Human rights activist Harsh Mander has stoked a controversy by saying Supreme Court didn't defend secularism and we have to take decisions on the streets.
A video has gone viral on social in which Harsh Mander can be heard telling people that the time has come to decide our fate on the streets. In the video, Mander can be seen addressing a gathering and saying that there is no scope of secularism in Supreme Court especially after the Ayodhya verdict. Further the activist said that time has now come for people to hit the streets as both Supreme Court and parliament have failed them.
“Now decision will not come from the Supreme Court or Parliament. We saw what the Supreme Court did in Ayodhya, NRC and Kashmir matters. The SC has failed to honour secularism, equality and humanity. We will try fighting there too, but, the decision will not happen in neither Supreme Court nor Parliament, it has to be made at the streets,” Harsh Mander can be heard saying in the video.
BJP's IT cell chief Amit Malviya took to Twitter and hit out at Mander. Malviya tweeted saying, "This man Harsh Mander, who wrote the draconian CVB, is in HC to get FIRs against people for hate speech... And a judge gave him midnight hearing!"
On Monday, human rights activists had denounced the central government. Human rights activists had alleged that the government had failed to provide any medical or legal help to violence-affected people in northeast Delhi. The activists, including Harsh Mander, Anjali Bhardwaj, Annie Raja and Harjit Singh Bhatti, also criticised India's poor healthcare system, saying "there's no hospital near the affected areas".
A petition was filed by Harsh Mander on February 27 seeking FIRs for hate speech in the wake of violent clashes in Delhi. But the Delhi High Court had deferred the matter by four weeks.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response of activist Harsh Mander on the allegations of making hate speech during anti-CAA protests. The apex court also questioned Centre on registration of FIRs against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and others, if the atmosphere was conducive to lodge FIRs.
(Inputs from Agencies)
