NGO fighting hate speech condemns government notice to IAS officer
Campaign Against Hate Speech, an organisation fighting hate speech, has condemned the state government's decision to issue show-cause notice to IAS Officer Mohammed Mohsin for a tweet from his personal account.
In a statement, the NGO said, "We stand in complete solidarity with IAS Officer Mohammed Mohsin and are deeply appalled by the Karnataka Government’s selective targeting of the senior bureaucrat for expressing discontent about media’s biased treatment of the minority Muslim community. The notice issued by the government cites “adverse coverage” of the tweet in the media as reason for the show-cause notice and asks why this should not be considered as violation of service rules. We fail to see how the tweet questioned government’s policy or action, or embarrasses the state or central government or harms relations between the centre and a foreign country— as mentioned by rule no.7 of All India Services Rules (D&A) Rules, 1969."
"We fail to understand how adverse media coverage is construed as violation of service rules. The state’s drastic and immediate response is in stark contrast to complete inaction against communally provocative, incendiary rhetoric of elected representatives of the ruling party such as Ananth Kumar Hegde, Shobha Karandlaje, CT Ravi, Basangouda Patil Yatnal and even the Chief Minister’s political secretary MP Renukacharya. Their hateful statements are matched by the constant anti-Muslim, anti-migrant rhetoric of few Kannada news outlets which have played an important role in creating hostile and threatening environment for minorities in the state. Campaign Against Hate Speech has filed over 30 complaints with various authorities of the state, including the Chief Minister, the DGP, district and state media monitoring committees. Yet, criminal inaction from the government has allowed for the hate-mongerers mentioned above to continue to tear through the social fabric of our society," it said.
"We demand that Karnataka government withdraw the show cause notice issued to IAS Officer Mohammed Mohsin and refrain from violating his freedom of speech protected under Article 19(1)(a) of Indian Constitution. We further seek that action be initated against those sections of the media that has been promoting and inciting hatred on grounds of religion," the Campaign Against Hate Speech urged.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
