Aakar Patel | What kind of laws will our new MPs enact? Take a look over last 10 years

As we elect MPs for the next five years, let us look at many of the laws and amendments that we have been given in the previous decade:

This amendment gives the Union the powers to set the salaries and service conditions of information commissioners at the Union as well as state levels. Instead of fixed terms, commissioners can be appointed on arbitrary conditions and salaries. India fell from second place in global RTI ratings in 2014 to ninth place.

Before this amendment, UAPA only allowed organisations to be categorised as “terrorist”. The State can now categorise any individual as a “terrorist”. These individuals need not even have any affiliation with any of the 36 terrorist organisations mentioned in the law to be classified as terrorists and then jailed.

In 2022, Karnataka banned Muslim women and girls from covering their heads in schools and colleges that had uniforms. Even in colleges which did not have a prescribed uniform, the covering of heads by Muslims was prohibited because “clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order should not be worn”. Sikhs were excluded from the order.

After the Prime Minister’s speeches against what he called the “pink revolution”, states began to criminalise the possession of beef. This began a series of violent attacks the media called “beef lyn-chings”. Someone accused of having a beef sandwich can be jailed five years. This first law began a series of copycat laws in other BJP-ruled states.

Possession of beef is punishable by up to five years in jail. The burden of proof is on the accused.

This law extended the punishment for cow slaughter to life in prison. No other economic crime attracts life. Minister of state for home Pradipsinh Jadeja said the logic was to equal cow slaughter with murder.

Enacted after the UP Police shot dead 21 people protesting against the CAA, this law gives the government the power to set up tribunals to decide damage to any public or private property due to riots, hartals, bandhs, protests or public processions. All orders passed by the tribunals will be final and cannot be appealed before any court, under the law’s Section 22.

This is the first of seven state laws introduced and legislated by the BJP after the conspiracy theory of “love jihad” began to be circulated. It criminalises marriages between Hindus and Muslims if conversion is involved. However, “if any person comes back to his ancestral religion”, then this shall not be deemed conversion. Those who change their faith without applying to the government “in the prescribed pro-forma” and without the consent of the government after the police inquiry face jail.

Similar to Uttarakhand’s law, under this law the punishment for propagation (a fundamental right under Article 25) is seven years in jail.

Similar to the previous laws, this one prohibits conversion except with government permission and 60 days’ notice. Similar laws were passed by BJP governments in MP (Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021), Gujarat (Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021), Karnataka (Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022) and Haryana (Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Act, 2022).

This gives the Union and state governments the power to suspend, for any reason, mobile and Internet services. India is the world’s leader in Internet shutdowns. Of 213 total global shutdowns in 2019, India accounted for 56 per cent (12 times more than the next nation, Venezuela). Of 155 global shutdowns in 2020, India accounted for 70 per cent.

This law bans Hindus and Muslims from buying or renting properties from each other without the government's permission. The government will determine if the sale of a property would lead to the likelihood of “polarisation” or “improper clustering” of people from a particular religion. It also gives the government the power to undo transactions, even if the buyer and seller make no appeal. In effect, even foreigners can lease and buy property in those parts of Gujarat’s cities where Indian Muslims cannot. It should be noted that some of these laws have remained even after the party that has legislated them in a state has been unseated. These laws have a long-term effect and have conditioned the police and bureaucrats and the judiciary to think of our society in a particular way.

They are a reflection of the sort of nation India has become and give us a glimpse into what more we can expect in the years to come after this election ends.