Chidambaram takes dig at law minister over ‘no proposal to scrap sedition law’ reply in LS

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday took a swipe at Law Minister Kiren Rijiju for stating that the home ministry has no proposal under consideration to scrap the sedition law, saying what he did not state was that it has proposals to book many innocent people under the the law.

Rijiju on Friday said in Lok Sabha that the Ministry of Home Affairs has no proposal under consideration to scrap Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) dealing with sedition.

Responding to a question by Assam MP Badruddin Ajmal on whether the Supreme Court has recently termed the sedition law as colonial and has made an observation that it is being misused, Rijiju said ”No such observations have been found in any judgment or order delivered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.”

Reacting to Rijiju’s written reply in Lok Sabha, Chidambaram tweeted, ”The Minister of Law said that MHA has informed him that there is no proposal to repeal the sedition law (Section 124A). What he did not say was that MHA has proposals to book many innocent people under the sedition law!” The law minister also said that there is no record of the Supreme Court making any observations on the sedition law, the Congress leader noted.

”What he (law minister) did not say was that he does not read newspapers reporting the proceedings of the SC,” Chidambaram said in another tweet.