“Our country has a long history of gross abuse of power and deprivation of human rights in the context of the laws relating to sedition, Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. In order to provide legal sanctity to their repressive measures, successive governments in India have armed themselves with so called ‘anti-terrorism’ laws, namely UAPA, TADA, Sedition Law and AFSPA etc.; each successive law being more draconian than the previous one. These laws also stand out for the remarkable consensual support they enjoy from various ruling parties, albeit with pretence of differences depending on who is ruling where and who is in opposition where. This is best illustrated by the manner in which a grand show was made of repealing POTA by the UPA government in 2004, while incorporating all of its draconian provisions in UAPA, including ‘conspiracy’ and ‘act preparatory to the commission of a terrorist act.’ While different political parties of the ruling classes mouth opposition to various acts of state repression depending on their political convenience, none have sought to mobilize their support base for the abrogation of these laws, for they rely on the same to secure themselves as and when and where ever they are in power. Rather, these acts have been become tools tried and tested by successive governments to suppress dissent and crush peaceful democratic movements. The recent death of Father Stan Swamy, as an under-trial prisoner in the Bhima Goregaon case Under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is illustrative of the gross misuse of power. Thousands of under-trials, who are entitled to bail under the ordinary criminal trials are denied bail and made to suffer prosecution in false cases. The Sedition Law owes its existence to our colonial masters who in order to perpetuate their colonial rule, resorted to the draconian laws of sedition, Great freedom fighters like Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi suffered trial and imprisonment under the sedition laws in their fight agsinst the british rule. Unfortunately when they themselves cam to power, they failed to repeal the ‘Sedition Law.’ Instead the first constitutional amendment to India’s constitution was carried out to introduce the words ‘public purpose’ in Article 19 (1) to curtail the right to freedom of expression, and hence grant respectability to colonial era tools of subjugating the people. Independent India has no justifiable reasons to continue the law of sedition. However, our rulers continued with the laws of sedition to stifle dissent. Recent history shows widespread misuse of the draconian laws to suppress legitimate political expressions and protests. It is little surprise then that today we have reached a situation where students, journalists, writers, human rights activists, and members of the minority communities are by default included in the definition of a terrorist. This change in understanding of who is a terrorist and what constitutes terrorism is best exemplified the recent statement of the National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval who while addressing the new IPS recruits said that a next front of war needs to be opened against the ‘civil society.’
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