This article was written during the arrest of Aseem Trivedi but stayed in my draft for no reason....publishing now.
Cartoon:Premnath
Sedition (section
124 of the Indian Penal Code)- Whoever,
by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible
representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred
or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards
the Government established by law in [India], shall
be punished with [imprisonment
for life], to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may
extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine.
The
law on sedition serves the state and not the community. The above
stated definition is only in printed form in the Indian law book.
Now, it is defined as, that one should be silent and not ask
questions even though injustice is rampant. It is our fundamental
right to feel, think and express, under the Constitution, but
citizens are being punished for painting a picture or writing a book
or an article.
The
latest victim of this policy is Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, who was in
Mumbai on charges of sedition.
These
are the Aseem Trivedi’s cartoons which made him famous and a victim
of sedition. Not only him, there are vast numbers of people accused
of sedition. To take just one example, several hundred very ordinary
men and women participating
in the peaceful anti-nuclear agitation in Kudankulam have been
charged with sedition. The government has been implementing a
countrywide process of expropriation of common property resources --
land, water, forest, minerals and traditional knowledge such as
knowledge of biodiversity.
Communities, whose
survival is dependent on their access to common property resources,
find their survival threatened by this process of expropriation.
Resisting this process becomes key to the survival of these
communities , and the law of sedition is one of the important
resources deployed by the state in order to suppress this entirely
legitimate resistance. Communities cannot be expected to acquiesce in
their own extinction, but the state seems perfectly prepared to
deploy its resources, both juridical and military, in order to ensure
that its writ should run.
Sedition
is used to coerce
the people who resist legitimately against the policies which can
endanger their survival. If the misuse of sedition continues, the
sedition may become a road towards demo-autocracy.
--Premnath D
