Strict laws have always been used to suppress dissent and political opposition.
photo by shutterstock
It is a cruel irony that the draconian amendments to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in 2019 are celebrating the centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre with the nation. It is pertinent to remind those who drafted the amendments that Indian patriots were shot at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919 on the orders of General Reginald Dyer, who gathered to protest against the Rowlatt Act, 1909, which called for detention without trial. There was a provision to keep In retrospect, and given the application and consequences of our own counter-terrorism laws, particularly UAPA, it is probably safe to say that British law was far more humane than our current terrorist laws. The UAPA amendment is actually an insult to the martyrs of Jallianwala Bagh.
Montesquieu, the respected French jurist, said, “Every punishment that does not arise out of absolute necessity is tyrannical”. Criminal law should, in fact, be used final ratio-A last resort- and only for the “most reprehensible wrong”. Justice or righteousness is the source,…
.