Kerala   

Geelani slams Kerala police

Kochi: S.A.R. Geelani, the Delhi University lecturer who was acquitted in the Parliament attack case, has lambasted the Kerala police for subscribing to “undemocratic” activities allegedly perpetrated by the Sangh Parivar, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its front outfits “by denying the citizens of India their right to expression.”

The police also prevented Mr. Geelani from meeting the former Supreme Court judge, V.R. Krishna Iyer, on Sunday evening. “There is police everywhere. The hotel looks like a cantonment. In the name of protection, they are keeping me under detention and it seems they are hand in glove with those who seek to curtail my freedom of expression,” Mr. Geelani told The Hindu over telephone.

Justice Krishna Iyer expressed unhappiness at the police action and told The Hindu on the phone: “I condemn the police preventing Mr. Geelani from moving out of the hotel. I called the Commissioner and inquired about it, but he expressed ignorance of the incident.”

Mr. Geelani was scheduled to speak at a programme organised by the Minority Rights Watch at the Town Hall here on Sunday noon on the way a minority community is targeted on the issue of terrorism. “The police not only cancelled the permission they had granted earlier, but [also] attempted to thwart the media conference I was holding,” he told The Hindu.

Earlier on Friday, the police denied him permission to take out a rally in Alappuzha.

Around the time the media conference was to take place at the hotel where Mr. Geelani was staying, a group of Hindu Aikyavedi, BJP, ABVP and Yuva Morcha activists came marching to the hotel attempting to storm in. Just when they broke a few flowerpots, the police, led by Assistant Commissioner P.M. Varghese, blocked all entry points. While the protesters raised slogans against Mr. Geelani, their leaders chatted with the police.

Forty-five minutes later, the protesters marched on, but the police announced cancellation of the media conference even as Mr. Geelani called this correspondent and said the programme was still on.

The mediapersons had to argue with the police and some leaders still keeping guard, to get entry for an interaction with Mr. Geelani.

At the media conference, Mr. Geelani said: “It is unfortunate that in a country which is supposed to be the largest democracy, democratic rights of the citizens are being scuttled. Why are the police doing this? The Kerala I have been to was different.”

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