Humans for Change

It was in 1891, during the times of immense struggle and hardship, when for the first time an Indian subject was charged with the draconian law of sedition. Jogendra Chandra Bose, the editor of a newspaper was pulled up by the then colonial government for criticising a bill introduced by the British Crown. Undeniably, this authoritarian law was used as an instrument to ingrain fear and terror in the minds of subjects and keep a tight rein on the activities of freedom fighters in order to further the British dominance agenda.

It is pertinent to note that the persons who were charged with this law during the pre-independence era are still remembered and celebrated today as the spirited freedom fighters who were not afraid of rising against injustice and dominance. In fact, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was charged by the offence twice and spent a total of six years of imprisonment for his articles in the Kesari. Believe it or not, but Mahatma Gandhi himself was also charged with this tyrannical crime. In 1922, Gandhi was taken to court for his articles of criticism in Young India magazine where he was extremely aversive to the idea of this law, and strongly denounced it by observing the following: “Section 124A under which I am happily charged, is perhaps the prince among the political sections of the IPC designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen.”

It is quite unfortunate that even decades after India gained independence, this illiberal law not only continues to exist but also thrives. In the recent times, we have seen some of the most absurd cases of sedition. The owner of a school got arrested for displaying a wrong map of Jammu and Kashmir, Divya Ramya got charged for it for tweeting that “Pakistan is not hell. People there are like us,” while the JNU row is a whole other story. Surprisingly, ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), the student wing of the BJP, even went ahead and filed an FIR for sedition against Amnesty International, a world renowned human rights organisation which has done immense work to promote the rights of the Indian citizens.

Another term which is doing the rounds is ‘anti-national’ which is repeatedly used to describe the persons charged with this law. Unfortunately, what the many users of this term are forgetting is the fact that there is a clear difference between being critical of the government and being against the nation. There is a dire need to understand that criticism is the biggest virtue which leads the nation into progress and advancement. Perhaps the remedy for the excessive and unrestrained usage of this expression may be another term called ‘tolerance’ and the much useful practice of ‘agreeing to disagree.’

An extremely important question that now arises, nearly a century and a few decades after the introduction of this law, is that what is the need of this law in the present times and why has it still not been repealed? Ironically, recent actions of the government with regards to Article 370 of the constitution indicate that the Modi regime is much keen on repealing ages old laws which seemingly have no requirement in today’s “new” India. It is indeed a perplexing situation in which one wonders why the statistics suggest a rampant increase in cases of sedition in the last few years. The joke that is going around is that in India, you can get arrested for liking a facebook post and even writing a blog (Hey there, CBI).

Interestingly, the makers of the constitution of India discussed the issue of sedition at length and various debates were carried out after which the word was dropped. However, it still remained a part of the Indian Penal Code which was originally drafted by the British. The law was opposed by the majority of the leaders of the newly independent Indian state as also many of them had suffered imprisonment under the same law by the British. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, went on to say the following: “Take again Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code. Now so far as I am concerned that particular Section is highly objectionable and obnoxious and it should have no place both for practical and historical reasons, if you like, in any body of laws that we might pass. The sooner we get rid of it the better.” However, unfortunately, it still remains as a tool in the hands of the government which is repeatedly used to shut down voices of criticism and freedom while various other countries including the United Kingdom have already done away with it.

Today, the law is misused to exercise blatant abuse of power and is a bane for the freedom of expression of the citizens. Once charged with it, the accused loses his passport, is labelled and mocked by society and has to bear the high cost of litigation to defend himself.

I consider it a privilege, therefore, to be charged under that section.
MAHATMA GANDHI

We, at Humans for Change, would very much like to know your opinion on this matter, so go ahead and leave a comment so that we can discuss this with you!

The new Motor Vehicles act is finally here and we are all for it. The amended bill which was tabled in 2016 has finally been given assent by the President and was brought in force earlier this month. The amendments to this bill have been well written and are quite progressive in nature.

The policy makers have been diligent to keep in check the amount of penalties in consonance with the current time which was not the case a decade ago, for example, a violation of not wearing a seat belt or of not wearing a helmet on a two wheeler resulted in a penalty of 100 rupees before but now the penalty has been bumped up to a 1000 rupees. Other stricter violations such as driving without a license or driving despite disqualification whose penalty had needed to be amended severely have also been raised to 5,000 and 10,000 rupees respectively.

The bill has seen to do justice to grave offences under certain provisions like drinking and driving which now has a penalty of 10,000 rupees and/or imprisonment upto 6 months for first time offenders but for second time offenders the fine goes to 15,000 rupees and/or imprisonment up to 2 years.

One of the primary areas where the bill is said to concentrate on is for developing stricter laws especially for the underage demographic i.e juvenile offences such as driving or drinking and driving which has held the guardian to be liable for a fine of 25,000 rupees with a 3 year jail time and simultaneously leads to cancellation of the Motor Vehicle’s Registration.

It is seen that new expressions and terms have also been included in the amendment,like,terms such as the “golden hour.”

Golden hour has been designated as that one hour right after the accident takes place which is said to be very critical for the life of the victim.

The act has also encouraged the citizens to give a helping hand to victims of road accidents by providing for the rules of Good Samaritan in the bill which certainly has helped the bill to be protective about the people who volunteer to get involved in the process.

Another expression which has been and was needed to be incorporated is the “aggregator” which is a digital intermediary or marketplace for a passenger to connect with a driver for the purpose of transportation. The set principles of such intermediaries by which they needed to be governed are also included in the bill.

The bill has tried to draw attention to the hazards of climate change thereby also reducing corruption in the transport department by providing for automated fitness testing of the vehicles.The testing agencies issuing automobile approvals have been brought under the ambit of the Act and standards will be set for motor vehicle testing institutes.

Therefore,it can be concluded that the bill has been amended with a comprehensive approach and to all its entirety. The significant bumps which were needed to be made in the penalties/fines are believed to encourage people to become less reckless and rather alert while travelling on the road.

The new definitions and terms which have been introduced are well put but lack a bit of clarity which might hinder the implementation of the amended act,like,the bill has provided for a National Road Safety Board which has to be created by a notification by the central government but it is yet to clarify its functions and its functioning.

But something which needs to be put under heavy observation is that implementation of such fines come through and should not result in people merely bypassing them by paying a meagre amount to the cops which would impede the growth that has been intended with this bill and would defeat the purpose of the amendment.

Sedition – A Slippery Slope

Motor Vehicles Act, 2019