UAPA Amendment Bill: A draconian legislation in the service of fascists in power
Independent India has witnessed several draconian legislations that have been introduced by different governments—Preventive Detention Act (PDA) (1950), Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) (1958), Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) (1967), Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) (1971), National Security Act (NSA) (1980), Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) (1980), Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) (2001), etc. The ruling classes in India have had to take resort to such draconian legislations from time to time so as to suppress any challenge to their exploitative and brutally oppressive rule. Now with the fascist government at the helm, the brazenness in enacting such draconian law has also reached new heights. With the recently passed UAPA amendment bill, the Modi government has armed itself with the power to declare any political opposition to its fascist policies as terrorist. No wonder, with this amendment, UAPA is being described as the most dangerous legislation in India.
UAPA was first introduced in 1967 which declared some activities as unlawful. In 2004, the UPA government did away with the notorious POTA, but introduced some of its draconian provisions into UAPA to make it an omnibus preventive detention law and expanded the definition of “unlawful” activities to include the definition of “terrorist act” and “terrorist organisation”. UAPA was further amended in 2008 and 2012 to include TADA and POTA like provisions regarding maximum period in police custody, incarceration without a charge-sheet and restrictions on bail. Now Modi government has further amended UAPA to make it the most draconian law in the history of independent India.
The new amendment allows the National Investigation Agency (NIA) much greater control of cases that would otherwise fall under the domain of the police in individual states. Clearly, it is an infringement to the power of the states and goes against the federal polity and yet another instance of centralising tendency under the rule of fascist government. Secondly and more importantly, the amendments will also allow the Centre to declare individuals as terrorists and not just organisations. This amendment gives the government unbridled power to declare its opponents as terrorists.
While introducing the bill in the Lok Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah said, “…there are those who attempt to plant terrorist literature and terrorist theory in the minds of the young. Sir, guns do not give rise to terrorism, the root of terrorism is the propaganda that is done to spread it, the frenzy that is spread. And if all such individuals are designated as terrorists, I don’t think any member of parliament should have any objection.” This statement lays bare the real intention of the government behind introducing the new provisions in the UAPA. Nowhere does the amended act mention what is the definition of terrorist literature or terrorist theory. Thus, it is upto the government to decide which particular literature or theory promotes terrorism. No prize for guessing that the fascists will declare all such literature and theory terrorist that has the potential to expose their nefarious designs. Needless to say that Marxist literature and Marxist theory would be on the top of government’s hit list.
It is noteworthy that the chapter 4 of the existing UAPA already has a provision under which the government can prosecute an individual if he engages in a terrorist act. If the government provides sufficient evidence to prove that the individual in question has indeed carried out a terrorist act, the courts are already vested with power to give sentence as per the existing provisions of the UAPA. Despite this if the government has gone ahead to include a new provision to declare an individual as terrorist, it is because it wants to declare even those as terrorist against whom it does not have enough evidence to prosecute and whom it wants to defame and stigmatised.
If there was any doubt as to who are the real target of the Hindutva fascists, Amir Shah made it explicit in his speech while introducing the UAPA amendment bill, “those who work for the Urban Maoists will not be spared.” The epiteth of ‘Urban Naxal’ or ‘Urban Maoist’ has been used by the Sangh Parivar and its hirelings for quite some time now. This vaguely defined term is an empty container which can be filled with anything by the fascist Modi government. Thus, anyone fighting for the rights of workers, dalits, tribals, women can be called an “urban naxal”. Now UAPA will be used as a legislative tool to implement RSS’s and government’s sinister agenda to brand their opponents as traitors and terrorists. Recently Jaipur based ‘Vishwa Samvad Kendra’, an RSS outfit has published a pamphlet titled “Kaun Hain Urban Naxals?” (Who are the Urban Naxals?) which has listed India’s renowned intellectuals and human rights activists as Urban Naxals. Some of these intellectuals and activists such as Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha are already booked under the provisions of UAPA. With the amended UAPA, the government has added one more arsenal in its armory to malign, prosecute and incarcerate its opponents.
“The Marxist solution of the problem of democracy is for the proletariat to utilise all democratic institutions and aspirations in its class struggle against the bourgeoisie in order to prepare for its overthrow and assure its own victory. Such utilisation is no easy task. To the Economists, Tolstoyans, etc., it often seems an unpardonable concession to “bourgeois” and opportunist views, just as to Kievsky defence of national self-determination “in the epoch of finance capital” seems an unpardonable concession to bourgeois views. Marxism teaches us that to “fight opportunism” by renouncing utilisation of the democratic institutions created and distorted by the bourgeoisie of the given, capitalist, society is to completely surrender to opportunism!”
– Lenin, ‘Reply to P. Kievsky (U. Pyatakov), Against dogmatism and sectarianism in the labour movement
