Narendra Nayak
Does this law have a role in our society? Well let us take a look at article 51 A H of the constitution ofIndia
which deals with the duties of the citizen it states that-51A. Fundamental
duties It shall be the duty of every citizen of India (h)to develop the
scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. With a
constitution which states this and with a section of the IPC which is contrary
it is the article of the constitution which should prevail.
Section 295A. Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs
[295A. Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.— Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of [citizens of India], [by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise], insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to [three years], or with fine, or with both.]
This
section of the IPC pertains to insulting religions and religious beliefs.
Made by our colonial masters to divide and subjugate their vassals, like many
other provisions of the archaic laws made by them, this section too has been
carried over into our laws and is being used now mainly to persecute and hound
people who may have points of view contrary to those of the powers that be. The
rationalist movement and other progressive forces have been mostly at the
receiving end of persecutions under this but the others have been no exception.
The word 'persecution' has been deliberately used here as most of the cases
booked under this section have resulted in acquittals of the accused and all
they have had as punishment is the period of the 'due process of law' which can
take several years to couple of decades to complete.
Sanal Edamaruku |
The
recent one in this issue is the attempt to prosecute a rationalist from Delhi , Sanal Edmaruku. He
has been quite active on the TV channels denouncing superstitions and god men
on them and has been a regular feature on many of them. The most recent
controversy in which he has been involved is the one of a cement crucifix of
Jesus Christ in Bandra, Mumbai dripping water from its feet. There were hot
discussions of some TV channels about the veracity of this so called miracle
and there were some hot exchange of words in between him and others leading to
complaints against him under the above mentioned section 295A of the Indian
Penal Code for deliberate and malicious acts leading to outrage religious
feelings of any class here read as the Roman Catholic community. Again, the act
does not pertain to the miracle of the dripping cross but other words used in
the course of the discussions which have outraged the religious feelings of a
group of people called as The Organisation of Concerned Catholics (OCC) and the
Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) who had lodged complaints against Sanal at
the Juhu and Andheri police stations. It was said that Sanal’s contentions that
the so called 'miracle' was promoted by the church to fleece gullible people
and the prefix used for the head of the Roman Catholic church by calling him
Mr. Pope had angered these Catholics who chose to file this complaint. It was
in the newspapers that the Mumbai have summoned Mr. Edamaruku for questioning
on this complaint. A committee to defend him under the leadership of the
eminent Supreme court lawyer Mr.N.D,.Pancholi has been formed and funds are
being collected from all over the world for his defense.
Karantikar (left) with Telugu Revolutionary Folk Singer Gaddar |
It is not
the first time that this section is being used or that Sanal Edamaruku is the
first one to be hauled up under this. A couple of years back Krantikar, State President of Andra Pradesh Rationalist Association and Executive Committee Member of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations had been hauled up under the same sections and had
been in prison for quite some time as he had refused to apply for bail. His
crime - he had translated some write ups of Taslima Nasreen which had been
published more than decade back and were available to the world at large on the
web into Telugu and had published that in book form, which had again angered
the local fundamentalist Muslims who were after his blood. The ruling congress
party in the state had brought all these sections upon him to please their so
called 'minority vote bank'! The way it was done it was pretty obvious that the
case would be thrown out by the court but the 'persecution' part of it was more
important for the govt.!
Just at
the time of the Sanal case hitting the headlines a student of Hyderabad , Kartik had been arrested on the
same grounds for reacting that there is no god to someone who had greeted him
on Hanuman Jayanthi day. He had been arrested and was in police custody for
having expressed his convictions and exercising his constitutional right!
Again, the same law was used by a right wing student organisation to target a
member of a rival organisation. The saffron gangs are experts in using this law
to harass those who do not see eye to eye with them. In fact, they used it to
file complaints against those who organised and participated in a 'beef festival'
on the campus of Osmania
University recently.
