Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar has called for the repeal of the sedition law, saying that Section 124(A) of the Indian Penal Code is “misused against people who criticise the government”.
He made the statement in an additional affidavit — a copy of which was made available Thursday — filed before an inquiry panel looking into the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence. The NCP chief said other provisions of the IPC and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act were sufficient to protect national integrity. Pawar also listed possible changes to the Code of Criminal Procedure and the IPC.
The octogenarian’s comments come at a time when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government – an alliance of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress – have booked independent lawmaker-couple Navneet and Ravi Rana on charges of sedition after they announced they were going to recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s residence, Matoshree, in suburban Bandra. Pawar is said to be the architect of the MVA.
While the Opposition BJP has slammed the move of booking the couple, the MVA government has defended the action, with state Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, an NCP leader, saying the Mumbai Police was acting according to law.
Soon after the arrest of Independent MP Navneet Kaur Rana and MLA Ravi Rana, Pawar said that people should “keep their religion at home and not bring it on the roads”, adding such attempts created hatred and clashes in the state.
NCP chief Pawar’s affidavit was filed on 11 April, more than a week before the police arrested the Ranas from Mumbai on 23 April.
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‘Sedition was inserted by the British, misused now’
In the affidavit, Pawar said, “Section 124(A) of the IPC which deals with sedition was inserted by the Britishers in 1870 to control the uprisings against them and to suppress the freedom movements.
“However, in recent times this section is often misused against people who criticise the government suppressing their liberty and tend to stifle any voice of dissent raised in a peaceful and democratic way.”
The affidavit, accessed by ThePrint, further reads that the proposed misuse of the sedition law should be “stopped with amendments or the said section should be repealed”.
In October 2018, Pawar filed an affidavit before the Bhima Koregaon Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating the violence that ensued at a gathering to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon on 1 January 2018. At that time, Pawar had raised suspicion about the role of Hindutva groups in violence.
He had stated that he was “not in a position to specifically make allegations against any particular organisation” for causing the violence.
In the additional affidavit filed four years later, he stated: “It is reiterated at the cost of repetition that I have no personal knowledge or information about the sequence of events leading to the unfortunate incident at Koregaon Bhima. I have no allegation to make against any political agenda or motive…”
‘Reintroduce Section 66A of the IT Act’
Among several suggestions, the NCP chief also spoke in favour of bringing back Section 66(A) of the Information Technology Act, which the Supreme Court had struck down in 2015 as “draconian”.
“Ironically the IT Act has not kept pace with the ever-evolving cybercrime challenges…I say that the damage of fake news propagated on social media can lead to serious religious tensions, caste tensions and other incidental episodes,” Pawar said.
He added that Section 66(A) of the Information Technology Act provided for “cognisable, non-bailable offences against cyber crooks” who spread allegedly slanderous campaigns online and communal hatred using the Internet or indulged in defamation. ;
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