Congress members in the Lok Sabha and Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy on Tuesday got into a war of words over the number of sedition cases over the past 10 years. While the Opposition party accused the government of misusing the law against sedition, Mr. Reddy responding by asking the Opposition not to lecture the government on democracy.
Congress member from Telangana, Anumula Revanth Reddy, sought to know the number of cases registered under the offence of sedition across the country during the last 10 years, the conviction rate and the steps taken for their speedy trial.
He had focussed his question on climate activist Disha Ravi, who was arrested and later granted bail in connection with the so-called ‘toolkit case’ regarding the farmers’ protests, and also the number of cases registered against farmer union leaders after the January 26 violence in Delhi.
In a written response, the Minister of State for Home shared that 54 cases of sedition were registered in Assam between 2014 and 2019, 36 in Jharkhand, 31 in Haryana, 30 in Karnataka, 25 in Jammu and Kashmir and 17 in Uttar Pradesh.
“In 2019, the conviction rate (for sedition) was 3.3%. This means these are politically motivated cases. If a youth leader is booked for sedition and the cases drags for four to five years, he/she is not in a position, they won't get a job, passport, visa. Activists like Disha Ravi are charged, but they are not able to prove anything in the court,” the Congress MP said. He also asked “if the government would drop the false charges against farmer union leaders protesting against the Centre's three farm laws.”
In his reply, the Minister made it clear that “there is no direct involvement of the Centre in sedition cases” and asserted that during UPA government, all sedition cases were clubbed with Indian Penal Code (IPC) cases and that’s why the government could provide data for 10 years.
Manish Tewari of the Congress also accused the government misusing the sedition clause to suppress free speech.
Countering Mr Tewari, the Minister said the Congress need not lecture on misuse of the law as it had used the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) against opposition leaders such as Jayaprakash Narayan and Atal Bihari Vajpayee during the Emergency.
