ALL INDIA
MUSLIM FORUM
AIMF COMDEMNS THE VERDICT OF TAMIL NADU ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE JOURNALISTS OF
THE HINDU
Lucknow: November, 10, 2003:
All India Muslim Forum has strongly condemned the verdict of Tamil Nadu Assembly, sentencing five journalists of The Hindu to fifteen days' simple imprisonment for the breach of privilege. Terming this action of Tamil Nadu Assembly as totally arbitrary, illogical, highhanded, unconstitutional and in total contravention of the country's democratic spirit, the President of Muslim Forum Dr. M. K. Sherwani and its state President Mr Salahuddin Khan advocate stressed that at this crucial juncture when the country is confronting an all-pervasive phenomenon of political corruption, freedom of the Press remains the only bulwark of the vast multitude of the moral majority. Both the leaders asserted that privileges of the Parliament and State Legislatures as enunciated under Articles 105 and 194 of the Constitution respectively, are lbased on the legacy inherited from the British Parliament. However, our law-makers, while resorting to these privileges, never seek to inculcate in themselves the maturity and ethical standards of the British Parliamentarians. Both Dr. M. K. Sherwani and Mr Salahuddin Khan have appealed to the country's entire citizenry to raise their voice against this brutal onslaught on the Freedom of Press, as guaranteed under Article 19(I)(a) of the Constitution. The whole country must realize, they emphasized , that if the Parliament or State Legislatures are allowed to put a camouflage on their misdeeds by directing threatening postures against the Press under the garb of privileges, the ambitions of those who are still aspiring to emancipate our body politic from the menace of political corruption and criminalisation of politics will be frustrated, never to be rejuvenated.
(Dr Aftab Ahmed)
President, Distt. Lucknow
For ALL INDIA MUSLIM FORUM
(C - 177, SECTOR 'J' ALIGANJ, LUCKNOW- U. P.) Phone :
(++91-522) 2363062,
2362071, 2328677; Email: sherwanimk@yahoo.com
q
|
