Censoring Tripura CM’s Independence Day speech is a travesty of freedom: As the country marked its 71st Independence Day in the usual pomp that accompanies everything in the Narendra Modi-ruled BJP government, as paeans to freedom and liberty and achievements were sung, bearing little or no resemblance to the sorry ground reality of the country, we…
Hamid Ansari Talks About Freedom of Speech in Farewell Address: Former Vice-President Hamid Ansari lectured the Central government once again about the importance of Freedom of Speech. Without directly naming anyone, he stressed on the need to protect Parliamentary minority’s right to express dissent against the policies of the government. He made these comments in the…
Digital native: Free speech? You must be joking!: Freedom of speech and expression has always been a tricky issue. While all of us are generally in favour of defending our rights to speak what is in our hearts, we are not equally thrilled about the speech of others that we might not enjoy. Read More
Behind the Struggle Against Erosion of Free Speech is a Fight Over the Rule of Law: A few weeks ago, finance minister Arun Jaitley was at an LSE event where he was asked about last month’s Ramjas College incident. In response, Jaitley said that freedom of expression is fine but stops at “anti-national” discourse. He also condemned…
Police complaint against Bengali poet for hurting ‘Hindu beliefs’: Kolkata, March 21 (IANS) A police complaint has been lodged against eminent Bengali poet Srijato Bandyopadhay for posting a 12-line poem on social media that allegedly hurts “Hindu religious beliefs”. Expressing shock over the complaint, the poet said it only showed India is in the “grip…
At a time when freedom of speech has never been more threatened by the powers that be, Saadat Hasan Manto’s writings become a refuge, a retreat that taunts us to not despair. Manto, like the dark matter of the literary universe, engaged with what was wished away, what was rendered invisible to the genteel and…
Eight threats to free expression in India that lay the ground for attacks on Taslima, Bhansali: Some years ago, I characterised our country as a “50-50 democracy”. India is largely democratic in some respects, such as free and fair elections and the free movement of people, but only partly democratic in other respects, such as…
Madhu Kishwar And Other Cases: Criminal Defamation Has No Place In A Free Society: Another session of Parliament has passed by without any movement on attempts to decriminalise defamation, despite the fact that such a move would enjoy the support from politicians cutting across party lines. While lack of political momentum has doomed any hopes…
Kerala Chief Minister criticises ‘those’ suppressing freedom of expression: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today said the most befitting reply to ‘those’ who try to suppress freedom of expression is to “express all creativity much stronger and louder.” Without naming RSS-BJP, he said a number of people ranging from late M F Hussain and Narendra Dabholkar…
Visible rise in intolerance in India: N. Ram: The state of free speech is fraught in India, with a massive misuse of laws producing a “chilling effect” on the media, N. Ram, Chairman and Publisher of The Hindu group of publications, said in Galle on Friday. Speaking on ‘free speech deficits’ at the Galle Literary…