Why in news?
A former DG of Kerala police was arrested recently on charges of promoting communal enmity.
Why was he arrested?
- It is a case of gross misuse of the law.
- The state police had booked him under Section 153(A) of the IPC.
- It is a legal provision against hate speech.
- This was for remarks he made in an interview to a Malayalam magazine in July.
- In the interview, he presented what appeared to be a prejudiced view of the state’s Muslim community.
- He claimed that population growth in the state was skewed in favour of Muslims and that a section in the community promoted religious conversion through “love jihad”.
What should have been done?
- His views are undoubtedly controversial, even bigoted.
- The fact that such a person headed the state police is indeed a cause for concern.
- However, to book him under hate speech provisions is uncalled for.
- Such views cannot be banished by wielding hate speech laws.
- They call for greater political engagement and debate.
- Skewed ideas about communities will have to be confronted with arguments and facts.
- It is undemocratic to demand the curtailment of the right to freedom of expression by raising the spectre of communal disharmony.
- It would set a precedent for curtailing future dissents against the government.
- He also had a fraught relationship with the ruling regime.
- The present government had removed him from the DGP’s post after it won the election last year.
- Hence the current move questions the real intentions of the government.
- Ideally, his remarks need to be challenged in the public sphere, not through criminal action.
Source: The Indian Express
