This paper carried an effective editorial, “Perverse passion” (February 17), on paediatrician Dr. Kafeel Khan’s arrest. As the novel coronavirus is taking its deadly toll on lives and economies throughout the world, one would think of that the focus of the government would be on containing the spread of the virus and creating ameliorative measures to lower the concern on individuals. The dominant state of mind appears to be to hand out punitive punishments to dissenters. To make matters worse, the courts are not at the leading edge of safeguarding rights and limiting excesses.
Fate of dissenters
On the birth anniversary of the of the Indian Constitution, B.R. Ambedkar, civil rights advocate Gautam Navlakha and scholar and activist Anand Teltumbde were required to surrender to the National Investigation Company for their alleged participation in the Bhima-Koregaon riots of2018 The Uttar Pradesh federal government has filed a case versus the founding editor of the news website The Wire, Siddharth Varadarajan, for supposedly spreading fake news against Chief Minister Adityanath and making an “objectionable comment” about him. Scholars who condemned