Ludhiana - “The new criminal laws do not facilitate justice, they are a tool to deprive citizens of their rights and make them helpless subjects by silencing them. It is necessary to create a mass consciousness movement against these laws to prevent India from becoming a police state.” These views were expressed by Advocate Daljit Singh, the chief speaker, while addressing the Democratic Consciousness Convention held under the chairmanship of Professor Jagmohan Singh Jaswinder Phagwara at Punjabi Bhavan here today.
He said that the right to life enshrined in the constitution is not just the right to stay alive, it guarantees a dignified, free life with human standards. The three new criminal laws by the BJP government completely contradict this constitutional agreement and have been imposed on 140 crore citizens of the country by the dominant political party in the Parliament in defiance of parliamentary etiquette. Whatever the ruling party may claim, these laws have been passed to take away the democratic and constitutional rights gained through long and life-threatening struggles.
Explaining the illegal nature of the laws, he said that the implementation of notoriously repressive laws like UAPA required government approval. Now the obstacle of government approval has been removed by making the definition of terrorism of UAPA as Section 113 of the Indian Judicial Code and now a police station can lock anyone in jail with the approval of the district police chief. Traditional methods of struggle like strike, pan-down strike, road-rail blockade etc. can be brought under the ambit of illegality.
He said that the Modi government's claim of abolishing the treason clause is completely false because any comment about the bad conditions of the country or the corrupt administration will be considered anti-national under section 152 of the BNS related to unity and integrity. Funding or supporting in any other form any movement of the sections dissatisfied with the present dispensation or government will also be considered against the integrity of the country. A hunger strike or other forms of public pressure will be considered an illegal act of suicide under the new legal system.
He said that this system has no solution to the problems of the people and all these legal proposals are a tool to silence the conscious sections who raise questions and terrorize the people. There are serious threats to the constitutional guarantee of the right to dignified life. Through these laws, far from getting justice for the deprived, poor and marginalized sections of the society, it has been made almost impossible to file an FIR against the oppression or injustice done to them in case of many crimes. Which will be recorded only at the discretion of the local police officer.
Similarly, by extending the remand period to 90 days, the right to bail has been rendered ineffective and the powers of the police have been increased by reducing the powers of judges. Addressing the audience, the state presidents of the Democratic Rights Council, Professor Jagmohan Singh and Jaswant Jirakh, said that by keeping the names of the laws in Hindi, an attempt has been made to hide their anti-people character and to spread the illusion of freedom from the colonial legacy. While more than 80 percent of the laws have been copied and pasted.
 It is the same legal system under new names that was created to strengthen the colonial state and under which the British colonial government continued to burn Indian patriots in jails. Jaswinder Phagwara, the state leader of Rational Society, said that the government is afraid of the power of people's struggles and due to this fear, stricter laws are made to prevent people from speaking by terrorizing them. Conspiracies of power can be thwarted only by spreading the awareness about these anti-people laws to every house in villages and cities. He emphasized the need to agitate for anti-superstition legislation.
It was demanded by passing resolutions in the convention that the Punjab government should repeal these laws by passing a resolution in the Vidhan Sabha, the MPs of Punjab should raise their voice against these laws in the parliament and the raids of the national investigation agencies. The case under UAPA against world famous writer Arundhati Roy and Professor Shaukat Hussain should be canceled immediately. All cases registered under Section 295A should be withdrawn immediately. The National Investigation Agency should stop raiding and arresting lawyers and democratic activists in Punjab and other states and summoning them for questioning.
All intellectuals and political prisoners in jails should be released. In the convention, the leaders of labor, farmers, students-youth etc. public-democratic organizations of the district Sudgar Singh, Ghudani, Charan Singh Nurpura, Mohan Singh Jirakh, Raghveer Singh Banipal, Prof. Jai Pal Singh, Harnek Gujarwal, Sukhwinder Hambaran, Satnam Dhaliwal, Kanwaljit Khanna, Ka Surinder, Lakhwinder Singh, Ma Daljit Samrala, Kasturi Lal, Professor AK Malleri, Advocate Harpreet Jeerakh, Arun Kumar, Rakesh Azad and a large number of activists besides all the units of rational society zone Ludhiana and Dr. Arvinder Kaur Kakra, Buta. Many democratic and literary personalities including Singh Mahmudpur were present.
After the convention, a protest was held raising slogans to MP Raja Waring's office to hand over the manifesto. The leaders expressed their anger against the irresponsible act of closing the MP's office and registered their protest by hanging a demand letter outside the closed office.