Stone pelter"? By creating a war-like hysteria in the country, India gets away with doing absurd things: make people believe they are perpetually at war with someone (Pakistan, the muslims, the illegal immigrants, etc) and you can justify bizarre things like firing at civilians, cow terrorism, etc
    - rgrs 7y ago
      > civilians who are exercising their right to peaceful protest. i dont think so. News reports showed videos of stone pelters
      - arsalanb 7y ago
        You're missing the point. There have been people protesting (for good reason, because Kashmir is not a part of India) and using footages of stone pelters to shoot children is the issue I'm talking about.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
nsenifty 7y ago
As many comments have pointed out, no kids are locked up. The police went to their school and questioned them. I am not debating whether it is wrong or immoral to question minors without their parents present or the nature of the charges, However, no child is arrested, charged, locked up, booked or entered into justice system in any way. The article is click-bait and an appeal to emotion, not facts.
- monadic2 7y ago
  The fact that children are targeted by police for mocking the prime minister in a school play should appeal to your emotions. It's disgusting.
  - nsenifty 7y ago
    It does, but headlines like these are a distraction from the actual facts. All it takes is a series of half-truths to form a false narrative that doesn't serve anyone constructively. With an ineffective law enforcement, parts of India are like a tinderbox waiting to go off as people act on emotions.
  - Aperocky 7y ago
    If the headline suggest children are 'LOCKED UP' when they actually are not, that misrepresentation is disgusting in itself.
dependenttypes 7y ago
Does it matter that they were children? Would it be better if they locked up and interrogated adults for days for "speech violation"?
azifali 7y ago
Another instance of what's happening now: The ruling party is promoting hate speech against anyone who is liberal, left leaning or left of center and anyone who expresses dissent, who disagrees with the government.. And so there have been numerous clear instances of violence against university students, professors and protestors on the street. https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/opinion-the-jamia-violence-and-its-fallout-on-campus-culture-11577124682745.html https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/opinion-the-jamia-v... https://thewire.in/politics/delhi-polls-hate-speech-bjp-campaign https://thewire.in/politics/delhi-polls-hate-speech-bjp-camp... https://theprint.in/politics/shaheen-bagh-biryani-bullets-pakistan-what-yogi-adityanath-said-at-delhi-rallies/358759/ https://theprint.in/politics/shaheen-bagh-biryani-bullets-pa... https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/delhi-assembly-polls-2020/story/bjp-mp-parvesh-verma-shaheen-bagh-clear-protest-delhi-election-1640808-2020-01-28 https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/delhi-assembly-polls-202... Reputed universities / academics are caught in the cross hairs: https://theprint.in/india/iit-professor-author-yale-postdoc-assam-academic-questioned-by-nia-for-caa-violence/359187/ https://theprint.in/india/iit-professor-author-yale-postdoc-... To all those who support this party in this forum must understand, as someone else said - nationalism in all its form is abhorrent.
duxup 7y ago
>a play that the police said criticised the Citizenship Amendment Act. The mother and the teacher were allegedly involved in the creation of the play, while the school management has been booked for allowing the play to be staged in its premises. A play that criticizes an act passed by the government and now you've got the government after you / questioning children. That's scary stuff.
dang 7y ago
This title breaks the site guidelines, which ask: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." Not only did you rewrite it to make it more baity, you added something ("locked up") that doesn't appear to me to be in the article. Breaking the guidelines in this way eventually causes an account to lose submission privileges on HN, so please don't do it. Please also don't post articles that are primarily appeals to nationalistic indignation (for and against). HN exists for intellectual curiosity, and there's none of that in this thread. This was entirely predictable. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
fareesh 7y ago
As many have pointed out, no kids are being locked up. They are being questioned without a parent or lawyer present. This is wrong. As for the free speech issue: Disclaimer - I'm in favor of all speech, including hate speech. If it sounds like I'm defending the administration or police, I am not. There are many "sacred" political figures. Michelle Obama, for example, is one of them. If there were a school play held in the deep south in which children were made to advocate for her to be physically beaten, as a response to some Obama government policy - I'm quite sure many folks in places like California would want the secret service or some offical government agency to formally investigate what's going on there. The police presence itself is not as unusual or "nationalist" as some seem to be suggesting here. For a concrete example - the musician Ted Nugent said at an NRA event that if Barack Obama were to become President, he (Nugent) would be dead or in jail by November. The Secret Service paid him a visit following that statement and (correctly) did not arrest him. Investigating threats of violence against the leader of a country is common. In this case, the fact that a teacher made kids say it, is not really very different in this context. Unfortunately, India does not really have freedom of speech. The right to say things that are encouraging political violence is not covered by India's toothless right to free speech. In this case, Modi is a similarly "sacred" figure to many, and he's also the Prime Minister. Some people made children put on a play in which they suggest physically beating the Prime Minister, and then a video of this gets shared on WhatsApp. Had the play been put on and nothing happened thereafter, it would have been an entirely different matter. The fact that it started spreading on WhatsApp now gives the police grounds to suspect that this is part of a conspiracy to call for political violence. The police in this case have gone ahead and actually arrested the teacher and parent who wrote the script. If (and only if) they conspired to spread the WhatsApp video, under the existing terrible laws, the police may have a case. I'm not a lawyer, but it seems that way as a layperson reading the statutes. I hope I'm wrong.

