Not much to set the Congress, BJP apart

Of course, politicians don’t like free speech. But there is enough evidence that freedom of expression is not under grievous threat from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Nothing perhaps exemplifies the hypocritical attitude of Indian politicians towards freedom of expression than the story of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act. This section, which granted the State near-limitless power to prosecute anyone for posting anything on the net that even a junior police officer considered offensive in any manner to anyone, was a creation of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. At that time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), sitting in the opposition, had called the provision “draconian”.
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