Section 124A...... is perhaps the prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen. Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law. If one has no affection for a person or system, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite to violence.- Mahatma Gandhi
 
 Let me come straight to the point. It is high time that the draconian law of sedition which was enacted in colonial days by the Britishers more than 150 years back is amended to meet the present era. I really wonder why no attempt has been made till now to amend the law of sedition even after more than 73 years of independence.
 
 More often than not, it has been misused to a great extent but what a supreme irony that this draconian Section whom even Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation treated with open contempt and anger describing it as prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen' is still continuing unabated. What is even worse is that our political class has never thought it fit to amend this draconian Section to meet the present circumstances by inserting adequate safeguards to check its gross abuse leave alone abolishing it altogether. I agree that national interest is paramount and no citizen can be above it but that should not be a ground to give a weapon to the police to use this most abused Section against anyone voicing the slightest amount of criticism against the government of the day.
 
 It merits no reiteration that the draconian offence of sedition was actually imported as Section 124A of the IPC from the English law into Indian law in 1870 to perpetuate the British colonial rule and crush the birth right of citizens of India to criticize the British government in any manner which could brew the slightest amount of disaffection in any manner! Needless to say, this draconian Section should have been repealed immediately after independence or at least suitably amended to check its gross abuse as a potent weapon in the hands of police to harass innocent citizens! But sadly, that has not been done till now even after more than 73 years of independence nor any safeguard inserted and in the name of safeguarding national interest it is continuing unabated and unchanged!
 
 It is a very sad commentary on the state of affairs prevailing in our country! The noted Left leader Prakash Karat had just recently publicly aired his anger at Section 124A which he feels should have no place in a liberal and democratic country like India. Those who stoutly advocate retaining it on the ground of protecting national interest so that nobody in our country openly shout anti-India slogans like Pakistan Zindabad or Pervez Musharraf Zindabad! They have a point certainly but safeguards must be inserted and also if any police cop is found to have deliberately framed an innocent person, he/she must be not only dismissed from service but also jailed for a minimum of at least ten years so that they can learn from their own experience what it means to be in jail!
 
 Why should any ordinary Kashmiri or any Indian be booked under Section 124A for shouting 'Musharraf Zindabad' or even 'Pakistan Zindabad' as long as violence is not incited or law and order is not threatened? Is it not a fact that our former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former deputy PM LK Advani etc and leading media houses like 'India Today' and 'Hindustan Times' all welcomed Gen Musharraf who himself master minded Kargil war in which we lost thousands of soldiers and entered inside Indian territory about 14-15 km to personally supervise the slaughtering of our soldiers and not stopping here even paying Rs 1 lakh as cash prize to Iliyas Kashmiri, the dreaded Al Qaeda terror leader in 2000 for presenting him with a severed head of an Indian soldier which gladdened him to no extent as reported in various English daily newspapers and who even threatened to nuke India if India dared like Pakistan did in Kargil and stepped even one step inside Pakistani territory!
 
 As if this was not enough, he ordered that Captain Saurav Kalia and 5 soldiers of 4 Jat Regiment be tortured for nearly a month, eyes be burnt with hot iron rod and then gouged out, ears chopped off, fingers crushed and not even their private parts spared. Their dead body bore signs of cigarette torture and other gruesome torture also and yet India never raised this horrendous torture cum killing in any international forum rather decided to lavishly honour Musharraf, recognized his illegal regime which acquired power through coup and treated him like a God! Similarly Pakistan is repeatedly sending terrorists to attack our Parliament, Red Fort, and all places of public importance since last more than 30 years yet our leaders say We can't change our neighbours. We have to live with them.  When we can be so tolerant towards a Pakistani army invader like Pervez Musharraf and hostile nations like Pakistan then why should our government not be tolerant towards its own people?
 
 We all know very well that time and again our political class has been accused of hobnobbing with terror outfits and receiving money from hostile countries like Pakistan! Don't we know all too well that how in the famous Jain Diaries Case some very senior political leaders of Pakistan as also of India were named!
 
 This alone explains why they believe in holding 'talks and dialogues' with terrorists (who get training in hostile nations like Pakistan by ISI, their army etc on how best to destroy India) and Pakistani army and invader generals like Gen Musharraf and not with rapists, murderers or other ordinary criminals who never receive such training on how best to destroy India and care a damn even as thousands of our soldiers and many innocent people are massacred by them and above all even our highest temple of democracy – Parliament is not spared!
 
 Why is it that when they hold talks and dialogues with 'terrorists' or hostile nations like 'Pakistan' and declare ceasefire for them, never ever has sedition or any other anti terror law been imposed on them but an ordinary citizen even on suspicion of harbouring terrorist or saying 'Musharraf Zindabad or Pakistan Zindabad or Khalistan Zindabad' is immediately booked under not only Section 124A of IPC but also under POTA and other anti terror laws ? This was what once a Kashmiri asked me when I went for a trip there in Srinagar in 2005!
 
 In essence, this blatant abuse of Section 124A and other anti-terror laws happening with impunity must now stop forthwith so that no innocent citizen suffers for no fault of theirs! To say the least, it should either have no place in a democratic country like India or be suitably amended so that innocents don't have to go to jail without any reasonable cause. The least that must be done is to reduce the maximum imprisonment term from life to seven in consonance with the recommendations of the Law Commissions as made earlier or ideally three! It brooks no more delay!