Cut Assam from India? Block Army's way to Assam?

Sharjeel Imam had been involved in organizing the protests at ShaheenBagh but came into limelight after a video clip went viral wherein he could be heard making some controversial comments while addressing a gathering at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), following which he was booked under sedition charges.

• Sharjeel Imam was a volunteer at Shaheen Bagh, the locality in South Delhi where women have been staging a protest against the amended Citizenship Act and proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens for over 40 days now.
• His association with the protest was shortlived.On January 2, he announced that the protest had been withdrawn in anticipation of violence, but the women protestors in Shaheen Bagh denied this. The protest continued.
• Sharjeel Imam had suggested Assam be cut off from mainland India.
• Sharjeel Imam was wanted by the police of several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Delhi.
• A case against Imam under IPC sections 124 A (an offence by words, either spoken or written causes disaffection against Government established by law), 153 A (promoting enmity between different religious groups with an intent to create disharmony) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) has been registered.
• His arrest took place hours after the Bihar police picked up his brother for questioning.

“The time has come when we should tell non-Muslims that if they sympathise with us, then they must stand with us on our terms. If they can’t agree to our terms, they can’t sympathise with us.

“I have said it in the past that if we can organise five lakh people, we will be able to permanently cut off Assam from India. If not permanently, then at least for a month or two.

“We should create debris on the railway tracks and roads so that it takes them (the government) at least a month to clear things on the ground. It is our responsibility to isolate Assam. They (government) will hear us only if we cut off Assam and India.

“The plight of Muslims in Assam is known to all of us. CAA and NRC have been implemented there. People are already being sent to detention centres. There is a bloodbath going on there. In six-eight months, you may find out that all Bengalis – whether Hindus or Muslims – have been killed.

“So, if we want to help Assam, then we will have to block the way for the army to reach Assam…and also stop the supplies.

“We can do this. The chicken-neck corridor that connects the North East with rest of India is inhabited primarily by Muslims.

“Remember, if the masses are angry, then that anger must be used for productive purpose. This is our responsibility. We should use this anger productively and not waste it on photo sessions.

Sedition is an offence that criminalizes speech that is regarded to be disloyal to or threatening to the state and is punishable under section 124-A of Indian Penal Code, 1860.

This section requires two essentials:-

1. Bringing or attempting to bring into hatred or contempt or exciting or attempting to excite disaffection towards, the Government of India.

2. Such act or attempt may be done

(i) by words, either spoken or written, or
(ii) by signs,
(iii) by visible representation.

• The Indian police registered 112 cases of sedition across the country between 2014 and 2016, but only two have led to convictions, according to a report released by the National Crime Records Bureau
• The Supreme Court has decreed not once but several times that mere speech (or writings or statements) – however much we disagree with them or find them obnoxious or foolish – cannot be cause to file a charge of sedition unless that speech actually led to violence.