Chidambaram, Law Minister Rijiju fight it over ‘sedition law’

Sedition law and whether to scrap it has returned to public focus once again. But this time, it's a bit different as the episode is marred by a Twitter war between P Chidambaram, a lawyer-turned-politician, and Union Law Minister Rijiju.

New Delhi: The row was triggered by senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, who tweeted, saying perhaps the Law Minister Kiren Rijiju did not read newspapers as the Supreme Court on several occasions made strong observations on the sedition law.

The former Union Finance and Home Minister's remarks came in reference to Law Minister Kiren Rijiju telling Lok Sabha that there was no proposal under consideration to scrap Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) dealing with sedition.

Responding to a question by Assam MP Badruddin Ajmal (AIUDF) on whether the Supreme Court has termed the sedition law as colonial and has made an observation that it is being misused, Rijiu said on Friday- there is no record of the Supreme Court making any observation on the sedition law.

On this, Chidambaram tweeted on Saturday, "The Minister of Law said that MHA has informed him that there is no proposal to repeal the sedition law (Section 124A). What he did not say was that MHA has proposals to book many innocent people under the sedition law!" 

The Congress leader also said – "What he (Law minister) did not say was that he does not read newspapers reporting the proceedings of the Supreme Court," Shortly after, tagging Chidambaram tweets, Rijiju hit back and asked how many thousand sedition cases were slapped on people by the Congress government.

"Law Minister may not read newspaper but Law Minister knows that media reports do not become part of official Depart records. Hon'ble Supreme Court is aware of how to make observations and how to pass formal orders!" Rijiju tweeted. 

In fact, sedition as per Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) reads as, "whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government established by law in [India], shall be punished with [imprisonment for life], to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years."

As per the Kedar Nath judgment in 1962, the sedition law was supposed to be applied in rare instances where the sovereignty of the country is threatened.