New Delhi: The principal of Ayodhya district’s government-run K.S. Saket Degree College has lodged a complaint accusing six individuals, including some students of the college, of raising “anti-national slogans calling (for) azadi”.
According to a report in the Indian Express, the six persons were booked for sedition under IPC Sections 124-A (sedition), 147 (rioting) and 506 (criminal intimidation), apart from charges of obstructing public servants after an FIR was lodged against them on December 18.
Principal N.D. Pandey said that “indecent and anti-national slogans like Le ke rahenge azadi” had been raised inside the college premises on December 16. Pandey also said that given the college’s proximity to the Ramjanmabhoomi site, he needed to look out for “such anti-national activities” and couldn’t allow slogans “that are raised at Jawaharlal Nehru University”.
However, students at the college said that their slogans were directed at the principal and the chief proctor and they were only protesting against the non-conduct of union elections at the college.
Inspector of the Ayodhya Police Station, Ashutosh Mishra, who is investigating the matter, said, “Everything will become clear during the probe. We will be scanning CCTV footage, videos. If an offence is made out, action will be taken accordingly.”
In the complaint, the principal of K.S. Saket College, which was started in 1991 and has close to 10,000 students, said the admission process and classes have been underway at the college since December 7.
“During this, some outsiders, anti-social elements and so-called leaders started a protest demanding student elections. On December 16, these students entered the college and locked the main gate and misbehaved with teachers, college administration and students. They interrupted classes… They were raising indecent and anti-national slogans like le kar rahenge azadi. Due to the incident, there is anger and fear among the students of the college,” the complaint said.
Abhaas Krishna Yadav, who was elected student union president in 2018, told the national daily that the protesting students were only saying that they wanted “azadi” from the principal and chief proctor. “Now, the principal has used that and is saying they were raising anti-national slogans,” Yadav said.
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Yadav also pointed out that elections could not be held last year due to the Ram Mandir issue. “No one raised their voice as it was a sensitive matter. This year, the students are protesting because the elections have been cancelled while polling is happening across the country. When classes can be held, then why can’t elections be held for the student union?”
“Students had raised anti-national slogans that are raised at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi… that they will fight for azadi. What kind of azadi do they want? They wanted elections, we are still in the process of admissions. How can elections be held?” the principal said.
“This is such a sensitive place in Ayodhya, barely 500 metres from the Janmabhoomi. We need to look out for anti-national activities,” principal Pandey further added.
“They (students) were raising slogans of ‘azaadi’, they wanted to take azaadi by revolt and by violence, by burning the country. It’s my duty to protect the motherland, therefore, I have filed the complaint against them,” Pandey said.
Pandey refused to clarify which among the six students – Sumit Tewari, Shesh Narayan Pandey, Imran Hashmi, Satwik Pandey, Mohit Yadav and Manoj Mishra – against whom he had filed an FIR, were students of the college. “I can’t tell you who are current students, but some of the six are students, while some are former students and some are outsiders,” he said.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the college authorities have now announced that the students’ union poll will be held on February 10 next year.
In recent years, the Uttar Pradesh government has booked numerous persons under charges of sedition. In March this year, a district lawyer in Kanpur, was charged with sedition for retweeting a video of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath while calling him a ‘terrorist’.
At a rally in January this year, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath had said that raising “Azadi” slogans at protests would amount to sedition. “If anybody will raise slogans of azadi… it will amount to sedition and government will take very strict action,” Adityanath said. “It cannot be accepted. People cannot be allowed to conspire against India from Indian soil.”
Misuse of the sedition law has been widely documented in India, despite the Supreme Court’s clear instructions in the past. As The Wire has previously reported, the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that sedition is constituted by written or spoken words which “have the effect of bringing contempt or dissatisfaction or the idea of subverting government by violent means”. In Kedar Nath Singh v State of Bihar, the apex court said that if comments, however strongly worded, do not have the tendency to incite violence, cannot be treated as sedition.
The court also ruled in Balwant Singh v State of Punjab that raising pro-Khalistan slogans cannot amount to sedition as it evoked no response from the other members of the community.
The Twenty First Law Commission, in a working paper, also noted that criticising the government does not amount to sedition and that “people have a right to express dissent and criticise the government”. It said a higher threshold should be set to prosecute people for sedition law. “Sedition as an act of trying to destabilise the government should only be invoked in cases where there is a real threat or actual use of violent means to overthrow the democratically elected government,” the report said.