CPI hails Kerala HC ruling on holding of Maoist views

CPI today welcomed the Kerala High Court ruling that being a Maoist is not a crime and police cannot detain a person for merely saying he or she is one unless their activities are found to be unlawful.
The Left party said that just because a person subscribes to a particular view, he or she cannot be accused of "sedition" or of holding "anti-national" positions.
CPI also took a dig at right-wing outfits, saying that if just the holding of a certain view was a crime, then RSS cannot be a legal entity as its idea of "Hindu Rashtra" is an "affront" to the idea of the Indian Constitution.

"Simply because you hold a view, you cannot be accused of sedition or some anti-national position. But how you practice that view, whether it is in accordance with the rights given under the Constitution, that matters. That is what the high court also said," said CPI Rajya Sabha MP D Raja.
Speaking on the sidelines of the party's two-day National Executive meeting, which concluded here yesterday, Raja, however, clarified that CPI does not agree with the "ways and means" pursued by the Maoists.
"We have disagreement with them (Maoist rebels) as far as their practice is concerned," he added.

Noting that it is the Constitution which sets the boundary through legitimate procedure of ordinary law on arrest, the high court court yesterday said, "Police cannot detain a person merely because he is a Maoist, unless police form a reasonable opinion that his activities are unlawful."

The ruling came in connection with a matter related to the arrest of one Syam Balakrishnan by Kerala Police's Special Squad upon suspicions that he was a Maoist.
The National Executive meeting of CPI was the first after its 22nd Congress held in March this year. The party's Odisha state secretary Dibakar Nayak presided over the meeting, which was also attended by CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy and his predecessor, AB Bardhan.