Hyderabad/New Delhi: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) has strongly condemned the Manipur government for grossly misusing National Security Act (NSA) to silence criticism. Making a note of the detention of a ‘journalist’ Kishore Chandra Wangkhem, under the Act in Imphal on November 27 for expressing his views against the leaders of ruling party at the Centre and the State in a Facebook post, the IJU said the detention violated the freedom of expression guaranteed under the Constitution and worse it was a blatant misuse of the NSA by the authorities.
Criticising the detention order, which stated that Wangkhem was arrested “with a view to prevent him from acting in any matter prejudicial to the security of the state and to the maintenance of public order”, the IJU said the State authorities were setting a wrong precedent and sending a terse message across to all that dissent would not be tolerated.
In a statement, IJU president and Press Council of India member Amar Devulapalli and secretary-general Sabina Inderjit said the detention of Wangkhem must be seen as an attack on the freedom of expression and most undemocratic. The detention, they added, was all the more objectionable after he was set free by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Manipur (West) district a few days earlier quashing charge of sedition slapped on him. The IJU demanded that the government immediately revoke the detention order under NSA and ensure unconditional release of Wangkhem as his liberty would not in any way be prejudicial to the security of the State and to the maintenance of public order. (NSS)