For most of our history the idea of democracy would have been viewed as absurd.
Government of the people, by the people, for the people - Though the idea is inspiring and revolutionary, but the reality is often ugly and manipulative. Instead of political equality and people empowerment, in India today, democracy has become a game dominated by the power of elites and dominant classes. Rule by the people has become largely a symbolic sideshow, while the real exercise of political power is happening behind the scenes.
The history of democracy in India, which is considered to be the largest democracy in the world, is indeed, particularly peculiar, as it was almost thrust upon the people. When the new Constitution was implemented, it was an unprecedented model of democracy from above which enjoyed the support of the people from below. This was made possible because the leaders of our freedom struggle, by leading the national movement, earned the faith of people and established a kind of political hegemony over the people.
But as demonstrated by the unveiling of a new scam almost every week, in India, the current ruling party, with its influence, has robbed the people of any effective role in the democratic process. This has brought back the importance of participation and deliberations of common people in public affairs.
The civil society of India launched a campaign to curb corruption, which gave voices to the common people of this country. With the rise of social media and public platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the “Aam Aadmi” was empowered to share his views on a public forum and gather support from like minded individuals.
When some people used this freedom to openly express their views against the ruling or powerful people, the government tried to curb their opinion by abusing the powers vested in it by the people. As a result, we have seen people being imprisoned because of their views and opinions expressed through social media websites.
Although the mass media in India enjoys a degree of freedom that would be the envy of several countries, there can be no denying that this freedom is occasionally curtailed by questionable action of our government. One need not go very far to trace examples of the obscurities of these laws and procedures. In the recent past, we have seen numerous cases, where the government has misused the law to arrest and harass those people who raise their voice against the ruling and powerful people, especially on the Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Recently, the Government of India misused the sedition law, section 124A of the Penal Code, to imprison a young cartoonist – Aseem Trivedi, who was arrested for criticising the corrupt state of affairs in the country. The sedition law was also misapplied to convict civil rights activist Binayak Sen and register a case against writer Arundhati Roy and others for speeches they made on Kashmir. The Sedition law prohibits any words either spoken or written, or any signs or visible representation that can cause “hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection,” toward the government. But this law was made by the British, during colonial times, and has been applied to great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who
raised a voice against them. In a democracy like India, there is absolutely no need for such a law to exist.
In another case, Shaheen Dhada, a 21 year old girl from Maharashtra was arrested for a comment posted on Facebook and her friend Renu Srinivas was arrested for ‘liking’ the comment after the police received a complaint about it from a political leader. This was another example of abuse of power by the government and police. The helpless girls were arrested under Section 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes), by the police, which acted under pressure from various political groups.
The government has also misused its position to violently counter the peaceful mass protests carried against them. While last year, the Delhi Police blew lathis on thousands of peaceful protestors at midnight, protesting at Ramlila Ground against the issue of corruption, this year again, the government resorted to similar tactic to disperse the crowd that had gathered on India Gate to demand justice for a gang rape victim and tougher laws for security of women in the country.
Another law, which the government has been misusing to its advantage, is Section 66A of the Information Technology Act which calls for Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc. This non-bailable section offers a maximum of three years of prison to anyone who sends "offensive" messages. Under this section, anyone causing even "annoyance or inconvenience" can also be labeled a violator. Some critics feel that the section goes against the freedom of speech guaranteed under the Constitution.
This section has repeatedly been used to suppress dissent since its passage, beginning with a Jadavpur University professor who was arrested for allegedly circulating a caricature of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Bannerjee, which was then spread around on Facebook. Earlier this year, it was again cited as a reason to arrest an industrialist for tweeting that Karti Chidambaram (son of Mr. P. Chidambaram) had amassed more wealth than Robert Vadra.
The speed at which information can spread via electronic medium can sometime prove to be very dangerous, as we saw when thousands of citizens from the North East living in other parts of the country started heading home because of fears that arose from rumors of imminent violence. The movie Innocence of Muslims that was uploaded on YouTube hurt religious sentiments and led to protests on a massive scale that also claimed many lives.
This law, which was created to prevent such incidents from happening, was instead misused by the powerful to curb any voice raised against them, and it happened because there is no clear definition about the IT rules. Everyone has his own interpretation and such ambiguity leads to confusion.
As is evident from the incidences mentioned above, there could be different views, and this is a requirement of democracy. But just because someone’s opinion differs from that of common opinion of the society, is no justification for its curtailment. If the government is authorized to censor anything and everything, the society would be reduced to an oppressive, dictatorial regime where any right to freedom of expression is virtually redundant. I think it is time, the government of India rethinks its strategies and be more tolerant towards
some criticism from its people and uses the law to make this country a safer and happier place to live.
