Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, one of the petitioners who called for the colonial-era sedition law to be scrapped, told NDTV today that the government’s sudden move to decide on a review of the law is “just a ploy to buy time”. The matter, she said, deserves to be referred to a seven-judge bench.
“This is partly the same thing they did with the marital rape issue in Delhi High Court. The (sedition) law has been there was 150 years. They have been in power for nearly eight years. If they wanted to do something, they (could have)… it is that now they realise there is an actual possibility of this (law) being examined by a larger bench, a seven judge bench… so they do this to buy time,” she told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
“This is basically to say ‘stay off, we will do what we want to do’, and they will sit on it for years and years,” she added.
The Centre today told the Supreme Court — where the sedition law has been challenged by Ms Moitra and several other petitioners — that it has decided to review the legislation, two days after firmly defending the law.
The government attributed the change of heart to inspiration from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Declaring that PM Modi is “in favour of defending civil liberties”, the government asked the Supreme Court to wait for the review by a “competent forum” and urged it to “not invest time” on the petitions.
Ads by
The petitions from Ms Moitra, the Editors’ Guild of India and others came as the law — once used by the British against freedom fighters — is being regularly used to silence critics by both central and state governments.
Calling this a misuse of the law, Ms Moitra said the protection against misuse, placed in 1962 by the Supreme Court, has been “completely disregarded”.
Criticism of the government cannot be construed as a seditious offence, accompanied by incitement or a call for violence, the top court had said in 1962, while maintaining the validity of the law.
Questioning why the government’s move is coming on the eve of a solution, the Trinamool MP said, “Let it be referred to a seven-judge bench. The Attorney General has already said that he is ready to argue. Let him argue”.
