There seems to be no space for plural opinion under present dispensation .You can't even express your voice against misdeeds of the rulers. If ever dare, you will be booked. Some Modi "bhakt" will take u to the court and the "obedient judiciary" will order an FIR averring that your free voice amounts to sedition.
In the latest case, an FIR was lodged in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Thursday against nearly 50 celebrities for writing an open letter to Prime Minister Modi over growing incidents of mob lynching. The FIR was lodged after an order was passed by a court two months ago on a petition filed by a Modi bhakt. The order was passed on August 20. However, FIR was lodged last Thursday (October 3). Obviously, as the matter was sensitive, it required sanction from the top.
In July this year, 49 eminent persons, including historian Ramachandra Guha, filmmakers Aparna Sen,Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal, actor Soumitra Chatterjee as well as vocalist Shubha Mudgal in an open letter to Prime Minister Modi expressed their deep concern over the growing incidents of mob lynching.
The FIR was lodged under sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those relating to sedition, public nuisance, hurting religious feelings and insulting with an intent to provoke breach of peace.
The Constitution of India and even international law recognize the right to freedom of expression, and this right extends to speech that offends or disturbs the peace. It defines act of sedition expressively The sedition law doesn't apply for voicing concern over an incident peacefully. And writing an open letter to PM , in no way. is an violent act. But in India, even after independence the laws are arms-twisted and the archaic sedition law is often used to harass and persecute activists and others for their peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression.
As the section 124A of the IPC defines sedition as any act or attempt “to bring into hatred or contempt, or…excite disaffection towards the government, authorities freely take refuse under this provision. Mahatma Gandhi had called the law “the prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen.”
The sedition law in India is, basically, a hangover from colonial past. Drafted by Thomas Babington Macaulay. it became a part of the Indian Penal Code in 1870. The main purpose of this section then was to oppress the freedom movement and suppress all forms of dissent by Indians against the British rule. Mahatma Gandhi had called the law “the prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen.
As a matter of fact, all colonial hangover laws should have been scraped soon after independence. But instead of scrapping, Indian govt criminalizes acts including sending information that is “grossly offensive” or causes “annoyance” and “inconvenience” under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act This law is also being used to violate legitimate exercise of the right to free speech, It often leads to arbitrary arrests.
Ironically, Britain- the country that introduced the law in India -repealed sedition as a crime long ago for being violative of the right to free speech. The Britishers acknowledge that sedition has no place in modern society. India, being the world largest democracy should shed its colonial mindset. Sedition law is more misused and spreads darkness, And we know, democracy dies in darkness.