A Malayalam writer Kamal C Chavara alias Kamalsy Prana was arrested and charged with sedition for allegedly insulting the national anthem in a post on Facebook.
A case was registered against him in Kollam a few days before his arrest after a complaint was filed by the Yuva Mocha activists.
As per the complaint, Chavara had allegedly insulted the national anthem in a few excerpts from his novel “Smasanangulude Nottupusthakam” that he had posted on Facebook.
The New Indian Express quoted Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as saying:
The protests are initiated on communal motives. There is communal intolerance in the way the Sangh Parivar activists are labelling him [Chavara] as a Muslim anti-national.
This incident comes after 12 people taken into custody in Kerala for not standing up for the national anthem that was played during the film screenings in the International Film Festival of Kerala.
An SC ruling has made it mandatory for moviegoers to stand up during the national anthem that will be played before every film screening.
(Source: The New Indian Express)
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