I May Be Arrested On Charges Of Sedition: Arundhati Roy/ Cantonment house: Hearing on Khaleda’s appeal today

Arundhati Roy - the Booker Prize-winning author, in a statement protesting that she had done anything wrong when Delhi police sought legal opinion about her speech on Kashmir, said, ''This morning's papers say that I may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent public meetings … Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice.''
Indian newspapers said, Indian police believe there is a case for charging Arundhati Roy with sedition over comments that Kashmir has ''never been an integral part of India''. It is not clear if authorities will act on the advice.
In her statement, Roy said, ''Some have accused me of giving 'hate speeches', of wanting India to break up. On the contrary, what I say comes from love and pride.
''It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their fingernails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians.''
CONVENTION ON AZADI (FREEDOM): THE ONLY WAY
At a convention of political activists on Kashmir that was held under the theme "Azadi (Freedom): the Only Way" in New Delhi 21 October, Arundhuti Roy said: "Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact. Even the Indian government has accepted this."
A group of more than 16 speakers consisting of politicians, activists, writers, artists and academicians from across India who participated in the convention asked the Indian state to "formally admit that Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute" and urged "all democratic people in the world at large to pressurize the Indian state to take immediate steps in this regard."
The program was organized by the New Delhi-based Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners.
The nation's politicians condemned her description amid prominent coverage of the dispute on Indian news sites and television. Roy issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon from Srinagar in Kashmir as news swirled that she might be arrested along with fellow convention participant Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the Kashmiri politician, for sedition.
"I write this from Srinagar, Kashmir," Roy said in her opening paragraph. "This morning's papers say that I may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent public meetings on Kashmir. I said what millions of people here say every day."
She continued: "I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages… for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state."
According to the Wall Street Journal, a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Home Affairs, which controls the law enforcement agencies, said he didn't have "any report" on the news reports that said the ministry is seeking the opinion of the Ministry of Law and Justice whether the sedition charges should be invoked against Ms. Roy and Mr. Geelani. He added that "any such information of the ministry seeking the opinion of the law ministry is confidential."
A spokesman for the Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party told reporters in New Delhi Tuesday that the party found a "perfect case of sedition" against Ms. Roy and Mr. Geelani and demanded "they should be arrested."
A spokesman for the ruling Congress party said on television Tuesday afternoon that Ms. Roy didn't represent any political group, "she speaks for herself," and the views of individuals didn't warrant importance.
Ms. Roy said in her letter Tuesday that despite accusations against her for "giving 'hate-speeches,' of wanting India to break up," what she says "comes from love and pride."
"It comes from wanting to live in a society that is striving to be a just one. Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds," she wrote.

Source: ET

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Dhaka: Hearing on BNP chairman Khaleda Zia’s appeal to overturn the High Court verdict that had upheld the government’s notice asking her to vacate the cantonment residence will begin later today at Chamber Judge Court of Supreme Court.



Earlier on Monday, Chamber Judge of Appellate Division Justice Md Muzammel Hossain fixed Tuesday for hearing the appeal.

BNP chairperson’s chief counsel Advocate TH Khan and Barrister Mahbubuddin Khokon filed the leave to appeal petition on Monday on behalf of the opposition leader.