In 2012, a Kolkata professor was arrested for sharing satirical images of the West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee online. After Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray died the same year, two young women were arrested—one posted on Facebook against the city being shut down to mark his death and the other liked the post. That year also saw the arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi for sedition (and insulting a national emblem as well as charges under Section 66A of the IT Act that was struck down by the apex court in 2015). In some ways, 2012 may have been a tipping point for the discourse on free speech in India, though no doubt limited to certain circles.
They resonate today as newer, younger rulers too turn to the state machinery to quell criticism. On Friday, the Andhra police arrested a satirist in Hyderabad for allegedly mocking the Andhra CM’s son and freshly-inducted minister Nara Lokesh in his cartoons on social media. Interestingly, on the same day as the arrest, K Chandrasekhar Rao, the CM of Telangana reportedly told his TRS colleagues at his party plenary to file criminal cases against Opposition leaders who made “baseless allegations” against the government. Now, the Opposition in Telangana is weak, to say the least.
But criticising the government is one of the roles it must play in a healthy democracy. The careful language of “baseless allegations” only serves to mask the intent behind the CM’s words, and put critics on guard. The governments of the two Telugu states, which have had a competitive relationship since bifurcation in 2014, appear to be on the same page as far as being thin-skinned goes.
Perhaps they are drawing inspiration from the ruling dispensation in the US, a country of great fascination in these parts. But even President Trump has not filed criminal cases against the host of comedians and political opponents who mock him day in, day out. To be more thin-skinned than the notoriously thin-skinned Trump, how can you not laugh at that?