Beyond the sedition law

The IPC alone offers a bouquet of choices to suppress freedom of expression

The government’s unexpected decision to review the sedition law has, predictably, set off fevered public debate. Coming just after it defended the statute before the Supreme Court on grounds that abuse of the law is no argument for scrapping it, there is much speculation over whether the Modi regime means to dilute the law or read it down. The latter would mark a revolutionary change in tonality for the National Democratic Alliance II. Either way, though, it would be premature to conclude that India is about to enter some sort of Golden Age of freedom of expression.  

Attaining that paradise depends