It’s been three Diwalis since Vikaram Buddhi has been locked up in jail in the USA, without a trial after a trial lasting 3 days (thank you Rahul). He was accused of posting on-line threats against George & Laura Bush. He maintained that he didn’t do it.
A PHD Student, he was an alumnus of the IIT, with Maths being his area of interest.
So why is he in prison – what did he do ?
The basic case history :
Vikram Buddhi was at first interrogated in January 2006 by US Secret Service for allegedly posting messages on Internet Yahoo space which had called upon the people of Iraq to retaliate the perceived unjust Iraq war and to kill President G W Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others. After thorough interrogation, the US Secret Service set Buddhi completely free in mid-January 2006 and in February 2006 the Secret Service even made a formal report that Buddhi is not a threat to US President or any other person. But for some mysterious reason, the US Secret Service arrested Vikram Buddhi on April 14, 2006 and launched federal prosecution charging that he threatened to kill US President and others.
(vikram Buddhi’s father, Subbarao Buddhi holding up his son’s photograph)
It has been almost three and a half years since Vikram Buddhi was picked up by the US Secret Service for allegedly threatening George W Bush via online threats. He is still in jail. There has been a trial, but no sentencing, just internment
It is sad that that the media that whips up emotions every time a student gets mugged by a bunch of wastrels in Australia, hardly pays attention to a young man whose only fault was that he got carried away by the notion of free speech.
In India, to abuse your leaders is an inalienable right – we deal with all our leaders and the system with humour and thinly veiled contempt. When Parliament was attacked – the SMS that went around was ‘damn, they missed them all”. When 26/11 happened we called for the heads of political leaders to decorate the street outside the Taj. Vikram Buddhi comes from such a culture, where calling for the Head of State’s head is considered to be a vent to let out pressure not a serious threat. If the authorities in India arrested everyone who called for political leaders to be hung from the nearest lamp post – there will be no one on the outside – not even the political leaders :). The so called leader of the free world needs to be slightly more tolerant of free speech and abuse of leadership. Their nation is not a monarchy, and their President is not King Emperor !
Vikram Buddhi does not deserve 3 and a half years in prison for abusing political leadership. He deserves to be free, compensated for his lost years and allowed to build back his life.
In addition to the mass petitions, lets all send individually crafted mails requesting justice for this young man to the Prime Minister of India, the President of the United States, The Ministry of External Affairs India, The Secretary of State USA, and anyone else who is in authority and can make a difference to this case.
Happy Diwali Vikram Buddhi – may the next year see you free
Articles on the Vikram Buddhi case :
Vikram Buddhi, Indian student languishes in US jail, alleges abuse
Does this Indian deserve to be in jail for 35 years?
Ind. grad student convicted of threatening to kill Bush
Vikram Buddhi, Anti-Bush Blogger, Wrongfully Jailed –
Threat against Bush was stupid, but was it also illegal?
Appeal from Dr. Buddhi Kota Subbarao
Happy Deepawali Vikram Buddhi
Media only goes to the place where is masala. In Australia there is masala and cricket. And while focusing on Australia and all the racism we forget how much racist we are. Ask an Africa in India and he will tell you the number of time he has being callled ‘hapsi’ and any female of mongoloid descent and she will tell you how close she came or she has being mugged. There is masala, and emotion. And presence of ‘Free Speech’.
But the same ‘Free Speech’ is not free when it comes defending the free speech itself.
Vikram Buddhi tried to live American dream, but he is now facing an American Nightmare.
Does Peacenic Obama has any Nobel for free speech??
Media is blind.
one blogger friend asked, if the media only looks at stuff north of the vindhyas (on a different post). I wonder, if this guy was from Delhi if it would have made more ripples 🙁
Wouldn’t help unless he had right ‘contacts’
Certainly one hopes that he won’t spend most of his life in jail for what was at most some juvenile-sounding online misbehaviour. He has suffered enough. But a few points about your post:
1. He has had a trial, though he has not been sentenced (that is due to happen next month). His family believes the trial was biased. A summary is here.
2. He has not pleaded innocent to the charges. Threatening the president is a serious crime in the US.
3. He wouldn’t have faced lighter treatment in India. Here is a recent case of a blogger being hauled up for an offensive message (not a threat) about our President. Here is a previous case of an e-mail threat.
The question is whether Vikram Buddhi did what he is alleged to do; if he didn’t, why didn’t he deny it in court (was it faulty legal advice?) and what evidence there is that he was framed; and if he did write those posts, what sort of punishment will fit the crime. (Let us remember that the posts did not stop at criticising the Iraq war or even calling for President Bush’s assassination: they also called for raping and killing Laura Bush.) In my opinion, three years in jail should be more than adequate and he should be released in November. But: first, he should have been careful, being in a foreign jurisdiction; second, let us not pretend that his fate would have been better in India.
