Human
Rights Watch urged the Indian parliament to repeal the colonial-era sedition
law, which has frequently been used by authorities around the country to
silence dissent.
“The Tamil Nadu protesters are simply speaking out on an
issue of great public concern,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South
Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Filing police cases against
peaceful protesters happens in China,
but should never happen in a rights-respecting democracy.”
Local residents, most in fishing communities, had initially
protested against the US$3.5 billion Kudankulam power plant, constructed with
Russian assistance, because they feared that nuclear waste pollution could
affect their livelihood. Other communities were also concerned about the
plant’s adverse effects on health and their livelihoods.
Fresh
protests erupted because many had experienced the 2006 Indian Ocean tsunami and
worried about a situation like the meltdown of the Fukushima
nuclear plant in Japan
in 2011. The recent cases followed these 2011 protests that had delayed
construction work at the plant. In March 2012, the Tamil Nadu government
decided to resume construction. Activists conducted a hunger strike in the
nearby village of
Idinthakarai and
villagers surrounded the protest site to prevent arrest of the activists.
The
government deployed thousands of security forces around the village, creating
an effective blockade that prevented the delivery of essential supplies to the
villagers, in an apparent effort to compel S.P. Udaykumar, convener of the
People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PANE), to turn himself in to the
authorities. The hunger strike was called off on March 28 after the government
agreed to address safety concerns and drop charges against the protesters.
PANE
submitted a list of concerns to the national and state governments, but has
complained that it has not received adequate assurances over safety and
livelihood concerns. Activists recently threatened to resume protests because
the government has not kept a promise to drop sedition and other charges
against ordinary villagers.
A
four-member fact-finding team representing the Chennai Solidarity Group for
Kudankulam Struggle found during a visit to Idinthakaari, the center of the
protest in March, that the police had filed criminal cases against over 50,000
people since October 2011. Apart from sedition, other charges range from waging
or abetting war against the state to disrupting harmony to unlawful assembly.
Nearly 200 people were arrested and later released. Two people remain in
custody facing charges of sedition and waging war.
India's
sedition law, section 124A of the Penal Code, prohibits any words either spoken
or written, or any signs or visible representation that can cause, "hatred
or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection," toward the
government. The Supreme Court, in 1962, ruled that unless the accused incited
violence by their speech or action, it would no longer constitute sedition, as
it would otherwise violate the right to freedom of speech guaranteed by the
Constitution.
“Instead of addressing the concerns of protesters, the Tamil
Nadu authorities are using sedition and trumped-up criminal charges against
ordinary fisher-folk and farmers,” Ganguly said. “These arrests should be a
warning sign to the Indian parliament to repeal the sedition law, which has
become a tool of repression.”
Instead of discussing the merits of the nuclear plant with
local communities, senior government officials have suggested that the protests
have been instigated by Western groups. In February, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh said that nongovernmental organizations involved in such protests were
funded by the United States
and Scandinavian countries. “The atomic energy program has got into
difficulties because these NGOs, mostly I think based in the United States,
don't appreciate the need for our country to increase the energy supply,” he
told Science magazine.
Officials
appeared to exploit the prime minister’s remarks to investigate several
nongovernmental organizations for possible violations of the draconian Foreign
Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), which allows the government to regulate
foreign donations to non-profit groups. The act permits the government to close
bank accounts and block foreign charitable donations, and includes criminal
penalties for violations. Human Rights Watch has long called for the law to be
amended so that it does not interfere with basic freedoms of expression and
association and so that it cannot be misused to choke the protected activities
of civil society organizations.
“Threats of prosecutions or the withdrawal of FCRA approval
should not be used by the government to censor and intimidate organizations and
activists,” Ganguly said. “By alleging that the protests are instigated from
abroad, the government is suggesting that Indians are incapable of speaking out
for their own concerns.”
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on India, please contact:
http://www.hrw.org/asia/india