The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
Repeal the Anachronistic Sedition Law
Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) considers the recommendations of the Law Commission on tweaking the Sedition clause of the Indian Penal Code to be inconsistent with and negating the Supreme Court’s observations.
The Supreme Court had stayed the operation of the Sedition Act until the Union government takes appropriate legislative steps to remove this anachronistic law from the statute books.
The Law Commission, however, appears to have further strengthened the provisions of the Sedition law by extending the minimum jail term from the earlier three to seven years. These recommendations are ominous as they come in the background of the manner in which the ED and CBI are being brazenly misused to target leaders of the opposition parties.
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands the repeal of the anachronistic Sedition law.
(Muralidharan)
For CPI(M) Central Committee Office