From the ToI, a couple of days ago :
Those who speak in favour of Maoist guerrillas will face legal action and 10 years imprisonment, the government announced Thursday in a warning to civil society groups who raise voices in favour of Leftwing extremism.
Much as the idea of Mamta Banerjee, Arundati Roy & Digvijay Singh locked up in adjoining cells is interesting, it seems to be an overkill to prosecute people for speech and create more martyrs ….
The Government would be better off, trying to combat propaganda with propaganda, rather than prosecution. Creating more Binayak Sen’s is maybe, not the right way to go….especially when you seem to be doing the right things to bring the Maoists to heel….
Cut off the Maoist funds, seal the borders, send people who provide material support to prison – even if they are supporting your party from the outside ….. but prosecuting members of civil society for speech – even if it is speech you don’t agree with — is futile – it will lead to more speech in favour of what you are trying to suppress .
This is the full quote from the GoI,
It has come to the notice of the Government that some Maoist leaders have been directly contacting certain NGOs/intellectuals to propagate their ideology and persuade them to take steps as would provide support to the CPI (Maoist) ideology. It is brought to the notice of the general public that under Section 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, any person who commits the offence of supporting such a terrorist organization with inter alia intention to further the activities of such terrorist organizations would be liable to be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or with fine or with both. General public are informed to be extremely vigilant of the propaganda of CPI (Maoist) and not unwittingly become a victim of such propaganda.
This is being issued in public interest so that the general public are aware that the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and all its formations and front organizations are terrorist organizations whose sole aim is armed overthrow of the Indian State and that they have no place in India’s parliamentary democracy. CPI (Maoist) continues to kill innocent civilians including tribals in cold blood and destroy crucial infrastructure like roads, culverts, school buildings, gram panchayat buildings, etc. so as to prevent development from reaching these under-developed areas.
Propaganda needs to be combated with propaganda, religion with religion, law with the law — using the Power of the State to combat propaganda is a bit like using a earth mover to crack open a walnut — kind of an exercise in futility !