Though one's dietary habits are one's personal business, one mans food can be
another one's religious sentiment! So, people could file complaints under
section 295A for eating beef (Hindu religious sentiments), Pork (Muslim
religious sentiments), any non vegetarian food (Jain religious sentiments) and
so on ad infinitum! It could be also argued that even the menus of hotels are
publications which are deliberately and maliciously composed to hurt them and
so on.
Like many
of the archaic laws made by our colonial masters have been relegated to the
dust bin in their country, this law too deserves the same fate. In fact it has
been advised by them that we should do so! Yet, we choose to have these which are
an affront to the very concept of human rights. If a person has the right to
propagate one's religion we should also have the right to question the same.
All the religions thrive by striking the fear of the unknown into the minds of
people and by spreading superstitious beliefs and questioning any of them
would be construed as hurting the religious sentiments and cases filed under
section 295A! If those who do so are members of a movement like ours then it
could be added that the intent was 'malicious and deliberate'!
I can
recall some instances from the past when we have been threatened with this.
About a decade ago, I had made a public statement about cows urine being the
urine of animal like any other- for instance a dog! At that time a campaign was
started by the peddlers of the concoctions containing cow’s urine that it was
an attack on the religious sentiments and I should be booked under this
section. A big debate went on for weeks and finally a legal luminary concluded
it by saying that though I deserved to be punished under that it could not be
done as I was born in a Hindu family! If I were to be born in a family
professing some other religion then I could have been prosecuted! He also added
that criticism and reform was a salient feature of Hinduism! So, the whole
controversy died a natural death. We have been threatened with the same when we
questioned faith healers of Christianity- the excuse was that they were just
conducting prayer meetings! The same was threatened when we exposed one Aslam
Baba who was supposedly conducting surgical operations with tailor’s scissors!
A couple of years ago when we had tried to investigate Mary's flex prints
shedding tears we had to struggle very hard to keep out any such allegations of
'hurting religious sentiments' !
Does this law have a role in our society? Well let us take a look at article 51 A H of the constitution of
Hulikkal Nataraj |
This has
been also stated in the Hulikal Nataraj vs Govt of Karnataka judgment of the
Karnataka High court. In this case a case was filed against him for making a
statement at a placed called Madikeri in Kodagu district of Karnataka. He had
stated in a public lecture that the so called miracle at Sabarimala at the
Aiyappa temple area was man made. It was about a flame called as Makara vilakku
from a hill called as Ponnambala Medu which was opposite the temple. The locals
who wanted to hound him and harass him had filed a complaint with the local
police station and the station house officer had straightaway filed an FIR and
a charge sheet and tried to arrest Nataraj who had gone to the High Court for
quashing the case. After a couple of years the judgment came as an indictment of
the whole system. In fact the judge called the Home secretary to the court and
also withheld the increment of the Sub Inspector who had attempted to arrest
Nataraj.
A couple of years back when we
had tried to investigate the phenomenon of flex prints of Mary shedding ‘tears’
at the church in Aluva, Kerala there were attempts to convert that too as clash
between various sections and to convert it into a outraging religious
sentiments issue as in the case of Sanal mentioned above. But, we were very
careful in our approach that nothing much could be done.
Such laws like section 295 A of
the Indian Penal Code have no place in a civilized society and need to be
consigned with many of such to the trash bins of history. Finally after mulling
over the legal issues and the secular aspects of the law, a philosophical
question needs to be addressed- why does an omnipotent deity need the services
of a mundane law made by puny human beings to set right alleged infractions of
divine laws made by a higher force? This is for the religious whose feelings
are ‘offended’ to answer!
2 comments:
wellsaid
"why does an omnipotent deity need the services of a mundane law made by puny human beings to set right alleged infractions of divine laws made by a higher force? This is for the religious whose feelings are ‘offended’ to answer! "
Excellent .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…I’m happy to find so many useful info here in the post, we need work out more techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing Attorney Dan Connolly New London NH
Post a Comment