Citizen, nation, sedition

Sedition law isn't just a colonial hangover. It's a convenient weapon for under-performing governments to conflate themselves with the nation and use against critics

The law of sedition is a remnant of the colonial times, does India need it 75 years after Independence — this is the question Chief Justice of India N V Ramana asked the Modi government’s Attorney General Thursday. The question was both substantive and rhetorical. Here’s why it isn’t the nub of the issue.

The sedition law isn’t awful because we inherited it from the British Raj. Most of our laws have continued from the same era. This includes the Indian Penal Code, going back to 1860.

The problem with the law of sedition is that the motive behind it was colonial.