Caricature of a case for sedition

Caricature of a case for sedition 

September 2012 

By Kartik Lokhande 

Several years back, there was a boy studying in Class IV. One day, the boy ‘drew’ a flower on car owned by his family and showed it to his father. The father got angry with the ‘scratches’ on the car and he thrashed his son with a plank. The scars on body of the boy were not visible after some time and so were the scar on his impressionable mind of the boy. However, the scar on his mind became visible some years later when he refused to draw anything anywhere despite coaxing by parents, and his aim changed to buying a car instead of becoming a good painter. 

This is what is likely to happen in case of lesser-known budding cartoonist Aseem Trivedi. Aseem has drawn cartoons that are in utter bad taste and some even amount to disrespect to national symbols, for which he deserves penal action under provisions pertaining to National Emblem Act and Prevention of Desecration of National Honour Act. But, slapping the charge of sedition for this is like the punishment given by father to his son in the story mentioned above. Obviously, slapping of the charge of sedition has made its impact on Aseem’s conscious and instead of batting for freedom of expression and scope for fair criticism against the Government and the powers-that-be, he is not raising pitch for repealing of Sedition law. Though the issue has found its way to many school-level debates on electronic media, nobody appears to be bothered about outcome of the action taken by the Government. 

If one goes into the recent past, one can feel the rising intolerance in the Government or political circles against even a fair piece of criticism. The political establishment in a democratic country like India is rattled and angered when its motives are questioned by voters. The peaceful movements have been crushed initially and then ignored as it is convenient compared to corrective measures taken to ensure accountability to people in the Government functioning. In a country like India, where majority is always silent, such a situation leads to a stage when those in the field of art of expression give way to their seething anger through their artistic expression. If such artists are young, their expression is bound to be immaturish and very rude and crude. 

Obviously, the work of the likes of ‘angry young men’ like Aseem are not liked by many. But, when apart from taking action under relevant sections of law, the establishment slaps the charge of sedition that has to be used only in extraordinary circumstances in a democratic set-up, it results in two things. One, the lesser-known individuals like Aseem are made into a hero fighting against the Government ‘oppression’. Two, scope is created for radical elements to take over the cause of fight for making the Government more accountable and transparent. The second part is more dangerous as it may lead to transforming youngsters like Aseem into radical thinkers or artists. Besides, when radical elements enter the movement on the verge of a collapse forced by the Government, they tend to use the movement to further their cause. In case of Aseem, soon, the ultra-Leftists or other radical thinkers will jump into the bandwagon and demand repealing of Sedition law.

Of course, there are other schools of thought. These raise uncomfortable questions for the Government as to why sedition charge was not slapped against the likes of late painter M F Hussain, politicians who were found to be keeping Indian money into the Swiss banks, those accused in various cases of kick-backs in procurement of Defence equipment, or the politicians who instigated mobs in some (in)famous cases of riots in the country. The Government has no answers to these questions and hence it prefers to make political points or react by way of criticism of the criticism. 

The present case has a point of reference to the anti-corruption movement led by noted Gandhian Anna Hazare also. The Government or established political class crushed, then ignored, and then left the movement to die its own death. Soon, the movement may see entry of radical elements and then it will be difficult for the Government to either take action or to crush the movement without evoking stronger reactions. Unfortunately, at the level of the Government, not many appear to be aware of this psychology of radicalisation of peaceful movements. In a diverse country like India, once peaceful movements are radicalised, even the Rightists or Centrists join them unknowingly as by the time they are transformed from critics to cynics. Slapping of sedition charge against immature cartoonist like Aseem has to be viewed in the light of these aspects also. 

Against the backdrop of these things, one is reminded of John F Kennedy’ famous statement made in 1962, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” Hopefully, the Indian Government takes a leaf out of that and concentrates more on calibrated response to non-existent controversies like the one over Aseem’s crude cartoons and the anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare.