UPDATED: March 1, 2021 22:51 IST
Fear is the key: Climate activist Disha Ravi being escorted to a local court in Delhi (Photo: AFP)
On February 14, when Delhi Police arrested 21-year-old Bengaluru-based climate activist Disha Ravi and slapped charges of sedition on her, two distinct narratives emerged in the media. One group of people branded Ravi, who has been accused of making edits on a controversial online toolkit to allegedly defame India, an enemy of the state. The other called the Delhi Police action another instance of the blatant abuse of the sedition law by people in power to curb dissenting voices. And it s not just Ravi. In January this year, three sedition cases were filed against Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and six journalists, including India Today Group s Rajdeep Sardesai, for tweeting unverified news about the farmers tractor rally in Delhi on January 26. Last year, Section 124A of the IPC (Indian Penal Code), which deals with sedition, was invoked
Sedition in India: Colonial Legacy, Misuse and Effect on Free Speech
Since its inception, Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, which punishes sedition, has been a tool in the hands of the state to curb criticism and dissent. It has been used by the colonial British government as well as by successive governments of independent India against political dissidents.
Six senior journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Anant Nath, Paresh Nath, Zafar Agha, and Vinod Jose and Shashi Tharoor, member of Parliament from the Congress, had been booked for “posting tweets and deliberately circulating fake news” about the death of a farmer during the farmers protests in Delhi on 26 January 2021.