Kerala has sought to make amends by keeping in abeyance its obnoxious proposal to abridge free speech by conferring unbridled powers on the police to arrest any one expressing or disseminating any matter deemed threatening, abusive, humiliating or defamatory to a person or a class of persons in any manner. But Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should take heed of criticism and drop the measure altogether. It is worrying that such a draconian and ill-conceived ordinance was even promulgated. It is incredible that a State government crafted a law with elements declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, ignoring a major apex court verdict on the law of defamation, and which is repugnant to the provisions of the IPC, a central law, in two ways, besides going against one provision in the Cr.P.C. Also read: Uproar over Kerala law to curb abusive contents defence that the amendment only targeted defamatory social media posts and would not curb reportage, political satire or expression
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The ruling AIADMK’s declaration on continuing its ties with the BJP for the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections was no surprise. With the Congress and the Left aligned with the DMK, the AIADMK needs all the electoral partners it can get. The Jayalalithaa strategy of taking advantage of a three-way split in votes is no longer possible. But by dispensing with conventional negotiations and internal consultations, and making the announcement after a single meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah, the party leadership has given the impression of being politically vulnerable to pressures from the party ruling at the Centre. Indeed, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami seemed keen to avoid any such impression. Just a day before the announcement, he told senior leaders that the party was not under any pressure from the BJP and need not feel obliged to anyone. The party mouthpiece had sharply criticised the BJP’s ‘Vetrivel Yatra’, a religious-political roadshow being conducted without
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