Political parties welcome SC’s interim order putting sedition law on hold
Opposition parties welcomed the Supreme Court’s interim order on Wednesday putting on hold the colonial-era sedition law with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying telling the truth is patriotic and not a treasonous activity.
“Telling the truth is patriotism, not treason. Listening to the truth is one’s duty. Crushing the truth is arrogance. Do not be afraid,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury said they have always opposed the sedition law. “It [sedition law] is anachronistic brought in by the British to crush our freedom struggle and it has no place in the statute book in independent India. It is good that the Supreme Court, hearing this case, has now ordered that this section must be kept in abeyance, stayed all pending proceedings, and directed the central and state governments not to register new cases.”
Yechury called the government’s promise to review the sedition cases as specious as it has been “grossly misusing” Indian Penal Code’s Section 124A to harass dissent. “Since the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government came to office in 2014, at least 326 people have been arrested under this law and only six of them were convicted. This is the gross abuse of the law that is happening under the Modi government. The sedition law should be scrapped. We hope the court does this when it resumes the hearing in July.”
Union law minister Kiren Rijiju said they respect the court and its independence. He added a “lakshman rekha”, or the line not meant to be crossed, has to be respected. “We have made our position very clear and also informed the court about the intention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There is a lakshman rekha that must be respected by all organs of the state in letter and spirit.”
On Monday, the government filed an affidavit to inform the court about its decision to “re-examine and reconsider” Section 124A. It underscored Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s impetus on the protection of civil liberties and the need to shed “colonial baggage”.
BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya credited Modi for the Supreme Court’s decision. “In 1962, a five judge bench had upheld the Sedition Law. Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister. A three judge bench of the Supreme Court looking into the matter couldn’t have overruled it had GoI, on the instruction of PM Modi, not filed an affidavit seeking time to reassess,” he tweeted.
The Supreme Court put on hold the 152-year-old sedition law while emphasising the need to preserve the civil liberty of the citizens. This came a day after the court set a 24-hour deadline for the Centre to decide if Section 124A can be put on hold “to protect people” from arrests until the government reviews the law.