UNITED IN INTOLERANCE
In the past two decades, governments across the political spectrum have invoked sedition charges against dissenters
Congress, Rajasthan
VHP leader Pravin Togadia charged with sedition for defying a government ban on carrying sharp-edged weapons (a trident)
Congress, Punjab
Simranjit Singh Mann, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), arrested in connection with four different cases of sedition. Mann allegedly raised proKhalistan slogans in the Golden Temple complex on the 21st anniversary of Operation Blue Star
BJP, Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh police arrest Binayak Sen, an activist and doctor, on charges of sedition, alleging links with Maoist insurgents. In 2010, a trial court convicts Sen of the charge, a decision upheld by the Chhattisgarh High Court. In April 2011, the Supreme Court grants him bail and drops the charge of sedition
Congress, Delhi Police
Noted author Arundhati Roy charged with sedition for an ‘anti-India’ speech at a seminar
AIADMK, Tamil Nadu
Around 3,500 people from Tamil Nadu’s Idinthakarai and surrounding villages charged with sedition for participating in protests against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant
Congress, Maharashtra
Mumbai Police arrest cartoonist Aseem Trivedi on charges of sedition for publishing drawings that depict the national emblem and Parliament in a derogatory manner
Congress, Andhra Pradesh
AIMIM legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi charged with sedition for an inflammatory speech allegedly aimed at provoking hatred between religious communities
BJP, Gujarat
The Ahmedabad crime branch charges activist Hardik Patel with sedition for allegedly telling a member of his community to ‘kill policemen rather than committing suicide’
AIADMK, Tamil Nadu
Folk singer and antialcohol campaigner
Shiva Raj aka
Comrade Kovan arrested for sedition for ‘defamatory content’ against then Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa
BJP, Delhi Police
Former JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar
and two others—Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya—booked
for allegedly supporting ‘seditious slogans’ at an event in JNU marking the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru
TRS, Telangana
A case of sedition is registered against AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi following a statement that he would provide legal aid to Hyderabad-based people who had been arrested by the NIA on charges of involvement in an alleged IS terror module
JD(U)-BJP, Bihar
Bihar police arrest eight people, including five minors, on charges of sedition for dancing to a song that described ‘mujahids’ who ‘threatened India’
BJP, Jharkhand
Jharkhand police file a sedition case against priest and activist Stan Swamy and 19 others for Facebook posts questioning ‘state excesses in villages that conduct Pathalgadi’—a practice adopted by some villages to declare their gram sabha as the only sovereign authority, not the state or Union government
Congress, Chhattisgarh
A 53-year-old man is charged with sedition for videos claiming that electricity shortages in the state are a deliberate result of a tie-up between the government and inverter companies. The sedition charge is dropped following the intervention of CM Bhupesh Baghel
JD(U)-BJP, Bihar
A case of sedition is registered against 49 celebrities who wrote an open letter to PM Modi seeking his intervention in the increasing incidences of mob lynching. They are accused of creating a communal divide and harming the nation. A week later, the case is dropped
Any legitimate protest can degenerate into a law and order situation if lumpen elements infect it. This has happened in the past also. It is the responsibility of the government in power to send a clear message that such hooliganism won’t be tolerated
elected governments. “Indian democracy offers its citizens a framework to change the ruling party through a constitutionally mandated electoral process. Can anyone justify taking help from foreign entities if one is not happy with the incumbent government?” Kohli asks.
However, as Justice B.N. Srikrishna, former judge of the Supreme Court of India, points out, “All and any criticism of the government is treated as anti-national and seditious. The law on sedition, though of colonial origin, has been toned down by the judgments of the Supreme Court. However, the way it is being applied today suggests that its colonial character has been retained.” On September 5, 2016, the Supreme Court once again asserted that criticism of the government is not sedition.
Kohli again finds this absolutely legitimate in the face of what he sees as a larger smear campaign against the current dispensation. “Any honest and unbiased research will show that the personal attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, blaming him for any and every unpleasant incident in India in the past six years, perhaps far exceeds the criticism of any prime minister in independent India. What’s even more unfortunate is that most of this personal vilification of Modi is not substantiated by facts but the result of motivated agendas,” he says. Siddharth Nath Singh, the minister for MSMEs, investment and export, textile, khadi and gram udyog in the UP government and its