148 points by ycombonator 7y ago

No child seems to have been locked up. The kids are being questioned without parents or lawyers present, and the case itself is baseless, but not sure where locked up bit comes in.

QuercusMax 7y ago
Are they free to go? Sure sounds like they're being held against their will, which is one form of being "locked up". If I lock you inside my house and prevent you from leaving, I can be charged with false imprisonment, even though you're not in a prison.
- sbmthakur 7y ago
  The kids were questioned in the school which is certainly wrong. But that doesn't mean they were "locked up" somewhere. Locked up (in India at least) usually means being jailed.
  - saq7 7y ago
    Jail in India means being held involuntarily at the police station. Usually, but not necessarily, in cells. They were locked up
    - rgrs 7y ago
      interrogated at police station, not held. Clickbaity article.
      - saq7 7y ago
        They are children. Do children have no special protections in India? Is interrogation much better? This tactic of defending the government by trying to distract from this heinous set of events by arguing semantics is not new, but doesn’t deserve to be HN.
      - nsenifty 7y ago
        Not interrogated at police station. The police went to the school. No kid is detained or under arrest. They are free to go but they probably don't know that, being kids. Is is morally wrong? Yes. But the article is click-bait.
saq7 7y ago
As another commentator mentioned, these kids aren’t free to leave. As you said, there aren’t any lawyers or parents present. Not sure how you aren’t classifying their situation as locked-up. They have no liberty or agency, and putting them in a cell will not change their predicament in the slightest. They are locked up

NickBusey 7y ago

Anyone being locked up anywhere for a "speech violation" is a travesty.

umvi 7y ago
While I agree with you, "hate speech" is a controversial topic outside the USA (and even inside the USA).
- frockington1 7y ago
  What are the arguments for censoring hate speech? Not saying you are either for or against censorship, just trying to understand the other side
  - d-sc 7y ago
    Hate speech can have harmful physiological effects on those it targets.
    - ne0flex 7y ago
      >physiological effects I think you mean psychological.
    - claudiawerner 7y ago
      Very true; I'm reminded of the funny example used in debates on these matters, in which a legal professor is saying he'd rather have somebody break his left leg than to publish something alleging sexual misconduct with a student, and further, there are absolutely non-physical harms which can cause just as much, if not more, pain and anguish than physical harms. In this view, the idea that speech should be able to contain any content by law is about as ridiculous as saying that actions in general should be able to contain any content. The first amendment in the US is on a very shaky metaphysical model which does not accord with what we know about the brain or trauma.
  - danharaj 7y ago
    Free speech is important because speech has consequences. If speech didn't matter, then it wouldn't be a right worth enshrining. One has to grapple with the fact that speech has power regardless of whether they think it is an inviolable, unrestricted right. If it has power, it has the power to be abusive.

azifali 7y ago

The children have been questioned for 4-5 days at a stretched and a parent has been detained without being named in the police report illegally. It is absurd, to what length that this nationalist government would go to remain in power. I feel sorry for these kids and all those who are suffering at the hands of this government.

keanzu 7y ago
> The children have been questioned for 4-5 days at a stretched and a parent has been detained without being named in the police report illegally. Where is your source for this? The linked article states: "Three times in the six days, the Karnataka police has questioned children" and "a student’s mother and the school’s head teacher were arrested on sedition charges". > this nationalist government This appears to be a slur of some sort. What kind of government would you want for your nation other than a nationalist one?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- simongr3dal 7y ago
  Of course you wan't a government with the nations interest at heart. But I don't think the phrase is just a slur. Governments that are described as nationalist have a tendency to find enemies within its own borders by claiming that a subset of the population aren't true nationals because they don't originate from the country or because they don't share some cultural norm.
  - booboolayla 7y ago
    Just as a hypothetical... Is it possible for a minority within a nation to be hostile to the majority? And if so, how do you propose to deal with the issue of having a fifth column within your borders?
    - dependenttypes 7y ago

sbmthakur 7y ago

From the article: After a video of parts of the play did the rounds on social media, the accusation was that a child spoke a line in the play that Narendra Modi should be beaten with slippers. However, several media reports have debunked this claim. The child seems to have made a generic statement that anyone who demands documents to prove one’s citizenship should be beaten with chappals. It's absolutely wrong to detain the kid for this. Only the one who wrote the lines for "beating" someone deserves to be questioned and that too in accordance with the law.

