Journalism student Shameer, family threatened for exposing BJP mess
KOCHI: Modi fans will now have to pay for rubbishing and threatening a youth, who exposed on FB the mess left behind by BJP workers following the Prime Minister’s speech on Kozhikode beach on September 24. Journalism student Shameer Kazim, 21, on Monday filed a case at the Pookkottumpadam police station in Nilambur under IPC 153-A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 499 (defamation) against people who abused him and kin on FB for the video that showed the litter on the beach and the cleanup by BJP workers following his post.
It all began when Shameer was doing a feature of Kuthiravattom as part of a short film he was making and decided to attend the BJP meet. “I heard the prime minister say Swachh Bharat at least 10 times in his speech. And after all that, when they left behind this mess, my mind was full of protest,” said Shameer. The video had sprung in a moment of spontaneity as a reaction, a protest. Shameer did not imagine it to become so viral. He didn’t realise that his Facebook wall would be plastered with expletives and threats, not sparing his mom, dad or sister.
As a media student, he believes he has done the right thing – by first posting a video of the mess left behind on the Kozhikode beach following the three-day BJP meet, and then giving a report about the subsequent cleanup by BJP workers. “It is below that post on the cleanup that I got a lot of abusive (theri) comments. I didn’t react. They (RSS-BJP members) then started attacking me on messenger. It was one Baiju VK, who posted my photo on his wall and made a public threat. They said I have the looks of a Pakistani and made it a communal issue,” said Shameer, who has taken a screenshot of the threatening post, and the offensive messages sent by Baiju. “They took out a protest march against me in my hometown Nilambur, and 28 people turned up. But there are 500 people who would turn up for me”, said Shameer.
