Blog

(Much of this

and misuses of the law; the more prominent being the Keenan-Reuben murder case and Naina Singh’s unexplained death. Many thanks to her!)

Remember when you were 5, and someone on the playground said you’re absolutely terrible at batting, and you went crying to mommy? What did mommy say? “Ignore them, son, you’re good at it, they just don’t know it” or maybe even “Practice everyday and become awesome at it, and then you’ll show ‘em!”? Not “Wait here while I get them arrested and send men to ransack their uncle’s clinic”, right?

It’s absolutely absurd to have an open-ended law for something as wide as “taking offense on the internet”. All it does is create an

extremely convenient excuse for men with influence to keep the country from speaking its mind.

This is

what Section 66A of the IT Act says:

Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device,—
a)any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character; or
b)any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device,
c)any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to misleadthe addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages.
Punishment – Imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine.

Let’s begin with the fact that there are 4 counts of the word “any” in a law with 3 sub-points. The presence of the term “causing annoyance, inconvenience” itself empowers the government to attach this Section and arrest citizens for the most trivial of issues.

Of course, in almost all absurd cases of arrest, the court will dismiss the charges as too frivolous. However, since the offence is a cognizable one (cops can

file FIR, investigate and arrest without a warrant from the court), you will have to face all the trouble of an arrest, the humiliation as well as an arrest on your permanent record.

This extreme degree of vagueness is where power-tripping political parties like the Shiv Sena walk in. It’s a perfect setting: examples can be made out of, voices can be silenced, anything that’s affecting the agenda is conveniently pushed into a corner.

A woman posts a status on Facebook, the gist of which was “It’s just Bal Thackeray’s death, the bandh in Bombay is absolutely unnecessary”? Arrest her on Section 66A! (Of course, this is not even withstanding the fact that she was arrested for Section 295A, which speaks of making statement with communal hatred, and that had nothing to do with this!). And none of this is a new phenomena; Bal Thackeray’s death just happened to highlight the misuse of a redundant law that has been misused for ages. NDTV recently reported that back in May, two Air India employees were arrested for posting jokes “of a lewd nature” about politicians, on a closed Facebook group

(meant only for Air India Cabin Crew members). So many of us share these jokes about politicians all the time, because well, they’re jokes! Humour, apparently, is not one of politicians’ strengths. Big surprise.

Meanwhile, NDTV put out another video with cops from Palghar trying to appease Sainiks and assuring them how they’re in complete agreement with their sentiments.

Check out the video here.

All that’s left to do is for the cop to fall to his knees, begging forgiveness to the Sainiks.
It’s disgusting in the end of that video to hear that Sena activist’s half-crazed drawl in the end saying to the cop, “yes, give that apology letter to me”. Drunk on so much power, these Sainiks will really stop at nothing to be stubborn in a way that would put most 5-year olds to shame.

We live in a country with ancient Victorian laws that nobody has bothered to change, and why would the administration bother changing them? After all, they’re so hideously convenient to crush any semblance of dissent in the country, and they work like a charm! Kapil Sibal claims that the IT Act’s provisions must be invoked with far greater care. Yes, let the government steer us around like sheep while Mr. Sibal takes utmost care of us and protects us from heavens-know-what.

The two policemen involved in the arrest were suspended; some consolation in the otherwise ridiculous state of affairs. But there’s going to be more policemen, and they’ll all want to take the easy way out in maintaining peace on their beat: appease the Shiv Sainiks, live in peace. Bow down to their demands, sleep well at night. The issue is not whether the policemen did the right thing or not; the issue is that they had to do it to be able to maintain peace.

A political party that’s quite literally blackmailing the government, holding the entire population of Bombay ransom with with assurances of violence if their word isn’t the last word. A party who has only picked enemies as per the convenience of their agendas, and shamelessly run their own law over the city.

For as long as major cities have existed, gangs have ruled these cities. But while we’re quite clear that these parties have absolutely no sense of humour and will break down everything that injures their egos, let’s not give provisions in law that makes it easier for them to keep us down and shut us up, please?

After the initial hubbub this created, it’s lost into oblivion. On and off, here and there, we hear of arrests based on Section 66A, and having read about it once, you come to realize how baseless they are, and how the Section is used more as a cure for a fragile ego than anything else. Unless someone actually DOES something about this ridiculous snippet of law, our freedom will continue to be curtailed.

Let’s draw the line on this dodgy business of policing freedom of speech for political agendas and of using mass violence as a threat if things don’t go their way.

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References:

> Centre for Internet & Society article, breaking down Article 66A:
http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/breaking-down-section-66-a-of-the-it-act/

> Full episode of NDTV’s coverage of cops shown trying to appease Shiv Sena men:
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/mumbai-kya-mangta/facebook-arrest-ndtv-accesses-video-showing-cop-appeasing-sena-men/255818/

> NDTV coverage of arrest of Air India employees: http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/two-air-india-employees-arrested-for-facebook-posts-spend-12-days-in-custody-297118?fb/