oppn parties Where Is Fair Play & Freedom Of Speech In India?

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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Where Is Fair Play & Freedom Of Speech In India?

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2025-05-18 14:37:46

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

Most things work weirdly in India. The befitting reply to Pakistan's terror misadventures, Operation Sindoor, succeeded in establishing India's supremacy over its rogue neighbour. But there have been internal fallouts that are concerning, to say the least.

It started with the massive trolling of Vikram Misri, the foreign secretary of India who was tasked with speaking to the media daily during the operation. He was trolled for announcing the ceasefire by those who were baying for Pakistan's blood. The vile persons did not stop at that. They targeted his daughter on the assumption that she was helping Rohingya refugees in her professional capacity.

Then, Col Sofiya Quereshi was targeted, first by unnamed trolls and later by MP minister Vijay Shah. The government's excellent idea of letting two women officers - one Hindu and the other Muslim, brief the press on Operation Sindoor went for a toss as Shah created a 'us' versus 'them' narrative to paint Quereshi as 'them'. It was the most stupid, and dangerous, thing to say. MP high court was constrained to ask the police to file an FIR against him and was disturbed when a 'weak' FIR was filed. It later ordered a court-monitored probe.

Then, Jagdish Devda, the deputy chief minister of the same state (in fact, after these two major incidents, the BJP is putting a lid on its MP leaders and began schooling them on how to speak about Operation Sindoor in rallies and before the media), spoke in a manner which suggested that even the Indian Army was at PM Modi's feet. Though the BJP tried to defend him by saying that he was misquoted, the speech is there for all to hear and he clearly says everyone is at Modi's feet, including the Army.

But who gets arrested? Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a professor of Ashoka University. His fault? Saying that the deployment of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh to brief the press was just 'optics'. He chose to bring up the ground reality which, according to him, included victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the BJP's hate mongering. He asked right wing commentators to demand that these victims be protected as Indian citizens. The Haryana State Commission for Women took suo motu cognizance of his remarks and he was arrested on the complaint of BJP Yuva Morcha.

But if Mahmudabad is 'guilty' of trying to inflame passions and incite communal discord, what about Vijay Shah, who is trying to create an 'us' versus 'them' narrative, which is more dangerous and more likely to incite communal passions? Or the trolls who are targeting Vikram Misri and his daughter? Or Jagdish Devda, who degraded the image of the Indian Army by saying that it is at Modi's feet? Yet, in the new India, only those who demand fair play, justice and protection from being targeted for their religion are the ones who get arrested. 

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