As members in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday demanded scrapping of sedition law terming it as a “colonial relic,” the Government assured them the law Commission was reviewing it and acknowledged the definition of the law was “very wide.”
Making this observation, Home Minister Rajnath Singh also said the Government will hold discussions with all the political parties about changes in the law after the Commission submits its report. The Sedition law came in focus in the wake of recent JNU controversy.
Informing the House that the law Commission in its 42nd report in 1997 observed that the present Sedition law was “defective,” Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said the Commission, however, did not favour its deletion. Similarly, the Commission favoured substituting sedition with another word but did not advocate deletion, he said.
When some members including D Raja, who termed the Sedition law as “colonial relic,” sought to know justification for invoking the law against JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, Rijiju said the case was sub-judice.
The Government also rejected Opposition charge that it was rampantly using the law and pointed out that except the one case of JNU, sedition cases have mostly been registered outside Delhi.
Quoting figures from a report of National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB), he said a total of 47 cases under the sedition law were reported across the country in 2014 of which the maximum 16 cases were registered in Bihar in which 28 arrests were made. The second highest was Jharkhand followed by Kerala and Odisha.
leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said given the wide definition of the Sedition law as pointed out by the Minister “half of the parties of the country will be anti-national if there is a ban on speaking against the Government.” He also asked whether those engaged in “communal divide” will also be brought under the ambit of sedition law after review.
Sharad Yadav (JD-U) said this was a law made by the British and the Government should get rid of this “colonial legacy. This should be scrapped.” Yadav also sought an all-party meeting to discuss the sedition law, to which Rajnath Singh said, “we will do it after the law Commission gives its report.”
The Minister also agreed with Azad in dealing firmly with those fanning communal divide and said he was appealing to all the State Governments to take tough action against such persons.