November 26 is here again! It is the day of annual stock-taking as far as our Constitution and the law. November 26 is celebrated as the Law Day. It was on this day; in 1949 the Constitution of India was adopted to be enforced on January 26 of the next year.
72 years have gone by but the passion with which the constituent assembly debated free speech, sedition and civil liberties still brings in a sense of agony and jubilation. The Republic brought into being on January 26, 1950 has been reclaimed by the farmers in 2021. There is jubilation because the farmers of the country have brought about a great civil rights victory. There is a sense of agony because the draconian sedition law continues to be applied to Indian citizens without application of mind. The arrest of young environment activist Disha Ravi and two other activists Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk were treated in the same way as the British colonial government dealt with Tilak and Gandhi, though even In England, sedition has virtually ceased to exist from 1932.We faced a pandemic of this century. Covid - 19 brought in severe restrictions in our life and liberty. We tolerated them, suffered them as we believed they were required in our interest. May be we disputed the manner in which they were brought in. May be the restrictions could be planned in a more nuanced manner that people’s misery was bought down. But, all that is past, the tragedy is that period also saw a disturbing trend of activists and journalists being booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act- touted as an anti-terror law. UAPA and Sedition had been the flavour of the covid -19 season. Siddique Kapan booked by the UP police last year for travelling to Hathras to cover a gang rape of Dalit woman is still in custody. JNU students Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal and the Jamia Millia Islamia student, Asif Iqbal Tanha faced the same
law. In their anxiety to suppress all forms of dissent and to instill morbid fear into the citizenry, our nation-state used the sedition law brought in during the colonial period carrying a term of life imprisonment. "The state has blurred the line between the constitutional guaranteed right to protest and terrorist activity," said Delhi High Court. If this trend continues democracy would be in peril.
But how the world looks at our democracy? In 2014 when the present regime took over, this world largest democracy was ranked at 27th position with a score of 7.92 in the democracy index report of the UK based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). In 2019 there was a sharp drop with an overall score of 6.9 with the ranking of 51st which further dropped to 6.61 with a ranking of 53rd even prior to the Covid 19 season. As our credibility suffered our neighbours like Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan saw some improvements.
As we celebrate the 2021 Law Day, it is worth recalling how the constituent assembly did away with sedition on the possibility that it would be misused to jail government critics. After a long debate to bring in sedition into Article 13, as a reasonable restriction from freedom of speech and expression, the move was defeated after a pro-monarchy and recipient of several grants and Jagris for the family service to the colonial power, but a leading participant in the satyagraha movement, Seth Govind Das emphasized that ‘neither titles, nor sedition has place in free India’. KM Munshi probably the conscious keeper of civil liberties in the constituent assembly on December 1, 1948, argued “Now that we have a democratic government, a line must be drawn between criticism of government which should be welcome and incitement which would undermine the security or order on which civilized life is based, or which is calculated to overthrow the state. Therefore, the world sedition has been omitted. As a matter of fact the essence of democracy is criticism of government”.
The lion’s share for doing away with sedition must go to Bhoopinder Singh Mann he took the constituent assembly by storm. His words are worth recollecting. “…What is being given by one hand is being taken away by the other. Every clause is being hemmed in by so many provisos… you want to continue the old order so that there should be no opportunity of a trial, of putting up defence and of an appeal.”
The founding fathers ensured that sedition was not part of the Constitution. They understood the dangers of such powers which made the British weave it into our Penal Code in 1870. They knew that in a democracy greatest value ought to be given to civil liberties of the people and in a country like ours which has communities with mutually hostile opinions protection of their liberty only shall save democracy.
Our farmers have done it. The Covid-19 eclipsed the struggle against the CAA. As long as a section of citizenry keeps alive the flame of vision of the Constitution, there is hope. We the people must rise up to save the idea of India encapsulated by our founding fathers.
