Demand rises to scrap ‘colonial-era’ sedition law

SWETA GOSWAMI

 A large number of lawyers, scholars and students are now demanding that the Centre scrap the colonial era law of sedition. The demand comes at the backdrop of the controversy surrounding the Jawaharlal Nehru University where a six students were charged with sedition for allegedly raising anti-national slogans at a pro-Afzal Guru event organised in the campus.

Describing the current situation prevailing in the country, Justice Jaspal Singh, one of the speakers at the public meeting held at Gandhi Peace Foundation, expressed that Section 124 (A) of the Indian Penal Code has almost turned “nauseating” for him and many others in the country. Speaking about JNU students union president who was granted bail on Wednesday, he said, “We must thank Kanhaiya for now we know what sedition is. Kanhaiya is a challenge to the establishment, he is a movement.”

JNU Professor it the School of International Relations, Nivedita Menon highlighted how government policies have been formulated for the systemic exploitation of natural resources. “It is when people or different classes oppose these policies that the sedition law is used to suppress dissent,” she said.

Ms. Menon further insisted that it is the first time in the history of the country that a “Left-Ambedkarite Feminist Solidarity” movement has emerged – the credit of which she attributed to the students.

Dhonta Prashanth, a friend of Hyderabad Central University scholar Rohith Vemula, narrated their ordeal for “merely objecting” the ban on screening of a movie in Delhi university. “We had a tough time confronting the students from ABVP. They got us expelled from the university just because we had complained and one of them had to give us a written apology. All the five of us, including Rohith, who were expelled come from very poor families in villages. A point came when we were fearful of explicitly revealing are leaning towards Ambedkar’s principles,” he said.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/article8306977.ece