Dear Express reader, We wrote an editorial this week titled “Thank You”. We were expressing our gratitude to Judge Dharmender Rana of a Delhi trial court. For saying that dissent is not sedition. Peaceful protest is neither an attempt to spread disaffection towards a lawfully established government, nor aimed at promoting enmity between communities. We thanked Judge Rana for pointing out — as the Supreme Court has done earlier — that disagreement with, and protest against, a government that does not directly incite violence, does not violate any law. It must not be labelled, in the absence of evidence, as part of a “conspiracy” to violate the law. We thanked the judge for saying that citizens are “conscience keepers” of government in a democracy and that “they cannot be put behind the bars simply because they choose to disagree with state policies”. And that “an aware and assertive citizenry, in contradistinction with an indifferent or docile citizenry, is indisputably a sign of a healthy and vibrant democracy”. Sure, Judge Rana said unexceptionable things. But they were made remarkable by the fact that he said them in a moment when, in cases that involve protection of individual liberties from arbitrary state action, the judiciary is seen to show a lack of alacrity, or kick the can down the road, or be more and more amenable to the prosecution’s argument. Essentially, this week a judge of the lower court underlined that along with high judicial power comes great responsibility — to ask the vital questions and to make the crucial distinctions that are needed to uphold the Constitution, in letter and in spirit. An institution that is not bearing either its power, or indeed its powerlessness, with responsibility is the Opposition. It is true that the BJP’s decisive majority in 2014 and then again in 2019 has pushed other parties into a shrinking corner. But that does not entirely explain the listlessness and diffidence across the aisle, including and especially the Congress, when it comes to the job of keeping the elected government on its toes, or in check. Assembly elections in five states were announced on Friday, and the Congress will have to campaign against its political opponents while grappling with the face-off within — the now famous G-23, a group of senior leaders who have been demanding sweeping reforms in the Congress, met in Jammu on Saturday, to reiterate their public call for change. For the Congress, however, the answer may not be quite as simple or as singular as internal elections, or the removal from the helm of the Gandhi family. It will also require the party to confront the accumulated incoherence and dishonesty of ideas and political convictions at its core. It will call for a reckoning with its own flawed record in governance. It will need facing up, in a changing India, both to itself and to the voter, who wants to be spoken to in a new language, told a different story. The Congress will battle the inertia of the old. But this week a beginning was made towards rewriting the balance between power and responsibility in a newer arena. The government announced new OTT, social and digital media rules. They have sparked questions about government overreach and heavyhandedness. A new conversation, a new negotiation, featuring Big Tech and the state, has begun. We will keep you posted, Vandita | 
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