A rap on the knuckles for police, govt

With the Karnataka High Court reprimanding the police for questioning students of Shaheen Primary and High School, Bidar, in a case of sedition in violation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, the state government should initiate stringent action against the errant officers to ensure that such transgressions do not occur in the future. Perusing photographs placed before the court, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka observed that the schoolchildren, two boys and a girl studying in Classes 4, 5 and 6, were interrogated by five police personnel in January last, in full police uniform, with at least two of them carrying fire arms. While noting that only personnel in plain clothes can interact with children, the court also expressed dismay that a woman officer was not present though one of the students was a girl. Based on the complaint of an activist and obviously acting under political pressure, the Bidar police registered a case of sedition because one of the students had allegedly delivered certain lines critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while staging an anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) play. The single mother of an 11-year-old girl student, and a lady teacher, both belonging to the minority community, were subsequently arrested, charged with having coached the students to speak the “seditious” lines.

The two were later granted bail by a Bidar judge who noted that ingredients of sedition were prima facie lacking and that the play had not caused any disharmony in society. Though these unlawful, and inhuman, acts of the police had led to national outrage, the then state Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who is now the Chief Minister, defended them publicly, while the then Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar, instead of acting as a custodian of the harassed children, had chosen to look the other way. Director General of Police Praveen Sood also preferred to remain silent.

The High Court, while directing the government to respond on what action was initiated against the guilty officers, has also ordered the DGP to issue a circular across the state to ensure that such incidents do not recur. Given the government’s own complicity, not much can be expected. The court would do well to pass severe strictures against not just the officers involved but also their superiors so that this serves as a deterrent. Only a sharp rap on the knuckles, not a polite nudge, will ensure that draconian laws like the sedition law are not misused to hound citizens who do not agree with the government’s policies and law and are critical of it.