oppn parties Azam Khan's Conviction For Hate Speech Should Spur Action Against Others

News Snippets

  • For the first time ever, Mukesh Ambani buys a 29% stake in Gautam Adani's Mahan Energen, a subsidiary of Adani Power to source 500MW of electricity from the company's power plant in MP
  • Stocks continue to rise on Thursday - Sensex gains 639 points to 73635 and Nifty 203 points to 22326
  • Golf - Indian Open: 3 Indians at tied 14th as Joost Luiten takes the lead with a wonderful 7-under 65
  • IPL: RR beat DC by 12 runs as Riyan Parag (84 off just 45 balls) shines
  • SP drops two candidates owing allegiance to Azam Khan from Rampur and Moradabad
  • In Assam, a controversy erupted after a picture of UPPL leader Benjamin Basumatary, lying on a stack of Rs 500 notes circulated on social media. UPPL is an ally of the BJP
  • AAP's Jalandhar-West MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joins the BJP. He was the only AAP Lok Sabha MP
  • Supreme Court dismisses Centre's plea to review its 2023 verdict in the PMLA case
  • Close save for passengers as they remain unhurt after the wings of two planes graze at Kolkata airport. Pilots derostered and inquiry ordered by DGCA
  • Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh gets notice from the EC as well as the BJP for making ugly remarks about Mamata Banerjee's parentage
  • Sadanand Vasanth Date, who faught terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was awarded the Preisent's Police medal, has been appointed the head of the NIA
  • Centre will borrow Rs 7.5L cr in the first six months of FY25, nearly 50% of the target for the full year
  • 25 stocks, including SBI, will see same day trade settlements from today in the world's fastest settlement mode in both BSE and NSE
  • Stocks recover smartly on Wednesday: Sensex rises 526 points to 72996 and Nifty 118 points to 22123
  • Tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden reached the semifinals of the Miami Open
Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena says government cannot be run from jail, hints at President's Rule in the capital ////// In a dangerous incident, the wings of two planes grazed while taxiing on the runway at Kolkata airport, all passengers were safe but DGCA ordered an inquiry and the pilots were derostered
oppn parties
Azam Khan's Conviction For Hate Speech Should Spur Action Against Others

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-10-28 07:22:49

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, already in jail in another case, has been held guilty for a 'hate' speech in 2019. He was held guilty for making an incendiary speech that could have caused enmity between communities. The court sentenced him to three years of imprisonment in the instant case.

While the court must have had enough proof and reasons to pronounce the verdict and it is no one's case that those who make such speeches be allowed to escape punishment, the action cannot be one-sided or discriminatory.  Many other speeches by several other BJP leaders and religious figures in the recent past have been equally incendiary and were much more likely not only to cause enmity between communities but also start riots.

But in these other recent cases, the administration has shown a strange reluctance to prosecute those who make the speeches and has instead gone after organizers of such events where these speeches were made. It has also not been proactive to prevent the holding of such events, most of which are being held without necessary permissions.

The Supreme Court had recently observed that hate speech had the potential to cause unlimited mischief and had also directed the administration not to wait for complaints in such cases but take suo moto cognizance once the matter is known. The videos of most such speeches are uploaded on social media and go viral. The police have enough material on hand to take action against both who organize such events and those who actually make hate speeches. Hence, the Azam Khan conviction can be taken as a template to punish all others who are guilty of poisoning minds through hate speeches.