Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, in an affidavit filed before the Bhima Koregaon enquiry commission, has urged that Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) be repealed as it was being deployed to suppress any dissent being raised in a peaceful and democratic manner.
Mr. Pawar, who is slated to appear before the two-member enquiry commission as a witness in the first week of May, also suggested the reintroduction of Section 66 A (which was struck down by the Supreme Court) of the Information Technology (IT) Act to give teeth to the Act.
In his nine-page affidavit, the NCP chief stated that Section 124A was inserted by the British in 1870 to control uprisings against them and to suppress the Indian freedom movement.
“In recent times this section is often being misused against people who criticise the government, suppressing their liberty and tend to stifle any voice of dissent raised in a peaceful and democratic way. Hence, it is proposed that the misuse of Section 124A of IPC should be stopped with amendments or the said section be repealed. Provisions of the IPC and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act are sufficient for protecting the nation’s integrity,” read Mr. Pawar’s affidavit.
Urging the reintroduction of Section 66A of the IT Act, Mr. Pawar said that in recent times, it had been observed “that any sensitive incident is followed by online cyber warfare with palpable incitement to violence, communal hatred and malafide online campaigns.”
These, he said, could lead to “serious law and order situations and pose grave challenge to law enforcement agencies.”
Mr. Pawar will appear before the commission comprising retired Kolkata High Court Chief Justice J.N. Patel and former Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sumit Mullick, which had been set up by the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis-led government in February 2018 to probe the sequence of events leading up to the violence on the occasion of the bicentennial anniversary of the 1818 battle of Koregaon Bhima.
The clashes between two groups, which erupted in Bhima-Koregaon village and its environs in Pune district, had left one person dead and had destroyed the property of several Ambedkarite families while heightening social tensions across Maharashtra.
Mr. Pawar, who had earlier filed an affidavit in September last year, said he was filing the additional affidavit to suggest “amendments in law relating to law enforcement agencies”.
The NCP chief said that he has “no personal knowledge or information about the sequence of events leading to the unfortunate incident at Koregaon Bhima (Pune district) on January 1, 2018” and that he was making “no allegation” against any “political agenda” or attributing any “motive behind the incident.”
Mr. Pawar was earlier slated to appear before the commission on February 23-24. At the time, he had requested a postponement. The commission has now directed him to appear on May 5-6 to record his version of events.
The commission was initially given a period of four months to submit its report, but its tenure had to be extended repeatedly in order to allow it to complete its investigations.
Hamstrung by financial resources, the commission has since received several extensions. Hearings of senior officers and Mr. Pawar were scheduled between March 30 and April 4, 2020. However, the COVID-19 outbreak compelled the commission to defer all hearings until further notice.
Following the clashes, the Pune City Police had carried out two countrywide crackdowns (in June and August 2018, respectively) in connection with the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon violence by searching the residences of several noted academics, activists and intellectuals known for their dissentious views against the powers-that-be and their work among the dispossessed.
The houses of lawyer Surendra Gadling, academic Shoma Sen, and activists Rona Wilson, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhawale, were searched in the first crackdown, and those of the late Father Stan Swamy, writer Gautam Navlakha, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, poet P. Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira and academic-writer Anand Teltumbde in their second.
All were among the 16 arrested in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case, which was later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Except Ms. Bharadwaj, who was released on bail in 2021, none of the incarcerated activists have been granted relief.
