Shehla Rashid has turned into a strong Modi admirer; Hardik Patel is now a BJP legislator
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Consequent to their newly-formed proximity to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the government has decided to drop sedition charges against former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Shehla Rashid and Patidar movement leader Hardik Patel. Both faced the charges in separate incidents as the detractors of the BJP.
Shehla Rashid led protests against the Narendra Modi government when she was a student leader at JNU. Of late, she has turned into a great admirer of Prime Minister Modi. She was booked under the sedition case for claiming that armed forces indulged in excesses against children and youth following the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
The police had registered the FIR under sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language), 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code, and prosecution sanction against her was granted by the Lieutenant Governor.
A Delhi court on Thursday (February 27) accepted an application filed by the Delhi Police to withdraw her prosecution in the sedition case dating back to 2019, reported The Indian Express.
In December last year, a screening committee recommended the withdrawal of the prosecution against Rashid to the L-G. Thereafter, the Delhi Police approached the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Anuj Kumar Singh of Patiala House Court with the request to withdraw the case.
Similarly, Patel, who had led an agitation against the Gujarat government demanding the inclusion of Patidar community into the OBC list, had been booked under sedition charges in 2015.
On Sunday, The Indian Express reported that the Ahmedabad City Civil and Sessions Court allowed the Gujarat government to withdraw the sedition case filed against Patel and four associates who led the 2015 Patidar quota agitation.
Patel and the other accused were charged under sections 124A (sedition), 121 (waging or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India), 121A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable by section 121), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), and 153B (imputation, assertions prejudicial to national integration) of the Indian Penal Code.
However, the BJP government in the state had communicated its decision to withdraw the case against Patel and others through a letter addressed by the District Magistrate dated February 18, 2025, to the Special Public Prosecutor.
“[I]t appears that the offence is pertaining to deliberately and knowingly by words, spoken and written, attempted to undermine public order and lawful authority of the State. It is also pertinent to note in the peculiar facts of the present case that no accusation of damages under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, therefore, no damages had been caused to public property,” said the court in its order, giving permission to withdraw the prosecution against Patel and the other accused.
Formerly a staunch detractor of the BJP, Patel had started his political journey from the Congress but then left the party before the 2022 Gujarat elections. He joined the BJP and subsequently became a legislator.
Pointing to the continued incarceration of Umar Khalid, renowned journalist Rajdeep Sardesai described the withdrawal of the cases against Rashid and Patel “Washing Machine”.
“Delhi police withdraws 2019 sedition case against Shehla Rashid; Ahmedabad court allows Gujarat govt to withdraw sedition case against Hardik Patel. Those who have refused to bend like an Umar Khalid still in jail without even bail for 5 years now. Law taking its own course or politics playing the role of a ‘WASHING MACHINE’? Message is pretty clear: switch sides and all is well!!,” he said.
