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Kerala Kaumudi Online
Friday, 29 March 2024 8.18 PM IST

All protesters are not terrorists

protests

Parliament passes laws to make life easier for the people. But some laws are often referred to as draconian laws. During the Emergency, the MISA Act was called the draconian Act when it was abused to imprison political opponents and others for any long period without trial. Lalu Prasad Yadav named the girl who was born while he was in jail under the Misa Act in order to make a mockery of the law. If such nuclear laws were to be enacted and applied even to ordinary crimes, the very purpose for which Parliament passed them would be lost.

The Delhi High Court has ruled that the right to protest is not a violation of the law and that the UAPA Act cannot be evoked on charges of terrorism.

The court made the above observation after granting bail after one year to JNU students Devangana Kalitha, Natasha Narwal and Jamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, who were arrested on charges of conspiracy in the Delhi riots.

The court also sharply criticized the police for lightly imposing anti-terrorism laws on students who protested against the amendment to the citizenship law. The court observed that the government had blurred the boundary between the constitutional right to protest and the use of terrorism to quell dissent. "The right to protest is sacred. The protest should be peaceful. Even if such the limit is violated, it does not fall within the scope of terrorist activity defined by the UAPA Act. This observation by the court should open the eyes of the authorities. Terrorism is perpetrated by evil spirits.

They do it in secret and they don’t do it publicly, demonstratively. Law enforcers are not the ones who can't understand this. But UAPA is evoked in the first place, to appease the ruling political parties. No court can grant immediate bail if UAPA is imposed. The arrested person will be imprisoned for a long time until the law will take its course and determine whether invoking UAPA was right or wrong. The Delhi High Court's observation points figure at this.

It should not be overlooked that voice of opposition lead administers through the right path.
Even in the ancient wars, the Brahmastra was used by the gods as the last resort. In the case of Thanha, who was charged with offences like terrorism and raising terror fund, there were no such offences mentioned in the chargesheet. No weapons were found in his possession. Therefore courts should also come forward to take action against law enforcers who irresponsibly misuse such laws.

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