saq7 7y ago
Which particular laws would you use in this case? Are there no protections for free speech in India? Or is it rather that implied negative speech against the government is not protected by the law? Certainly, strong arming Muslim children by law enforcement is largely protected by the law and what seems like the majority of the public.
- lpcn112 7y ago
  Lately, the government has been widely cracking down upon all sorts of dissent, claiming the excuse of 'anti-national tendencies', invoking sedition laws. The situation is pretty dire at the moment. Laws exist on paper. Law enforcement agencies however have been historically known to act on behalf of leaders, a behaviour which also seen in many other countries.

sbmthakur 7y ago

The kid wasn't locked up. The title of the post is incorrect and misleading. This is the actual title: Karnataka’s sedition case against parent and teacher for a school play is absurd – and illegal

saq7 7y ago
Were they free to go? Did they have parents or lawyers present? Was any adult on their side present? They had the same liberties and agency they would have had if they were behind bars. Zero, to be precise.
- rgrs 7y ago
  they were interrogated at police station, not locked up
  - saq7 7y ago
    They were children. Do children have no special protections in India? Is interrogation much better? Not sure if you are a pedant who cares to an inappropriate degree about the proper use of words, or more likely, trying to distract from this heinous set of events by arguing semantics.

san_dimitri 7y ago

Looks like this nationalist Indian government is very thin skinned and cannot take any form of criticism directed towards its policies and laws. Sad. Any form of government which takes such extreme steps towards its citizens for expressing their opinion in a non violent manner has lost its credibility to uphold the constitution.

sbmthakur 7y ago
The play in the context actually called for "beating" someone. That doesn't sound like doing things in a "non-violent" manner.
- kposehn 7y ago
  Beating “with chappals” which are slippers.
  - hexagone 7y ago
    Three lines from the play were highlighted. >“The government is telling Muslims to leave India and go away.” In reply, the other child says, “Amma, Modi is saying show documents of your father and grandfather otherwise he is telling us to leave the country.” At this point, another child is heard saying, “Hit them with slippers if anybody asks for documents.” The last one is directed at survey workers who have been (mis)targeted recently. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/asha-worker-conducting-survey-polio-drive-attacked/articleshow/73530592.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/... >Following instances of workers, engaged to conduct Poshan Abhiyan survey, facing hostile behaviour, the state government had issued an ad explaining that the survey had nothing to do with Census and NPR. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/two-women-mistaken-for-caa-nrc-surveyors-attacked-in-rajasthan-west-bengal/articleshow/73538439.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/two-women-mi... >In Kota, the woman attacked was a surveyor from the National Economic Census department collecting data for the National Economics Census 2019- 2020 in Brijdham area. Nazeeran Bano was let off only after she was able to convince the crowd that she, too, was a Muslim, like them. The police later arrested one person for the attack. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/west-bengal-woman-s-house-set-on-fire-over-rumour-she-was-collecting-nrc-data-1639261-2020-01-23 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/west-bengal-woman-s-ho... >The house of a 20-year-old woman was set on fire by a mob in West Bengal's Birbhum district on Wednesday, following rumours that she was collecting data for the proposed nationwide NRC. >Chumki Khatun and her family are now under police protection after the incident happened in Gourbazar village in Mallarpur police station area, officials said. I don't support sedition charges, but there should be a penalty for (1) promoting (even petty) violence against government workers and (2) getting your children to express this promotion.

Apocryphon 7y ago

These are trying times for large democracies.

arsalanb 7y ago

The indian democracy is in shambles at the minute. In Kashmir there are children as young as 19 months being maimed with pellet guns for "unlawful assembly".

rgrs 7y ago
pellet guns were used against stone pelters
- arsalanb 7y ago
  Nah, it's a narrative that has been built around the use of pellet guns and even live ammunition on civilians who are exercising their right to peaceful protest. Surely a 19-month-old cannot be a "Stone pelter"? By creating a war-like hysteria in the country, India gets away with doing absurd things: make people believe they are perpetually at war with someone (Pakistan, the muslims, the illegal immigrants, etc) and you can justify bizarre things like firing at civilians, cow terrorism, etc
  - rgrs 7y ago
    > civilians who are exercising their right to peaceful protest. i dont think so. News reports showed videos of stone pelters
    - arsalanb 7y ago
      You're missing the point. There have been people protesting (for good reason, because Kashmir is not a part of India) and using footages of stone pelters to shoot children is the issue I'm talking about.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

nsenifty 7y ago

As many comments have pointed out, no kids are locked up. The police went to their school and questioned them. I am not debating whether it is wrong or immoral to question minors without their parents present or the nature of the charges, However, no child is arrested, charged, locked up, booked or entered into justice system in any way. The article is click-bait and an appeal to emotion, not facts.

