AA Edit | Learn To Respect Different Views

“You don’t need him; you need a dictionary,” the Supreme Court’s curt reminder to the special investigation team (SIT) of the Haryana police, formed on its orders to investigate two cases against a professor of Ashoka University, points to the way the law and power are being abused by the State. It is also a reflection on how they harass citizens and seek to strip them of their fundamental rights, including their right to speech and expression. The SC’s intervention stopping the SIT from expanding the scope of the probe and calling the teacher for a fifth time in the name of investigations is, indeed, a welcome step.

The two FIRs filed against the academic were based on two Facebook posts he had written referring to Operation Sindoor. The court ordered the setting up of the SIT comprising senior IPS officers “to understand the complexity and for proper appreciation of the language used in the post”. After two months, the court found the SIT was misdirecting itself and seizing devices the academic used apart from questioning him over his foreign trips. The court refused to buy into the argument of the SIT’s counsel that it is the prerogative of the investigating officer to decide on the mode of investigation, and insisted that its scope was limited to ascertaining the contents of his two social media posts only.

There was no doubt India was attacked by Pakistan-based terrorists and that the country had every right to retaliate but that does not mean that no citizen can share their opinion on the matter. Such an opinion may or may not be palatable to the powers-that-be even and may or may not fit into the government’s narrative; but the government still cannot take away the agency of the citizen at will. And if it does, such a republic can hardly call itself a democracy. The apex court must see to it that attempts to muzzle a citizen are not welcomed in this country. Moreover, it must ensure that the institutions of the government have no overweaning power to harass anybody under the guise of conducting investigations. Free will is a sign of a healthy democracy, and the government must learn to live with its critics and dissenters.