*People's Union for Civil Liberties*
29.01.2021
To : The Editor / Chief Reporter.
Martyr’s Day: Recalling Gandhi’s Vision of Freedom and Liberty as
Creating an Inclusive, Plural, Tolerant India with a Sense of Humour!
On 30th January, 2021, we mark the 73rd anniversary of the very date when
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by someone who did not share his vision of
an inclusive and plural India. The PUCL would like to mark this important
date by remembering the values which Gandhiji stood for which are under
threat today.
We want to remember a Gandhiji which the current establishment would rather
forget, namely someone who was deeply committed to the ideal of ‘political
freedom’ which was not just ‘freedom from the British’ but a commitment to
fundamental values and principles. For Gandhiji, “Civil liberties
consistent with the observance of non-violence are the first step towards
Swaraj. It is the breath of political and social life. It is the foundation
of freedom. There is no room there for dilution or compromise. It is the
water of life”.
It is this commitment to civil liberties which we need to uphold in the
contemporary context. An essential dimension of civil liberties is the
freedom of speech, expression and association- all of which are under
attack today. We live in an egg shell democracy where ‘hurt sentiments of a
community’ as well as state intolerance of criticism are reasons to shut
down speech.
The words of Gandhiji give us a sense of moral clarity on how we should
approach this question of a state and community quick to take offence to
speech they consider ‘offensive’ or ‘seditious’. As Gandhiji put it:
“Liberty of speech means that it is unassailed even when the speech hurts;
liberty of the press can be said to be truly respected only when the press
can comment in the severest terms upon and even misrepresent matters….
Freedom of association is truly respected when assemblies of people can
discuss even revolutionary projects”.
This commitment to speech as form of truth telling to the state, where the
individual lays bare the injustices of the state is best seen in the famous
Ahmedabad trial when Gandhiji was prosecuted for sedition. Gandiji had
written a series of articles lambasting the colonial state making the case
that, ‘We are challenging the might of this Government because we consider
its activity to be wholly evil. We want to overthrow the Government. We
want to compel its submission to the peoples will. We desire to show that
the Government exists to serve the people, not the people the government”.
For this writing Gandhiji was prosecuted under Sec. 124-A IPC, for
sedition, which under law is ‘exciting disaffection against the state’.
Gandhiji’s response in Court was to plead guilty and make a statement which
challenges the sedition law under which he was prosecuted. He says:
“Section 124-A under which I am happily charged is perhaps the prince among
the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the
liberty of the citizen. Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by
law. If one has no affection for a person or system, one should be free to
give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not
contemplate, promote or incite violence... But I hold it to be a virtue to
be disaffected towards a Government which in its totality had done more
harm to India than any previous system”.
One hopes that the message of Gandhiji resonates far and wide, reaching the
ears of those in power that ‘affection cannot be manufactured by law’ and
that if the citizen has ‘no affection’ towards the state, she must be free
to give vent to that ‘disaffection’ as long the expression is non-violent.
Another aspect of Gandhiji we wish to remember is that when the British
enacted the Rowlatt Act which authorized preventive detention and denied
detainees the right to legal representation, Gandhiji was outraged. He
began the nationwide civil disobedience movement to repeal the draconian
Rowlatt Act as according to Gandhiji the state had no right to lock up its
opponents without trial and without legal representation.
Today we have in place a law which in every way parallels the Rowlatt Act,
namely the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The state has used it
as a tool to detain its critics as seen by the arbitrary and malicious
arrest of sixteen human rights activists in the Bhima Koregaon incident as
well as the continued detention of the constitutionally minded and
democratically committed anti- CAA activists as well as human rights
activists in all parts of the country including Kashmir. The state has more
recently invoked these provisions against the farmers who are protesting
against the farm laws as well. In short, the message is clear. Opponents of
the state will be targeted with the draconian UAPA.
Those arrested have not been released on bail and some of them have spent
over two years and more in jail. Remembering Gandhiji today is to commit
ourselves to fighting against this unjust law and demanding `repeal of the
UAPA’ and the release of those unjustly incarcerated.
Finally, in remembering Gandhiji we would not like to forget that Gandhiji
was not just a brave freedom fighter with an indomitable commitment to the
basic freedoms which define what it is to be human, namely the freedom to
think, the freedom to protest and the freedom to worship, but also a human
being with an impish sense of humour.
Sarojini Naidu jokingly called him ‘Mickey Mouse’ because of the way his
ears stuck out and he himself was not averse to cracking jokes. When he met
King George V and a reporter reputedly asked him why he had so little
clothes on, Gandhi is said to have remarked, ‘The King has enough clothes
on for both of us’.
Why we would like to remember the mischievous Gandhiji especially today is
because, Munawar Farooqui, a young comedian from Gandhiji’s own state,
languishes in jail because he dares to crack jokes at the current political
establishment. Ironically Munawar was arrested by the MP police for a
comedy programme which did not even take place! The dark tragedy of the
police abuse of law is mirrored by the High Court refusal of bail on the
ground that no one can be permitted to offend religious sentiments,
unmindful of the fact that the alleged offensive statements had not been
made. It is a sad commentary of our democracy that today comedians of all
stripes and hues find themselves under unprecedented attack as the state
has lost its sense of humour and comedy is criminalised.
We would like to commemorate the values Gandhi stood for by demanding that
the state
• Repeal the UAPA
• Release all those falsely arrested under UAPA
• Stop using UAPA as a tool of harassment
• Respect the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression
• Develop a sense of humour
Sd/-
Dr. V. Suresh, General Secretary, PUCL
&
on behalf of PUCL, #StandWithStan and over a hundred organizations and
#REPEALUAPA
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