Scrap sedition

Scrap sedition

At worst, laws pertaining to a campus brawl are applicable to the JNU fracas.

The Delhi police chargesheet against JNU student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and some other students accusing them of sedition and sundry other charges exemplifies why the colonial era sedition law must be scrapped. A provision in the Indian Penal Code relied upon by our erstwhile British rulers to put away troublesome Indian nationalists in jail for life has now become a weapon in the hands of governments to silence dissent. Dubbing sloganeering by a few people on a college campus as an insurrection against the Indian republic is certainly questionable.

To prevent such misuse of the sedition law, the Supreme Court in its Kedar Nath Singh judgment (1962) had defined and circumscribed its applicability – stating that it only applies when there is violence or explicit incitement to such violence. This principle was reiterated by the apex court in 2016, when it directed all authorities concerned to follow the 1962 judgment by a constitutional bench. The chargesheet filed by Delhi police after a lengthy delay of three years, when compelling video evidence about the alleged act of sedition is said to be available, does not appear convincing. Moreover, Kanhaiya has repeatedly asserted his loyalty to the Constitution and to the integrity of India.

Meanwhile, in UP, three Muslims arrested under the cow slaughter prohibition law in Bulandshahr have been booked under the stringent National Security Act that is entirely irrelevant in this case – even as nobody sees the killing of a cop by Bulandshahr rioters (an actual act of violence) as seditious. This clearly demonstrates the use of the sedition law as a political tool – even as authorities do not pay heed to how SC has limited and circumscribed its meaning. Laws prone to such misuse must be scrapped altogether.