Maha Cong says 326 sedition cases filed in first term of PM Modi; slams BJP

The Maharashtra Congress on Friday said 326 sedition cases have been filed between 2014 and 2019 during the first term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Congress on Friday said 326 sedition cases have been filed between 2014 and 2019 during the first term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Tweeting the figure, Maharashtra Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the number of sedition cases filed after 2019, during the second term of the NDA government at the Centre, have not been made public as yet.

The BJP leaders have termed the MVA government in the state as brutal for booking Lok Sabha MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana in a sedition case, he said. "I want to remind the state BJP leaders who are celebrating the court observation (that there is not sufficient ground to invoke sedition against the Rana couple) that under Modi rule from 2014 to 2019, a total of 326 cases of sedition were filed. There is no data after 2019," Sawant said.

"A total of 149 cases of sedition have been filed for speaking against Narendra Modi and 144 for speaking against (UP CM) Yogi Adityanath. Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan has been booked under UAPA and is in jail for one-and-half years after going to UP to write about the Hathras rape case," Sawant said.

The Modi government even denied a straw and sipper to (octogenarian activist and Elgar Parishad Maoist links case accused ) Stan Swamy (who eventually died while his medical bail plea was being heard).
The Modi government has unleashed terror across the country but the BJP calls the MVA government in Maharashtra brutal and oppressive, Sawant said.

There is so much hue and cry for some people being in jail for a few days, but what about the accused in the Koregaon Bhima case, who are languishing behind bars for years now, he further asked.

PTI