Curious Case of a Cartoonist

What transpired in our democratic nation, a week ago, was a disgrace to our Right to Freedom of Expression. An ordinary,benign cartoonist, Assem Trivedi was charged with sedition and raging war against the government. The fact that such ridiculous charges can be imposed on a cartoonist in a free country is obnoxious. Moreover, his is not just a one-off case but next in the line of a series of such ridiculous cases filed against others like Binayak Sen, Arundhati Roy and others. It seems dissent is being made equivalent to sedition.

Before we make up our minds as to what classifies as sedition and how does sedition and freedom of speech co-exist, we must understand what the law states. The law of sedition was inacted in the pre-Independence era by the colonial rulers, to suppress the public rebellion against the authority of the King of England. It made culpable any expression of contempt against the King. When our country got Independence, the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru said that such law had no place in free India. Though, it remained in the constitution but to be only interpreted as an expression of contempt which is an incitement to violence. The Supreme Court of India has categorically stated this multiple times. It puts the Right to Freedom of Expression on highest pedestal. Any form of expression, dissent, opposition; howsoever gross, if not an incitement to violence, then it's perfectly legal.

This is what the law states but what the law enforcers don't know. Law of sedition is used as a tool against a social activist to sound a threat and that is why no sedition charge has ever been imposed on a politician or a bureaucrat. A politician, no matter how corrupt, can abuse his post and that is not sedition; but a cartoon or a letter or remark in support of India's own people is considered sedition.

The cartoon made by the cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi, wasn't one of the better cartoons you'll see. But it's his right to express his views, in the form he wishes. The grotesque case was filed with the police, possibly, only because of his active involvement with India Against Corruption. The worst thing is not that he got charged for making a cartoon but that many other RTI activists and social workers around the country, are getting harassed by the police on the same account. The corrupt have misinterpreted this law and taken it in its literal meaning, to use it to their advantage.

It's horrible that even after so many clarification, the police could act so naive as to interpret the law literally. It gets used by the corrupt and acts as a facilitator of corruption. There is a need that all of us understand the law clearly, in its correct form. However, the best way would be to abolish the law completely. This would establish clarity and would be in line with our Right to Free Expression.