The environmentalist has had a tough year to say the least. He did not deserve to be preventively held under the NSA. He does not deserve to be ignored now.
NB: Preventive detention was a colonial measure introduced as long ago as 1818. It was then named Bengal Regulation III of 1818. It was retained under various names, such as the Defence of India Rules in the first world war, and later, and as MISA in independent India. Those who bang on about the Macaulay Minute on education (1835) and call for ‘decolonisation’ may kindly tell us why they do not call for the revocation of preventive detention, the oldest draconian law of colonial origin still on the books. Now its called UAPA. A shame and an abomination. DS
Sonam Wangchuk has had a very rough year, to put it mildly, and is continuing to have a rough time with no end in sight. His struggle is for the people of Ladakh and the youth of India. I believe, he has been mistreated by the establishment. Does he deserve it? I don’t think so. He needs affirmation and support for the causes of his struggle.
In September last year, he was preventively detained under the National Security Act, a draconian law, apparently for no rhyme or reason. The Ladakh administration perversely thought he was a threat to public order or national security and so it slapped a preventive detention order to silence him. Had he committed an act causing a public order situation or a national security risk, he should have been arrested, charge-sheeted, tried and punished for the offence. The fact that penal action was not taken against him, and only preventive action taken, is a clear indication that he was only a potential threat and had not committed any offence. Preventive detention laws are, as the title suggests, preventive in nature, not penal or punitive.
Sonam demanded statehood for Ladakh and protested when he believed it was not being seriously considered. Is a peaceful protest for statehood a crime? If so, shouldn’t all those in Andhra Pradesh protesting (sometimes violently) for a separate state of Telangana have been preventively detained? Instead they were rewarded with statehood. One man’s meat is another man’s poison.
The validity of the preventive detention order incarcerating Sonam was challenged in the Supreme Court. From reports in newspapers and reports of the proceedings in the Supreme Court, it appears that the strict and rigorous procedure for preventive detention was not adhered to by the establishment, as required by Article 22 of the Constitution. A challenge to a preventive detention order is usually given topmost priority by a constitutional court, but it seems the times, they are a changing. The challenge was not given the priority it deserved and the case lingered on for hearing, one day to the next and to the next and so on. Was this the right thing to do? The order deserved to be struck down by the Supreme Court on the ground of constitutional unfairness….
https://m.thewire.in/article/rights/sonam-wangchuk-does-not-deserve-the-establishments-silence/amp
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This IIT Kanpur professor died after a 111-day fast to save the Ganga
While India is discussing Sonam Wangchuk’s indefinite hunger strike, during which he is demanding the resignation of India’s Education Minister, it is worth remembering IIT Kanpur professor and an environmentalist, GD Agarwal. He dedicated his life to the cause of the Ganga and died after fasting for 111 days.The IIT Kanpur professor remained on a hunger strike for over three months before leaving this world…
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Domination and Chaos: India’s radical conservatism
The Oceanic Circle: Talk on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 155th birthday
Closing the Circle (E-Book)
The further you look, the more you realize you don’t have a clue
Satyagraha: An answer to modern nihilism
After the truth-shower 