{"id":244860,"date":"2023-05-27T20:25:03","date_gmt":"2023-05-27T14:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=244860"},"modified":"2023-05-27T20:25:03","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T14:55:03","slug":"sedition-and-its-roots-in-rudeness-as-an-offence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sedition-and-its-roots-in-rudeness-as-an-offence\/","title":{"rendered":"Sedition and its roots in rudeness as an offence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source-<\/strong> The post is based on the article \u201cSedition and its roots in rudeness as an offence\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 27th May 2023.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Polity<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Issues related to offensive speech and sedition<\/p>\n

News- <\/strong>On March 30, the Lahore High Court annulled the offence of \u2018sedition\u2019 in the Pakistan Penal code.<\/p>\n

Around the same time in India, the police registered a series of complaints in Delhi and in Ahmedabad, and also arrested several people, for posting anti-government posts.<\/p>\n

How does the logic of sedition under section 124 influence our legal apparatus?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Section 124A <\/strong>seeks to criminalise words that bring \u201cinto hatred or contempt, or excite disaffection\u201d<\/strong> towards the government. A challenge is pending before the Supreme Court. Yet, the logic of the law of sedition still survives.<\/p>\n

Pakistan uses the law of blasphemy<\/strong>. India, which is secular and does not criminalise blasphemy. But, it has punishment provisions for hurting sentiments. <\/strong>The state recently arrested actor Chetan Kumar for his tweet on Hindutva.<\/p>\n

Its defining logic<\/strong> has already transplanted itself into several different provisions of law that criminalise speech.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How social relationships have an impact on our understanding of offensive speech?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Socially, we have always understood badtameezi<\/em>(rudeness) <\/strong>not in terms of the contents of speech, but rather in terms of who spoke and to whom<\/strong>. An older person may crticise a teenager but the badtameezi<\/em> occurs only when the teenager answers back.<\/p>\n

This understanding of offensive speech<\/strong> applies in the same hierarchical way to all social relationships<\/strong>. It\u2019s always the security guard, the domestic worker, or the street vendor who is badtameez<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Modernity and capitalism <\/strong>have long been imagined breaking such hierarchies. But it is not true in substance.<\/p>\n

How is the understanding of offensive speech reflected in power relations?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The state through its officials has appropriated a top position in hierarchy of social positions. <\/strong>Thus, the lowest state functionary addresses the citizen in the most commanding voice<\/strong>, as if it was natural.<\/p>\n

Law-and-order issues<\/strong> arise only when the policeman is challenged. But, it never arises in the policeman\u2019s own arbitrary commands<\/strong> to the citizenry.<\/p>\n

In present times, this relationship of power<\/strong> is more explicitly extended to political power<\/strong>. The use of law often shows these social-political relations of power<\/strong>. It is increasing now.<\/p>\n

How is understanding of offensive speech reflected in the legal system?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The practice of prosecuting speech offences is influenced by an understanding that \u2018offensive speech\u2019<\/strong> emanates from those who are either inferior in established social\/political hierarchies. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Consequently, offences are framed mostly against those who challenge political or social power <\/strong>and its attendant narratives. In the event, prosecution usually follows the logic of badtameezi<\/em>, or sedition<\/strong>. It focuses mostly on content.<\/p>\n

India has entrenched hierarchical relations<\/strong>, most prominently in the form of caste. Our understanding of violence<\/strong> is influenced by this understanding.<\/p>\n

Speech is made prosecutable depending on whom it targets. It points to the entangled relationship of law and society.<\/strong> Prosecutors attack certain speech as grave and damaging to someone\u2019s reputation while tolerating other violent speech as innocuous.<\/p>\n

What are some facts about the Supreme Court pronounced judgement in the Media One<\/em> case?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

which addresses the logic of sedition<\/strong>. It struck down the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting\u2019s decision to not renew the broadcast licence for the channel on grounds that it was a threat to national security. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Court said that the critical views on policies of the government cannot be termed anti-establishment<\/strong>. The use of such a terminology represents an expectation that the press must support the establishment. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The action of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting by denying security clearance to a media channel produces a chilling effect on freedom of speech<\/strong>, and on press freedom.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The restriction on the freedom of the press compels citizens to think along the same tangent. A homogenised view<\/strong> on issues that range from socio-economic policy to political ideologies would pose grave dangers to democracy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The state is using national security <\/strong>as a tool to deny citizens remedies that are provided under the law. This is not compatible with the rule of law<\/strong>. National security claims <\/strong>cannot be made out of thin air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source- The post is based on the article \u201cSedition and its roots in rudeness as an offence\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 27th May 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Polity Relevance– Issues related to offensive speech and sedition News- On March 30, the Lahore High Court annulled the offence of \u2018sedition\u2019 in the Pakistan Penal code. Around… Continue reading Sedition and its roots in rudeness as an offence<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-244860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":2,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700858071},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}