The highhanded manner in which the Maharashtra police arrested two young women in the aftermath of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s death — one for a Facebook post questioning Mumbai’s total shutdown, and another who merely “liked” the comment — has helped to highlight draconian rules written into our statute book. Censoring of free speech by microscopic scrutiny of users of social networking and microblogging sites could not but have led to such a situation, with the police and other enforcement agencies clearly guilty of overreacting. The women’s unjustified arrest has put the issue in clear focus, virtually compelling information technology minister Kapil Sibal to accept that there is a case to revisit some clauses of the Information Technology Act, particularly Section 66A, that gives authorities sweeping powers to harass virtually anyone who expresses the least form of dissent. Only six months ago in the Rajya Sabha, a motion to amend some sections of the IT Act was defeated by voice vote, when Mr Sibal was heard saying: “We are more liberal than the US and Europe, but let’s not cut our arms.” That there is a rethink now is due to the gross misuse of provisions of the law.
Mr Sibal’s argument that the IT Act’s provisions must be invoked with far greater care and at a much higher level in the police force is fair enough, but it begs the question of whether the law should continue to stand at all in its current form. What arming authority with the freedom to persecute anyone holding a negative opinion of political leaders does is to let governments bypass due process in picking on people. Curiously, in India, more seems to be done to take down content from the Internet that makes fun of politicians than material that could potentially spread disinformation and discontent.
To meet the new challenges posed by new media, as we saw in the way disaffection was spread so quickly in the mass exodus from the South of Indians belonging to the Northeast triggered by communal rumours, is not going to be easy. However, to take a closer look at the various provisions of the Information Technology Act that allow authority to act brazenly and without accountability is vitally needed, and swiftly, if law-abiding Internet users are not to feel that they are living in fear in a police state. Maybe, instead of finding fault with the excesses of police agencies, Parliament must aim to take corrective measures in the text of the legislation itself. The fear that our MPs are too busy politicking to pay heed to issues that demand their immediate attention is real as we watch Parliament fail to transact business for days on end.