Allahabad High Court Bats For Free Speech, Releases Kafeel Khan
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2020-09-03 16:04:08
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The Allahabad High Court has rightly taken the UP government to task for arresting Dr Kafeel Khan after his speech against the NRC and CAA at the gate of the Aligarh Muslim University and has ordered his immediate release. The court categorically stated that the government had erred in taking a few sentences and phrases from the speech (termed provocative by the state government) and twisting them out of context to prove that the speech was made with an intention to promote hatred and violence. The court said that a complete reading of the speech showed that it was a "call for national integrity and unity". It said that the slapping of the National Security Act (NSA) against the doctor after two months was "bad in law" and unsustainable.
The governments, both at the Centre and BJP-ruled states, must not be overly sensitive to opposition to their policies and must not target dissidents, especially Muslims, for protesting against policies that they think will harm them. It is their democratic right to protest. The government cannot term each protestor an anti-national out to promote hatred and violence. Dr Khan had to spend almost seven months in jail for a government action that has been termed bad in law by the court. This is not the way democratically elected governments should function.
If the government felt that Dr Khan's speech was "provocative" and was likely to incite "hatred and violence", did that actually happen? Dr Khan had made the speech and there was no violence. People did not take to the streets to burn the national flag. Maybe his speech turned a few more people against the NRC and the CAA but that neither provocative nor anti-national. Every person has the right to put forward his or her views on any government policy. As long as the thoughts are not venomous or likely to cause massive violence, the government has to allow people to listen to them. Arresting someone just because he or she protests against government policy and can influence people is wrong. Hopefully, the UP government will show lesser exuberance in this area after the Allahabad High Court judgment.
