Dissent

More arrests reported as Belarus intensifies crackdown on dissent

A rights group on Thursday reported dozens more home raids and arrests across Belarus in the latest intensification of a years-long crackdown on dissent in the country of 9.5 million people. The Viasna human rights centre said it knew of at least 159 people targeted by searches and detentions in multiple Belarusian cities, including the capital, Minsk. Those targeted by authorities included relatives of jailed dissidents, journalists and others, it said. Leaders of Belarusian opposition have called the new wave of arrests, which is the biggest in recent months, "a blow to the solidarity within the country". According to Viasna, there are 1,419 political prisoners now held in Belarus. Many of those detained Thursday and earlier in the week had been helping families of those jailed for political reasons. Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko unleashed an unrelenting crackdown on dissent in August 2020, after an election the opposition and the West denounced as a sham gave him

With 12 of 475 cases filed nationally in 2014-21, WB tolerates dissent more

The latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), giving figures up to 2021, says that only 12 sedition cases have been filed in West Bengal between 2014 and 2021

Dissent vs Sedition: Courts have laid down the law, put up guard rails

When an amendment to Section 124A made its way to the IPC in 1898, it stood to define sedition as an offence that incites or seeks to incite emotions of dissatisfaction with the government

The value of dissent

Harnessing dissent can help us develop faster and better

Media dissent at home and abroad

There could be further leaks on Pegasus in the American media, following the one in the New York Times in January

SC rejects plea seeking clarification of verdict on Shaheen Bagh protest

The Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea seeking clarifications in its 2020 verdict by which it had held that public spaces cannot be occupied indefinitely

SC notice to Centre on plea challenging provisions of anti-terror law UAPA

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre on a plea challenging certain provisions of the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Why Infosys is latest RSS target

Panchajanya attack makes Infosys first big corporate to fall victim to RSS and its affiliates hit-and-run tactics

Sedition law and the art of dissent

From the late 19th century onwards, nationalists were regularly falling foul of the Sedition law

Best of BS Opinion: Illegal surveillance, co-operation ministry & more

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Saturday

In tune with freedom

Book review of The Spirit of Enquiry: Notes of Dissent

Illegal surveillance

Govt must reveal who is targeting Indian citizens

Citizen, nation, sedition

Sedition law isn't just a colonial hangover. It's a convenient weapon for under-performing governments to conflate themselves with the nation and use against critics

Best of BS Opinion: Repeal UAPA, bankruptcy process needs a re-look & more

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Friday

Repeal UAPA

The statute has no place in a democracy

A legal journey towards civil right

Book review of The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero

Reading down UAPA may have pan-India ramifications: Supreme Court

Refuses to stay HC order granting bail to three students in Delhi riots case

Protesters are not terrorists

Delhi High Court raises the bar on UAPA application

After Mehta, Subramanian quits Ashoka University; faculty concerned

Over 100 faculty signatories request the vice chancellor to ask Mehta to rescind his resignation

Voicing dissent against government not sedition, says Supreme Court

Dismisses PIL against Farooq Abdullah over his comments on Article 370