Note: This interview was originally published on July 23, 2021 and is being republished on July 27, 2021 after Sashi Kumar and N. Ram petitioned the Supreme Court on the Pegasus spyware matter.
The Wire‘s Mitali Mukherjee speaks to senior journalist Sashi Kumar, the founder of Asianet and the current chairman of the Asian School of Journalism, about the allegations uncovered by the Pegasus Project and also the law of sedition.
He says that from the names of people who have been revealed as targets or potential targets of surveillance, it is evident that the snooping is political in nature. He said the intention of this is “very clear”, implying that the surveillance is state-sponsored. Kumar said that the onus is now on the government to prove that it has not ordered such surveillance.
On the issue of sedition, which Kumar has challenged before the Supreme Court, he said it was time for the law to be removed in its entirety as its vague and overboard nature has had a chilling effect on the right to free speech, and has been severely abused in the last few years.
This discussion comes in the backdrop of three Supreme Court benches agreeing to hear petitions seeking a declaration that Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code is unconstitutional. Between 2014 and 2019, a total of 326 cases were registered in the country under this controversial colonial-era penal law on sedition. However, just six persons were convicted.
The Supreme Court has observed that the offence of sedition has been enormously misused and even asked the Union government why it was not repealing the provision used by the British to “silence” people like Mahatma Gandhi to suppress the freedom movement.