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NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday said the government should put in public domain the reasons for the arrest of human rights activists or else such an action can only be characterised as "witch-hunt" and "vendetta".

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said there has been a ground swell of anger, especially among the dalits, against the Narendra Modi government since the last four years.

"It is incumbent upon the government to put in public space as to what are the reasons as to why these arrests (of human rights activists) have taken place. Otherwise, these multi-city arrests can only be characterised as witch -hunt and as vendetta," he told reporters.

The Maharashtra police had on Tuesday arrested Left-wing activists Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha, and conducted raids in the houses of several others as part of a probe into the 'Elgar Parishad' event held in Pune on December 31 last year.

The event had allegedly triggered violence between dalits and upper caste groups at Koregaon Bhima village in the district.

Tewari said although the judiciary was hearing the matter, the arrested persons have been active in the public space for a long time.

"We may not agree with their views, we may have fundamental disagreement with their views, but we do not have a disagreement with their right to hold their view," he said.

"This government believes that those who have a view different from theirs do not have the right to hold a view. That is why you have seen the most bizarre narrative play itself out in the last four years," he alleged.

"If you question the BJP , you are anti-national, if you question the government, you are seditious, if you question the establishment, you are a traitor," he said.

Tewari added that Article 21 of the Constitution of India holds that no person can be deprived of his life or liberty, except in accordance with the law and it applied to everybody across the board.

