Comment by Throwaway0988 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Throwaway0988 | Hacker News Reader

As an Indian, the situation is a bit more complicated than what the article frames it as. Religion (and caste) have always been a sensitive issue, to the extent that there are multiple laws preventing people from "inciting" others (and yes, these laws are often abused by whichever government happens to be holding power, including the ones before the current government) - this is especially true for public figures like this guy here. Given that, calling this "unconstitutional" would be a bit of a stretch (abuse of power? maybe).

Further, the term "arrest" would be factually incorrect. India has a concept of detention — police can legally detain any individual on suspicion (even without a warrant/crime) upto a period of 24 hours — post which the detainee is presented to a magistrate where the detention can be legally challenged.

> a court in Kokrajhar denied him bail, ordering him to be held in custody for three days

Instead of an actual arrest this seems to be an extended detention (approved a court).

> arrest coincided with the arrival of the British prime minister

> He was taken across the country to Assam in India’s north-east

Considering these statements, instead of being arrested for his tweet, the context makes it seem more like the police felt he could be a threat given the arrival of Johnson, and they decided to preemptively detain him in a far corner of the country.

Regardless of whether I'm correct or not, it won't be the first time this has happened.

((Please ignore the typos/formatting, I typed this on a phone))

Edit: Just saw the article also mentions

> In the capital, Delhi, bulldozers have demolished the homes of Muslims accused of rioting

While this is true, it also needs to be mentioned that Delhi is not under BJP government (the ruling party).

Let me try to politely address each of your point one by one:

Its unconstitutional and abuse of power whether current government did it or previous government did it.

We can name it anything; "arrest", "detention" or a "trip to Disney". But it does not change the meaning when police takes you away.

Do you think India's law & order system is so weak that they have to arrest a lawmaker and take him to a far corner of country because of a tweet? And they made the whole country safe by arresting a lawmaker?

Its really surprising that either you don't you know that Municipal Corporation of Capital of India (Delhi) is not run by BJP government (the ruling party) or you conveniently shared false information with HN. [1]

Not only that, its the ruling party of India who is delaying the planned 2022 Delhi Municipal Corporation election because they fear their defeat.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_Corporation_of_Delhi [2] https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/mcd-polls-del...

> Its unconstitutional and abuse of power whether current government did it or previous government did it.

Agreed, I wasn't trying to make it sound okay (it isn't) — rather was just trying to point out that this has been going for a while. What others might see as "ruling party trying to establish monarchy" is simply revenge in their eyes. This will continue to happen with the next change of government as well.

> We can name it anything ... when police takes you away.

Again, I was pointing out that this might as well be a simple case of police detaining someone they feel could a threat to peace with Johnson's visit — won't be the first time either. I'm not trying to defend the government, just trying to offer another perspective to the people holding pitchforks.

> Do you think India's law & order system is so weak that they have to arrest a lawmaker and take him to a far corner of country because of a tweet?

Religion is a sensitive issue in India — really, when public figures try to incite people through social media (not talking about this incident in particular), speeches or any other medium, the only options left are to sit and watch what may turn into a riot (leading to loss of lives and destruction of property), or simply arrest the person preemptively. Is there any alternative?

And yes, people with power (which includes Modi, Owasi, and all politicians in general) often do get away with these remarks, kind-of proving how law and order is "weak".

> And they made the whole country safe by arresting a lawmaker?

Which is the point I was trying to make — this seems to be a detention, a temporary action taken as a precaution (and yes, with zero proof). The guy will most likely be sitting in jail while Johnson is in India, and be free once his detention ends.

> Its really surprising ... conveniently shared false information with HN.

Ouch, that assumption of malice. The way you worded it seems like contempt... Do we really need to be at each others throat, can't we just be two people simply discussing a topic (that just happens to be politics)?

To answer your question, I was actually unaware of the (weird?) structure for government bodies in Delhi[0]. Given how you framed your question, I guess I'm more of a buffoon than the evil-guy-trying-to-sow-misinformation...

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31137298

> While this is true, it also needs to be mentioned that Delhi is not under BJP government (the ruling party).

This is false. Delhi's law and order is directly under Amit Shah, the country's home minister(BJP).

Ah, just checked — I stand corrected. You are right, NCT is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Home Affairs[0] (and thus under BJP).

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi_Police

Yup, I'm pretty sure you just checked

Everything in this comment is trying hard to whitewash the current bjp gov, using half truths to mis represent.

When the opposition starts to argue semantics, they don’t have a leg to stand on and have lost the argument anyways.

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