Beware! If any one tries to protest against Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, using legitimate tools of protest in a democracy like burning her effigy, they can end up in serious trouble and can be hauled up under the provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of atrocities) Act, punishment being upto five years rigorous imprisonment. That is, if Mayawati wants to take a cue from Andhra Pradesh Police.
The editor of Andhra Jyothy, the second largest Telugu daily, K Srinivas, was arrested in his office on Tuesday night along with two other news contributors. The AP Police took cognizance of the complaint made by Manda Krishna Madiga, leader of Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS). Manda Krishna alleged that the newspaper staff had abused him by his caste (Madiga caste is a sub-caste of SCs) when they took out a rally in protest against the attack on the newspaper office by MRPS activists nearly a month ago.
The journalists of the daily took out the rally when MRPS activists unleashed a reign of terror in the office of Andhra Jyothy on May 26. Such a violent incident never happened in Andhra Pradesh against a media house though scurrilous writings and personal attacks are the order of the day in Telugu press. During the rally, the effigy of Manda Krishna Madiga was burnt and some of the protestors seem to have beaten the effigy with chappals, which is not unusual in such protests. Perhaps, it has been accepted as a legitimate form of protest to express one¿s anguish.
But not for the A P Police. What was the crime of the editor of the daily? According to the Police, the editor was seen standing beside the protestors when the latter were beating up the effigy of MRPS leader. So, he was an abettor to the crime. What is the evidence against the editor? The Banjara Hills ACP says that there is evidence against the arrested editor and the evidence was a photograph published by a newspaper. He further says "standing beside the protestors amounts to conspiring and supporting the act."
Naturally, the incident provoked strong protest from the entire journalistic community and civil liberties organizations which termed the development as an act of undeclared emergency in the state. Nobody believes that it was just a routine action by the police in response to a complaint made a month ago. The arrests were effected around
Arresting an editor while on duty is a clear threat to the freedom of the press. This is not to say that editors are above law. They can also commit crimes. There are umpteen cases of proprietor-cum-editors committing financial irregularities under the garb of editorial freedom. For them, threat to press freedom is only a shield. But in the case of Andhra Jyothy editor, just standing by the side of protestors is cited as an offence which will not stand judicial scrutiny, and therefore, the police action appears to be prima facie malafide rendering the charge of threat to press freedom real.
The moral of AP Police action is that if anyone wants to take out a rally with effigy and all, he has to know the caste of the person against whom the protest is undertaken. So, leaders like Mayawati, Ram Vilas Paswan, Bangaru Laxman can relax. Their effigies cannot be burnt or beaten up.
An interesting aside of the episode is that it exposed the bias of the press in AP. The Chairman of Saakshi daily, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of Dr Y S Rajasekara Reddy, nearly defended the police action. May be it is quite natural because he sees himself as CM¿s son and not a newspaper proprietor. But what prevented Eenadu, to send its representative when a team of editors and journalists called on the editor in jail to express their solidarity? For Deccan Chronicle the arrest of a local editor is a single column story on inside pages, whereas Times of India went to town making it as the lead story and with an equally prominent follow up the next day. The Hindu too made it page one story with two more related stories inside. After all, its editor-in-chief was also a victim of Jaya¿s ire who sent policemen to the Hindu office to arrest him and his colleagues in a case of Assembly privilege.