Fahad Shah, a prominent journalist from Indian administered Kashmir was arrested in February by police on charges of glorifying terrorism, spreading fake news, and instigating people.
Shah insists that he and his team of reporters had only continued to cover alleged human rights abuses carried out by the military in the region.
In October last year, three Kashmiri students in the city of Agra who allegedly cheered for Pakistan’s win against India in a T20 World Cup cricket match are still in jail on sedition accusations.
New database quantifies the abuse of sedition law in India between 2010 and 2021https://t.co/ntxWfzRu9J
— The Leaflet (@TheLeaflet_in) February 4, 2022
Cases like this are prompting calls for India’s Supreme Court to strike down the controversial sedition law that dates back to India’s colonial era.
Misused to stifle dissent
For decades, successive Indian governments have used this colonial-era sedition law - the dreaded section 124A of the antiquated Indian Penal Code - against those critical of the authorities.
Activists say the law has become a convenient legal tool to stifle any voice or perspective that goes against what the state perceives as nationalism or patriotism. Students, journalists, intellectuals and social activists have all been targeted.
“We see how activists are being arrested, tribals are being arrested… it bites everyone,” Ravi Nair, director of the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre told RFI.
“Yet the deep state in India continues to have it because it is very useful to use broad brush strokes to attack every dissenter.”
Some argue that in media discourse, the term sedition is often translated as opposition to the nation. This has led to a conflation of the terms “seditious” and “anti-national” in the popular imagination.
“Dissent is essential and draconian laws have no place. In the last few years, laws have been misused to stifle dissent and quell the voices which ask questions from the government," said activist Kavita Krishnan.
Is being ‘anti-national’ sedition?
The list of people booked for sedition over the years is long including Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, folk singer S. Kovan, activist Binayak Sen, political cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, former Delhi University professor S.A.R. Geelani and even two Karnataka policemen who asked for better wages.
Though charges have rarely stood up to judicial scrutiny, the cumbersome legal process itself becomes the punishment.
A total of 326 cases were registered in the country under the controversial colonial-era penal law on sedition between 2014 and 2019 in which just six persons were convicted, clearly indicating that the law was being used to serve political ends.
The law has been invoked for the liking or sharing of a social media post, drawing a cartoon, refusing to stand up during the national anthem in a cinema or even the staging of a school play.
Though there is a growing demand for amending the sedition law or repealing this relic of the past, some argue that the law is necessary.
Helpful, telling context for the abuse of the sedition law in India — where convictions are rare, but the slapping of the charge in itself essentially the punishment. https://t.co/qlFBJtJDlo
— Mujib Mashal (@MujMash) July 16, 2021
“At a time when there are multiple flashpoints in this country and there is a lot of what I would use a term which is attained some significance ‘breaking India forces’ so to speak…. which are alive, which are kicking and which are receiving active support within and outside, I think this law is important,” said lawyer Sai Deepak.
But Rohinton Nariman, a former Supreme Court judge believes the law has been misused.
“I would exhort the Supreme Court, the important thing to do is to use your powers and strike down the law. The citizen here can breathe more freely,” said Nariman.
India’s Supreme Court is currently examining a clutch of pleas challenging the constitutionality of the sedition law.
In a few months, it will be known whether this colonial law is necessary or way past its shelf life.
