ON 5 February 2019, a Punjab District Court in District Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawa Shahr) sentenced 3 28-29 year-old Sikh youths to life imprisonment and Rs 1 lakh fine each for ‘sedition’ or ‘waging war against the country’. They had committed no crime, nor had any weapons or explosives been found on them. According to the police charge sheet, they were allegedly in possession of some “objectionable books and pictures” and it was on the charge of keeping these “dangerous materials” that they were convicted.
The CPI (ML) Liberation organised a sit-in in front of the Mansa District Court complex on 7 February against this unjust verdict which flies in the face of several Supreme Court verdicts which have made it clear that only an act of organised violence can qualify as ‘sedition’ under the sedition law. The draconian sedition law continues to be used to suppress dissent, and it is an attack on the Constitution to describe speech, slogans, or literature as ‘seditious’. Leaders of many Sikh organisations also joined in the protest. The protest pointed out that this case was registered by the police in May 2016 during the Akali-BJP rule in Punjab: and thus even the Akali Dal which claims to represent Sikh interests, colluded in persecuting Sikh youth under a draconian law for no crime at all.
