The higher judiciary has usually been judicious on most issues. However, two recent directives have been rather curious, in the manner they seek to curb freedoms. The Patna High Court’s directive restraining the media from reporting on the investigation into the horrific sexual abuse, rape and intimidation of girls at a Muzaffarpur shelter home has been challenged in the Supreme Court as “patently erroneous”.
The “blanket ban” is tantamount to a gag on the media— the petition cites its “gross interference with the fundamental right of the people to know” and the sacrosanct freedom of press guaranteed under the Constitution. The fact is the shelter home horror story would have never come to light had it not been for the media, local and national.
Yet the tug of war never ceases, on the rights guaranteed, between those who would curtail them and those whose survival and raison d’etre depends on upholding it in letter and spirit. The Bombay HC order seeking to stop the use of the term ‘Dalit’ is an even more astounding case of judicial overreach. The I&B Ministry, acting on it, has now issued a circular to the media, asking it to use the governmental phrase ‘Scheduled Castes’ instead of ‘Dalit’.
The court can, if it chooses, direct the government or other statutory bodies to abide by this, citing the Constitution which uses Scheduled Castes. But can it direct the media or the people what words it must use? Especially for a community that insists on this self-ascription as a political-rhetorical mode, to foreground its historically oppressed nature? Is it not a glaring interference in freedom of expression? The term Dalit was born out of a long political struggle, specifically in Maharashtra.
Many groups have embraced it to articulate their angst. Can the judiciary sit in judgement on this and gag the people’s right to identity? It’s for this top-down approach that Gandhi’s nomenclature ‘Harijan’ was never appreciated by Ambedkar. The Modi government, which has gone out of its way to iconise Ambedkar, would do well to heed his children.