With the Legislation Fee of India proposing retention of the sedition legislation with key amendments, the Congress on Friday accused the Centre of planning to make the colonial-era legislation extra “draconian” and giving a message forward of subsequent yr’s Common Election that it is going to be used in opposition to Opposition leaders.
“The BJP, via its instrumentalities and companies, is clearly utilizing or intending to make use of sedition as a instrument to subverse, subjugate and silence dissent….. This authorities has obliquely declared its clear intent to proceed its selective and partisan misuse of this legislation in opposition to political dissent,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi stated.
Stating that the Supreme Court docket had stayed the operation of the legislation on sedition solely a yr in the past, Singhvi stated it’s “fairly astonishing” how the Legislation Fee has beneficial not solely retention of Part 124A of IPC however making it harsher and extra ferocious. “This can be a horrible, tragic, and treacherous improvement,” he stated. “The BJP is planning to develop into draconian, drastic and lethal by misuse of a colonial-era legislation.”
He stated the Legislation Fee’s proposal makes the prevailing legislation “much more draconian and invasive, much more prejudicial by enhancing the decrease finish of punishment from three to seven years. It clearly ignores the letter, and extra importantly the spirit, of Supreme Court docket proceedings final yr, which particularly rendered the whole offence of sedition stillborn, clearly meant to be inoperative pending its repeal or considerably softening.”
Singhvi stated the proposal has supplied no extra safeguard, caveat or any limitation to forestall the legislation’s abuse. “It has despatched a transparent sign as to the colonial mindset of this authorities,” he claimed. “A colonial mindset coupled with a sign despatched to the nation that we intend to retain this draconian provision as a menace to you, as a menace upon you, as a menace in opposition to freedom of speech, thought, and motion, which is the essence of democracy itself,” he stated.