{"id":52919,"date":"2019-10-09T14:45:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T09:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?page_id=52919"},"modified":"2019-10-09T14:46:05","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T09:16:05","slug":"answered-indian-sedition-law-has-become-a-privilege-for-politicians-and-curse-to-free-speech-and-right-to-dissent-discuss","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-indian-sedition-law-has-become-a-privilege-for-politicians-and-curse-to-free-speech-and-right-to-dissent-discuss\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] \u201cIndian sedition law has become a privilege for politicians and curse to free speech and right to dissent.\u201d Discuss."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Demand of the question<\/strong>
Introduction. <\/strong>Contextual Introduction.
Body. <\/strong>How sedition law is used as an oppressive tool?
Conclusion. <\/strong>Way forward. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Sedition is an offence incorporated into the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 1870. Section 124A of the IPC defines says whoever by words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representation attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, the government established by law; or whoever by the above means excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government established by law, has committed the offence of sedition. The offence is punishable with imprisonment for life and is turn out to be a tool by politicians many a times to prevent criticism against them jeopardising free speech and dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sedition Law as an oppressive mechanism:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. According to the National Crime Records Bureau\n35 cases of sedition (all over India) were reported in 2016. <\/li>
  2. It is very often under criticism because Centre\nand the States have invoked the section against activists, detractors, writers\nand even cartoonist seeking to silence political dissent by accusing dissenters\nof promoting disaffection.<\/li>
  3. It has been invoked against several public\npersonalities, particularly those critical of the government such as against\nAssamese scholar.<\/li>
  4. A foremost objection is a strong criticism\nagainst government policies and personalities, slogans and stinging depictions\nof an unresponsive or insensitive regime are all likely to be treated as\n\u2018seditious\u2019.<\/li>
  5. Sedition does not take into consideration\ndisaffection towards (a) the Constitution, (b) the legislatures, and (c)\nadministration of justice, all of which would be as disastrous to the security\nof the State.<\/li>
  6. The main reason behind the continuation of\nSedition act after independence was to prevent the misuse of free speech (reasonable\nrestriction) that would be aimed at inciting hatred and violence, but it is\nused to curb any dissent or criticism of government or government policies.<\/li>
  7. Draconian laws such as the Section 124-A only\nserve to give a legal veneer to the regime\u2019s persecution of voices and\nmovements against oppression by casting them as anti-national.<\/li>
  8. Beyond the high-profile urban cases, the reach\nof Section 124-A has extended even to faraway places. An entire village in\nKudankulam, Tamil Nadu had sedition cases slapped against it for resisting a\nnuclear power project. <\/li>
  9. Instead of critically analysing why citizens, be\nthey in Kashmir or Chhattisgarh or Bhima Koregaon, are driven to dissent, the\ngovernment is using an iron-fist policy with the sedition law playing a leading\nrole to completely shut out contrarian views.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The word \u2018sedition\u2019 is thus extremely nuanced and should be applied with caution. The courts have stressed on the importance of contextualising the restrictions while ascertaining the permissibility of expression. Balancing freedom of expression with collective national interest is one of the key ingredients of this law. Though it is argued that this law is a colonial vestige, the Indian courts have upheld its constitutionality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Demand of the question Introduction. Contextual Introduction. Body. How sedition law is used as an oppressive tool? Conclusion. Way forward. Sedition is an offence incorporated into the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 1870. Section 124A of the IPC defines says whoever by words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representation attempts… Continue reading [Answered] \u201cIndian sedition law has become a privilege for politicians and curse to free speech and right to dissent.\u201d Discuss.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49132,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-52919","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}