Skip to content
Hindi News, हिंदी समाचार, Samachar, Breaking News, Latest Khabar – Pratirodh

Hindi News, हिंदी समाचार, Samachar, Breaking News, Latest Khabar – Pratirodh

Primary Menu Hindi News, हिंदी समाचार, Samachar, Breaking News, Latest Khabar – Pratirodh

Hindi News, हिंदी समाचार, Samachar, Breaking News, Latest Khabar – Pratirodh

  • Home
  • Newswires
  • Politics & Society
  • The New Feudals
  • World View
  • Arts And Aesthetics
  • For The Record
  • About Us
  • Featured

Activist threatened for backing beef-fest

Apr 24, 2012 | Pratirodh Bureau

The Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI), strongly condemns the violent and sexist abuse unleashed on poet, writer, activist and translator Meena Kandasamy, presumably in response to her posts on Twitter about the beef-eating festival at Osmania University, Hyderabad, on 15 April 2012 and the ensuing clashes between groups of students.

 

After her comments on Twitter, she was threatened with various forms of violence, including gang rape and acid attacks. 
 

Some placed a price on her head. Others threatened her freedom of speech, saying that she would not be allowed to speak anywhere, and called for her prosecution for allegedly outraging religious feelings under Section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code.

In over a hundred tweets, she was called a whore, characterless, a terrorist and a bitch. One of the most objectionable comments was that she should be raped on live television, this barbaric idea was put out by one Siddharth Shankar who followed it up with more vicious filth.

 

Meena Kandasamy has become the target of a vicious abuse campaign on twitter and other sites for her support to the festival during which she and other students had to be escorted to a safe place under police escort.

Protestors even stoned the van they were traveling in. It is highly condemnable that her support of a food festival should lead to demands for her prosecution and a bounty on her head.

 

As a professional network of women journalists, the NWMI is firmly committed to freedom of expression and, indeed, supports ongoing efforts to ensure that the Internet remains a free space and is not subjected to censorship. However, freedom comes with responsibility and all those who value free speech must, at the very least, censure hate speech.

 

Everyone in a democracy has a right to hold and express their opinions on current events and issues. Similarly, everyone has a right to disagree with and argue against the opinions of others. Debate – not abuse and threats – is the democratic means to deal with conflicting views on contentious topics: in this case, the right to choose what to eat and not eat.

It appears that Meena Kandasamy has been singled out for abuse at least partly because she is a bold and outspoken woman who expresses her opinions freely in the public sphere.

The fact that she is a dalit, especially one whose work focuses on caste annihilation, linguistic identity and feminism, clearly makes her even more of a target.

 

We call upon all those who value freedom of expression to join us in condemning the online attack on Meena Kandasamy and to explore ways to ensure that everyone has a right to express their opinion – on the Internet as well as elsewhere – without being subjected to hateful abuse.

Continue Reading

Previous The other side of Operation Haka
Next CAG slams SRA for major lapses

More Stories

  • Featured

Kerala College Students Break Taboo Around Sex Education

51 mins ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

Earth Likely To Cross 1.5-Degree Warming In Next Decade: AI Study

7 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

Covid-19 Remains ‘Global Health Emergency’, Says WHO

7 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau

Recent Posts

  • Kerala College Students Break Taboo Around Sex Education
  • Earth Likely To Cross 1.5-Degree Warming In Next Decade: AI Study
  • Covid-19 Remains ‘Global Health Emergency’, Says WHO
  • Working With Natural Materials To Add To The Sustainable Energy Mix
  • Gandhi’s Image Is Under Scrutiny 75 Years After His Assassination
  • Of India’s Online Schooling Emergency And The Lessons Unlearned
  • Opinion: India Raises The Heat On The Indus Waters Treaty
  • Hundreds Join Wangchuk On Final Day Of His Hunger Strike
  • ‘Fraud Cannot Be Obfuscated By Nationalism’
  • Doomsday Clock Is At 90 Secs To Midnight
  • Human Activity Degraded Over 3rd Of Amazon Forest: Study
  • Kashmir’s Nourishing Karewas Crumble Under Infrastructure Burden
  • Sprawling Kolkata Faced With A Tall Order For A Sustainable Future
  • Indian Economy Yet To Revive From Effects Of Pandemic: CPI (M)
  • New Pipelines Will Fragment Assam’s Protected Forests: Environmentalists
  • The Role Of Urban Foraging In Building Climate-Resilient Food Systems
  • Now, A ‘Private’ Sainik School Linked To RSS?
  • About 3,000 Tech Employees Being Fired A Day On Average In Jan
  • War Veteran Doctor, ‘Rasna’ Creator Are Among Padma Awardees
  • Black Days Ahead If Coal City Doesn’t Change

Search

Main Links

  • Home
  • Newswires
  • Politics & Society
  • The New Feudals
  • World View
  • Arts And Aesthetics
  • For The Record
  • About Us

Related Stroy

  • Featured

Kerala College Students Break Taboo Around Sex Education

51 mins ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

Earth Likely To Cross 1.5-Degree Warming In Next Decade: AI Study

7 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

Covid-19 Remains ‘Global Health Emergency’, Says WHO

7 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

Working With Natural Materials To Add To The Sustainable Energy Mix

21 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau
  • Featured

Gandhi’s Image Is Under Scrutiny 75 Years After His Assassination

23 hours ago Pratirodh Bureau

Recent Posts

  • Kerala College Students Break Taboo Around Sex Education
  • Earth Likely To Cross 1.5-Degree Warming In Next Decade: AI Study
  • Covid-19 Remains ‘Global Health Emergency’, Says WHO
  • Working With Natural Materials To Add To The Sustainable Energy Mix
  • Gandhi’s Image Is Under Scrutiny 75 Years After His Assassination
Copyright © All rights reserved. | CoverNews by AF themes.