monadic2 7y ago
The fact that children are targeted by police for mocking the prime minister in a school play should appeal to your emotions. It's disgusting.
- nsenifty 7y ago
  It does, but headlines like these are a distraction from the actual facts. All it takes is a series of half-truths to form a false narrative that doesn't serve anyone constructively. With an ineffective law enforcement, parts of India are like a tinderbox waiting to go off as people act on emotions.
- Aperocky 7y ago
  If the headline suggest children are 'LOCKED UP' when they actually are not, that misrepresentation is disgusting in itself.

dependenttypes 7y ago

Does it matter that they were children? Would it be better if they locked up and interrogated adults for days for "speech violation"?

azifali 7y ago

Another instance of what's happening now: The ruling party is promoting hate speech against anyone who is liberal, left leaning or left of center and anyone who expresses dissent, who disagrees with the government.. And so there have been numerous clear instances of violence against university students, professors and protestors on the street. https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/opinion-the-jamia-violence-and-its-fallout-on-campus-culture-11577124682745.html https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/opinion-the-jamia-v... https://thewire.in/politics/delhi-polls-hate-speech-bjp-campaign https://thewire.in/politics/delhi-polls-hate-speech-bjp-camp... https://theprint.in/politics/shaheen-bagh-biryani-bullets-pakistan-what-yogi-adityanath-said-at-delhi-rallies/358759/ https://theprint.in/politics/shaheen-bagh-biryani-bullets-pa... https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/delhi-assembly-polls-2020/story/bjp-mp-parvesh-verma-shaheen-bagh-clear-protest-delhi-election-1640808-2020-01-28 https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/delhi-assembly-polls-202... Reputed universities / academics are caught in the cross hairs: https://theprint.in/india/iit-professor-author-yale-postdoc-assam-academic-questioned-by-nia-for-caa-violence/359187/ https://theprint.in/india/iit-professor-author-yale-postdoc-... To all those who support this party in this forum must understand, as someone else said - nationalism in all its form is abhorrent.

duxup 7y ago

>a play that the police said criticised the Citizenship Amendment Act. The mother and the teacher were allegedly involved in the creation of the play, while the school management has been booked for allowing the play to be staged in its premises. A play that criticizes an act passed by the government and now you've got the government after you / questioning children. That's scary stuff.

dang 7y ago

This title breaks the site guidelines, which ask: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." Not only did you rewrite it to make it more baity, you added something ("locked up") that doesn't appear to me to be in the article. Breaking the guidelines in this way eventually causes an account to lose submission privileges on HN, so please don't do it. Please also don't post articles that are primarily appeals to nationalistic indignation (for and against). HN exists for intellectual curiosity, and there's none of that in this thread. This was entirely predictable. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

fareesh 7y ago

As many have pointed out, no kids are being locked up. They are being questioned without a parent or lawyer present. This is wrong. As for the free speech issue: Disclaimer - I'm in favor of all speech, including hate speech. If it sounds like I'm defending the administration or police, I am not. There are many "sacred" political figures. Michelle Obama, for example, is one of them. If there were a school play held in the deep south in which children were made to advocate for her to be physically beaten, as a response to some Obama government policy - I'm quite sure many folks in places like California would want the secret service or some offical government agency to formally investigate what's going on there. The police presence itself is not as unusual or "nationalist" as some seem to be suggesting here. For a concrete example - the musician Ted Nugent said at an NRA event that if Barack Obama were to become President, he (Nugent) would be dead or in jail by November. The Secret Service paid him a visit following that statement and (correctly) did not arrest him. Investigating threats of violence against the leader of a country is common. In this case, the fact that a teacher made kids say it, is not really very different in this context. Unfortunately, India does not really have freedom of speech. The right to say things that are encouraging political violence is not covered by India's toothless right to free speech. In this case, Modi is a similarly "sacred" figure to many, and he's also the Prime Minister. Some people made children put on a play in which they suggest physically beating the Prime Minister, and then a video of this gets shared on WhatsApp. Had the play been put on and nothing happened thereafter, it would have been an entirely different matter. The fact that it started spreading on WhatsApp now gives the police grounds to suspect that this is part of a conspiracy to call for political violence. The police in this case have gone ahead and actually arrested the teacher and parent who wrote the script. If (and only if) they conspired to spread the WhatsApp video, under the existing terrible laws, the police may have a case. I'm not a lawyer, but it seems that way as a layperson reading the statutes. I hope I'm wrong.