And 46 years ater if you criticize Prime Minister Modi, and PM does not like it, the government can arrest you using the UAPA act. So it's like an emergency period as with the fear of arrest, nobody dares to criticize the government then? There are still many draconian laws in India to repress the citizens. And UAPA is one such act that reminds us dark days of emergency.
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Amit Shah, on July 8, 2019 amended the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The Act provides special procedures to deal with terrorist activities, among other things.
It is to be noted that the 21-month emergency period was the time when media was badly muzzled and used to propagate the forced sterilization propaganda initiated by Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, in 1976. Under this program it was made necessary for the Indian men to undergo sterilization in order to limit the population in the country. It left people fuming over the authorities as there were men who were unwilling to undergo vasectomy under any circumstances.
Free press, the presence of strong opposition, and independent judiciary, all of them were missing during the emergency period and censorship over the media was on top priority. Many newspapers and magazines were banned during that period. Within three hours from taking the decision to impose the emergency in India, electricity supplies to all the major newspapers were cut. Indian Express and Times of India were some of the major newspapers that spoke against the censorship and carried blank editorials and headlines with bold letters criticizing the emergency. And BJP (then Jan Sangh) leaders slammed the govt for censorship.
Black laws like MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) and COFEPOSA were misused. Under the MISA, there were around 1,00,000 arrests including journalists, scholars, activists, opposition political party members and social activists, and all of them detained without a trial for a period up to eighteen months. Some of the notable leaders arrested under MISA during the emergency period were: Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Chandra Shekhar, Lal Krishna Advani, Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav.
The Act was against the fundamental rights reserved for the people in the Constitution of India and violated basic human rights. Article 22(1) states that any person who is arrested, cannot be detained in custody without being informed of the grounds of any such arrest as soon as possible
The Act was revoked by the Janta Party led-government in the 44th Amendment Act of 1978, which also removed MISA from the 9th Schedule that had provided it an immune status till date because there was no provision of judicial review under the schedule.
Another act COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974) is still there. The Act was enacted in order to prevent smuggling and black-marketing in the foreign exchange and retain foreign currency, in December 13, 1974, before the emergency was announced. The Act is still functioning and has been criticized by civil authorities and human rights activists on the grounds that it is an economic adjunct to that of MISA and should be repealed. The top trade association ASSOCHAM has also asked for repealing of the Act.
The act described as Indira Gandhi's legacy has survived to this date. The Janata Party repealed MISA 1971 but its economic adjunct COFEPOSA continues to be in vogue owing to the Supreme Court order in the Dimple Dhakkad case delivered on July 18. 2019,. Court ruled “the liberty of an individual has to be subordinated within reasonable bounds to the good of the people. Order of detention is clearly a preventive measure and devised to afford protection to society. When the preventive detention is aimed to protect the safety and security of the nation, the balance has to be struck between the liberty of an individual and the needs of the society.” The Court, hence, upheld the detention of the Gold smuggler.
Another unpopular act that still persists is the AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) 1958. The Act was passed by the Parliament on 11 September 1958. The law has six sections that grant special powers to the Indian Armed Forces in “disturbed areas” or the areas in which there is political turmoil or unrest of any kind. The Act has received severe criticism from various sections of the society as well as political leaders, for its violation of basic human rights that include killing and seizure and search of private property without any warrant..
Supreme Court ruled in 2016, “accountability is a facet of the rule of law.” Court ruled that the armed forces cannot escape investigation for excesses in the course of the discharge of their duty even in “disturbed areas”. In such notified areas, security personnel enjoy statutory protection for their use of “special powers”. While hearing petitions demanding an inquiry into 1,528 deaths in counter-insurgency operations and related incidents in Manipur, the court has said the provisions of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and the purported immunity it offers to the use of force “even to the extent of causing death” are not invincible. Such legal protection, especially in a State that has been under AFSPA for nearly 60 years.
At present, it is in force in the States of Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur {excluding Imphal Municipal Council Area}, Changlang, Longding and Tirap districts of Arunachal Pradesh, and areas falling within the jurisdiction of the eight police stations of districts in Arunachal Pradesh bordering the State of Assam.
The Public Safety Act (PSA) is another draconian act that has been used indiscriminately in Kashmir to facilitate preventive detentions of “suspected terrorists”, especially since Burhan Wani’s death in 2016.
The ac has been badly misused in U.P. As many as 44 people were killed and 540 injured in UP in 2017. Thiere were 29 deaths and 490 people injured in 2016, and 22 deaths and 410 injuries the previous year. The incidents of communal violence in places like Bulandshahr and Saharanpur clearly showed the involvement of the Hindu Yuva Vahini and local BJP activists. Those involved were reprimanded but strict legal action against the culprits did not follow.
On January 16, 2018, the Adityanath government issued a press statement in which it said the UP police had invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against 160 people in order to control law and order and racking up 1200 police encounters in 10 months. The most prominent of the NSA detentus was the Bhim Army founder Chandrashekar Azad.Chandrashekhar Azad was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in November 2017, but the Uttar Pradesh government continued to detain him under the National Security Act until it dropped the NSA order in September 2018 and releasedhim from jail.
In India, most of the laws have been more misused than hounored in letter and spirit. So emergency or no emergency, dark days loom large on innocent people.
(Chander Sharma)
No comments:
Post a Comment