Aseem Trivedi Out On Bail Amid Continuing Political Swirl Over His Sedition Charge
The cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, arrested after being charged with sedition in a case that suggests manipulation of the legal system to political ends, has accepted bail with some assurance that the charges against him may be dropped and will fight against the law that put him in this situation. I don't have the skill-set or the required language skill to know how the case is being processed in India, although I have seen a couple of pro-Trivedi pieces like this one. One promising sign is that legal officials slammed the police decision to arrest Trivedi, which indicates the treatment may be aberrant even under law as currently constituted. As is usually the case in politically-informed legal maneuverings, there word of maybe a second sedition charge facing the cartoonist.
It's my hope that Trivedi's case not only obliterates this specific legal mechanism and its employment for political ends but that it strikes a blow more generally against the use of laws in blatantly anti-free speech ways, particularly in countries that aspire to democratic ideals. I also hope Trivedi remains safe and suffers no physical harm during the entire ordeal.
