Chennai kolam protester Gayatri denies Pakistan link, says CoP should have verified her past work

Gayatri said, “The CoP should not have displayed my Facebook profile publicly during the press conference and this was a blatant violation of my right to privacy and has left me vulnerable to online trolling.”

Gayatri pointed out that her association with ‘Bytes for All’ (B4A), a Pakistan based human rights organisation, was completely mistaken by the police. Referring to her works in collaboration with the ‘B4A’ titled ‘Desecrating Expression: An account of freedom of expression and religion in Asia’, she said the report focused on violations of the freedom of expression on account of religious sensitivities in nine Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Hence, the report included recommendations to ensure better protection of rights.

“The key findings of the study refuted the common perception that these restrictions were prevalent in Islamic countries only, but such restrictions were also prevalent in India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar,” she said. “The Centre should have congratulated me since the report was broadly supportive of the CAA, which the Centre claims was enacted aiming at protecting religious minorities.”

Henri Tiphagne, National Working Secretary, Human Rights Defender’s Alert, urged the CoP to refrain from any action impinging upon the personal liberty and fundamental freedom of Gayatri.