Clarion India
NEW DELHI – Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday slammed the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh over the FIR against The Wire’s editor Siddharth Varadarajan for his critical comments on Twitter against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, saying it is a “deplorable” act intended to suppress media freedom.
The former home minister demanded that the FIR be immediately withdrawn.
Chidambaram, in a series of tweets, said, “UP government has filed an FIR against @thewire_in for carrying a story containing facts and only facts. No ‘fact’ is wrong or even alleged to be wrong. Where is the crime?”
“The FIR is a deplorable act intended to suppress freedom of the media. The FIR must be withdrawn immediately,” he said.
UP government has filed an FIR against @thewire_in for carrying a story containing facts and only facts.
No ‘fact’ is wrong or even alleged to be wrong. Where is the crime?
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) April 2, 2020
Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday booked The Wire editor Siddharth Varadarajan over comments on Twitter saying that the day Tablighi Jamaat held its event in Delhi, Chief Minister Adityanath had insisted that a Ram Navami fair would take place as usual.
The FIR against Varadarajan also mentioned his remark, questioning Adityanath’s participation in a religious ceremony at the Ramjanmabhoomi site in Ayodhya during the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The FIR referred to a tweet by Varadarajan which said, “On the day the Tablighi Jamaat event was held, Adityanath insisted a large Ram Navami fair planned for Ayodhya from March 25 to April 2 would proceed as usual and that ‘Lord Ram would protect devotees from the coronavirus’.
Later, the journalist tweeted, “I should clarify that it was Acharya Paramhans, Hindutva stalwart and head of the official Ayodhya temple trust, who said Ram would protect devotees from coronavirus, and not Adityanath, though he allowed a public event on 25/3 in defiance of the lockdown and took part himself.”
In his statement, Varadarajan called the FIR “politically motivated”.
Here is the full text of The Wire’s statement on The FIR:
We have come to know through social media that an FIR has been registered under Section 188 and 505(2) of the IPC against The Wire by the UP Police in Faizabad.
A bare perusal of the FIR shows that the offences invoked are not even remotely made out and that it is aimed at stifling legitimate expression and factual information. The UP police seems to think its job is to go after those who criticise the CM. The registration of an FIR is a blatant attack on the freedom of the press.
The government of Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh does not seem to have learnt anything despite the strictures passed against it by the Supreme Court in June 2019 when the court ordered the release of a journalist whom the state had illegally arrested for a tweet. The right to liberty is a fundamental right and non-negotiable, the court had said.
What the FIR says we have stated – that Chief Minister Adityanath attended a public religious event in Ayodhya on March 25 after the Prime Minister had announced a national lockdown to deal with the coronavirus challenge – is a matter of record.
(With inputs from PTI)
