Is slapping an effigy an offence? Well, the Andhra Pradesh police seems to think so as they have arrested an editor and two reporters of a leading Telugu daily — Andhra Jyothi — for the act. The police action smacks of vengeance as Andhra Jyothi is known to be critical of Chief Minister Y S R Reddy’s policies.

The arrests have attracted condemnation from many senior journalists and news editors. Andhra Jyothi’s managing editor V RadhaKrishna released a statement on Wednesday that the police would not have acted on such a trivial issue without the Government’s backing.

The question everyone is asking is whether slapping or throwing chappals at an effigy is an offence or not. And, if the effigy is of a Dalit leader or a Dalit organisation, does it attract the provisions of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as in this case?

Andhra Jyothi Editor K Srinivas and its two reporters T Srinivas and Vamsi Krishna were arrested for allegedly slapping and throwing slippers at an effigy of the president of Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) on May 26. They were part of a rally taken out by the newspaper employees in protest against the attack on their office by MRPS activists. The MRPS, an organisation for the backward classes and Dalits, is fighting for the classification of the SC and ST. The offences under the Act are non-bailable. The journalists were sent to jail on Wednesday after a magistrate remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days. 

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