Pakistan comment: Advocate files sedition case against actress Ramya

Kodagu Pragatiranga district president and advocate Vittala Gowda has filed a private case against Ramya, apparently appalled that she dared to praise the ordinary Pakistani.

Reacting after her SAARC visit to Pakistan, Ramya had commented that Pakistan also has good people and they also wanted to live in peace. Her comment came after Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar had stated that going to Pakistan was like entering hell.

As Ramya's remarks triggered a bitter backlash on social media and BJP and ABVP workers staged protests terming her remarks "anti-national", the actress stood her ground in Bengaluru.

The complaint has sought a direction to police to book Ramya, an ex-Congress MP, under IPC sections 124(a) (sedition), 344 (wrongful confinement for ten or more days) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment).

Advocate K Vittala Gowda filed the complaint before Somwarpet Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court, which on Monday admitted it and posted it for hearing on August 27.

In the complaint, Gowda accused the multi-lingual actress of "insulting" India and "provoking" people by appreciating Pakistan which is a "traditional enemy of India."

After a recent visit to Islamabad as part of a SAARC delegation of young lawmakers, Ramya had reportedly said at a meeting in Mandya, which she represented from 2013 to 2014 in Lok Sabha, "Pakistan is not hell. People there are just like us. They treated us very well."

Her remarks had come as an ostensible counter to comments of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who while lashing out at Islamabad for promoting terror, had said last week, "going toPakistan is same as going to hell."

Reacting to the controversy, Ramya said "...this is the state of affairs in this country today. Sedition is being slapped against anyone and anybody who is entitled to an opinion which should not be the case."

She accused BJP of trying to curb freedom of expression. "I think that as an individual I should be allowed to air or express my thoughts, views and opinions. I think BJP government is trying to curb that."

She said other parties could also misuse sedition law and file cases against BJP leaders because of the "bizarre" statements some of them were making which were "seditious" but they do not do it and instead engage them in discussions.

Ramya also said the BJP "right now" would not do anything to repeal the sedition law as it using it to its advantage.

• Pakistan comment
• Actress Ramya
• Divya Spandana
• sedition case
• Madikeri
• Vittala Gowda