“Wake Up People! Wake Up! This is a dictatorial rule, this is autocracy. We need to unite and bring down such a government in the land,” said Kishorchandra Wangkhem, who has been detained under the National Security Act (NSA), 1980, for posting a video criticising chief minister N. Biren Singh for organising a function on Rani of Jhansi.

Kishorchandra was brought to the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal East on Saturday for a medical check-up. He was arrested on November 20 and has been detained at Sajiwa Central Jail in Imphal East.

Condemning his detention, Kishorchandra said, “It is an arbitrary arrest. Alleging that I was trying to create chaos in the land for raising my voice against the government is unjustified. I will fight till my last breath in the high court or in the Supreme Court to get justice.”

Imphal West chief judicial magistrate released him on November 26 stating: “The words, terms and gesture used by the accused in the video cannot be termed as seditious. It is a mere expression of opinion against the public conduct of public figure in a street language.”

The next day he was picked up from his residence by police and detained under the NSA Act, 1980.

On December 14, the state government approved Kishorchandra’s detention under NSA, passed by Imphal West district magistrate, and fixed the period of detention for 12 months.

He said, “If we cannot say anything against the government, then, it shows there is no democracy on our land.”

“Arresting me under NSA for speaking against the government should be appropriate only in the times of Hitler,” Kishorchandra said.

“I strongly denounce the detention under NSA and democracy has no place here” he added.

He also refuted the statement of All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU) president Brozendro Ningomba that Kishorchandra was not a journalist. Ningomba, the chief editor of the ISTV network, a local TV channel here, had said Kishorchandra is neither a journalist nor a member of AMWJU.