A few days back, Mr. Aseem Trivedi, a cartoonist living in Mumbai, hailing from Kanpur was arrested. Charges? Sedition.
He had drawn a cartoon depicting the Indian Emblem with three wolves instead of the three lions; had 'Bhrashtamev Jayate' written on it, which means 'The corrupt shall always win'. An activist, Aseem has been an active member of India Against Corruption. Now the question arises, was the arrest fair?
As
we all know, corruption has become an omniscient part of our
day-to-day life. A.Raja's 2G Spectrum Allocation Scam was worth
Rs.1,72000Crores. He allegedly swallowed 3000Crores down his
esophagus. Coal Allocation Scam was worth Rs.1,86000Crores, the PM's name was also tainted. As an Aam-Aadmi, I was forced to wonder, “Is this not Sedition? Desh-droh!”. I did a little internet based research on the Section
124A of the Indian Penal Code which defines Sedition. Shockingly, what I found out, was that
the law talks only about 'the Government' and not 'the Nation'. Here it goes, it
says:“Whoever,
by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred
or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards,
the
Government established by law in India...”.
My
question to myself was, why is the law limited only to 'the
Government'? As a citizen of India by law, don't I have enough rights
to speak against the Government's false decisions
openly? After-all who elects them to the office? We, the Aam-Aadmi,
right? Who pays their bills? We, the Aam-Aadmi, through the taxes
imposed on us. So, after funding everything they spend, don't we have
the right to speak if they falsely spend our money? While more than
half of the nation lives with less than Rs.20 a day, more than
Rs.36,000Crores were spent on the Commonwealth Games. Now if I
question this, I openly talk about this, and if this creates a feeling
of 'disaffection' toward the Government, what wrong am I doing?
On
going deeper, I found out that the law was designed by the British, in the year 1870. Then, the prime aim of the Government,
as in the Britishers, was to drain all the wealth of India and send it to their
country, exploit and chain us, and hence the law was formulated to
kill every voice that speaks against them. 142 years later, the law, remains the same. Later I found out, that in the year
1997, Bilal Ahmed Kaloo, then a judge in Andhra Pradesh's High Court
stated, “The
offence of sedition under section 124A is the doing of certain acts
which would bring the Government established by law in India into
hatred or contempt, or create disaffection against it”
So, he repeats what the Britishers said. Is it that the Parliament
and our Courts can't see that the law is unjust and unfair, oppressive
and imperialistic? Or is it that the Governments since 1947 have
always kept this law alive as a secret-weapon to counter whoever speaks
against them? And what can an Aam-Aadmi do? Fight? Protest? Or simply
get back to 'somehow' earning a living in an environment of high
inflation rates, corruption and oppressive control that he lives
in? The question remains unanswered, for obvious reasons.
While Mr. Aseem Trivedi now walks free, with the charges on him taken back, a sense of disrespect for the Government and its down-market tactics to dampen each and every voice against it, sustains, loud and clear, yet whisper-like. Cause who knows? Anybody could be the next Aseem. “Jailed for questioning how his own hard money is being spent.” India is a Pseudo-democratic country, it appears to me now.
While Mr. Aseem Trivedi now walks free, with the charges on him taken back, a sense of disrespect for the Government and its down-market tactics to dampen each and every voice against it, sustains, loud and clear, yet whisper-like. Cause who knows? Anybody could be the next Aseem. “Jailed for questioning how his own hard money is being spent.” India is a Pseudo-democratic country, it appears to me now.
