Don't you dare speak against the Government's stupid decisions, you Aam Aadmi!

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.