Hi Rahul
Thank you for the links.
on the sentencing i wasn’t sure whether it was a grand jury indictment or a proper trial. after reading all the stuff, i still am not sure 🙁
in the Indian cases – they have been charged under the IT Act and hacking – this guy has been charged with threatening. Not much of a difference, but a difference all the same.
If what the charges say are true, i am surprised they didn’t charge him with the more provable ‘impersonation’ or ‘taking over on-line identities’ rather than threats. easier to prove, and wouldn’t have created so much of noise.
I forgot about the hacking allegation, which also is part of the charges, if I remember right (and he didn’t deny that either). As for the Indian cases, I suppose they used whatever law they could find (just as child rape is prosecuted under the infamous Sec 377, there being no other appropriate section in the IPC).
i think three and a half years for calling for murder and rape is sufficient – also he should be sent back to india and have his visa cancelled. that it was the prez and his spouse is not the point. recently a minister in india announced 1 crore compensation for rape incase a particular minister suffered a similar fate. her house was burnt, and she was jailed. we are daily in the grip of fear in india – rapists and murderers and terrorists roam freely. just because it is “okay” in this country for women to be violated and innocents slaughtered, doesn’t mean that its citizens can claim “national heritage and cultural freedom” to practise similar evil activities elsewhere.
whenever some “wastrel” beat up an indian in australia, the media went into a frenzy, even going to the villages and homes of these victims. but then came the news that an australian businessman of 55 years was kidnapped from his hotel room and murdered in bihar, the media covered it up. another beating in australia and another media frenzy. then came the news that 2 indian students (30 year old illegal migrants, actually) raped a 17 year old on a train in australia – something that has never happened in that country and people were traveling with complete safety. guess what? all quiet on the media front. why did we not see the village and the parents of these rapists on TV? how would we react to our fellow indian in india who posts our murder and rape, or another beloved citizen who calls for the murder and rape of members of a minority. such double standards. what next? some stupid indian abroad gets fined for littering and will someone here claim that living in filth and spreading garbage “is an inherent part of our heritage and an important freedom we have as a birthright?”
Hi MS, thank you for visiting this blog.
if we were found guilty of what we ‘intend’ to do or what we say ought to be done … as opposed to action — everyone will be in prison 🙁
like i said earlier – i am surprised that they didn’t get him on hacking or impersonation or something similar -where there apparently was evidence, and got him for this.
however distasteful his comments were — that is all that they were ….. comments. if there was a law against distasteful comments, he should definitely go to prison !
On the other two cases, i am sorry but i haven’t come across them. but, the Indian media’s silence doesn’t surprise me .. they seem to be in this jingoistic space where Indians walk on water 🙁 and all crimes committed by Indians outside India is ignored.
hi gargi, thanks for the reply. the law in most countries punishes even the instigating of a crime, if people had carried out what this person was suggesting, would he be more guilty? see, all over the world, we are hunting and punishing all those who are giving speeches calling for violence and acts of terrorism. why should he be treated any differently? he can condemn a country’s leader for the policies and measures taken against a community by the govt of the country. personal attacks are also acceptable, you can call the prez a fool/dimwit/dummy, but not calls for GBH. every crime is made up of two parts – actual actions and motive. nations have banned books and imprisoned writers, death sentences have been declared by clerics just because the words were unbearable! see, the pen IS mightier than the sword!!
and the 2 cases i mentioned can be easily found on google. our media is still serving up malegaon blasts and how guilty the sadhvi is even though she was not physically present at the blasts. if we go by your theory then the nuremberg trials were such a waste of time: none of the military commanders were personally shooting bullets or switching on the gas chambers! hitler never even slapped a jew, but still is the most hated man in the world.
you have raised a very thought provoking subject and i wish more posts like yours were around.
Seriously, why do you care?
Is it because he is Indian? In that case, it’s laughable.
Is it because of Martin Luther King’s random rant on injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere? Even if one buys that silly rhetoric, I want to ask you why your priorities are so warped.
I’d rather have payasam and watch half naked women on Tamil TV.
He’s lucky not to have been incarcerated in an off-site prison. Threatening the President of a country is a very serious crime. It really doesn’t matter that he might not have been charged in India – three days police custody at Arthur Road Jail would’ve accomplished what three years here would. I do not believe he deserves any additional sympathy for a crime that he does not contest. I would take similar offense to a visitor inciting Pakistanis to assassinate any national leader. It is wrong, no matter what our political beliefs are.
Oh, and the SMSs about the Parliament attack and 26/11 were still not funny either. I’m pretty sure if one specifically and overtly threatened physical harm to anyone (including politicians), at least two different sections apply, but I’ll leave that for the police and lawyers to sort out.
I thought the blog headline was a joke. What kind of Diwali will a man suffering massive intrusions of his @nal cavity on a daily basis have? Instead of mounting such limp, lacklustre campaigns for him, you might as well start a twitter campaign and bombard our junior external affairs minister about the buddhi case so he gets up from his bush meat (!) dinner with some tinpot african dictator, and does something useful for a change.