Indian minister calls for curbs on free speech

LONDON — India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has labelled student protesters as subversive and declared that free speech is subordinate to the needs of the sovereign state, in comments sharply criticised by liberals and opponents of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

Speaking on the same day that India’s election commission issued a sternly worded rebuke to politicians for stoking religious and sectarian tensions with divisive rhetoric, Mr Jaitley said that an “alliance of subversion” has taken over college campuses.

“Any idea which thinks in terms of disintegration of the country, is something I abhor,” he said during a lecture at the London School of Economics over the weekend. “I personally believe that free speech in India and in any society has to be debated.”

His comments, made during a five-day tour of the United Kingdom, have stirred fears that authoritarianism is on the rise under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narenda Modi.

Mr Jaitley referred to an exemption in the Indian Constitution that allows “reasonable restrictions” on free speech in the interests of the “sovereignty and integrity of India”.

Referring to a week of violent clashes between students at Delhi University and the nationalist organisation Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Mr Jaitley said that free speech should not come before national sovereignty.

“If you believe you have free speech to assault the sovereignty of the country, then be ready to concede free speech to counter that,” he said.

Indian courts have interpreted the constitutional exemption in various ways, but activists argue that emphasis on sovereignty has increased under the BJP-led government, which swept to power in the general election of 2014.

The conflict at Delhi University began on Tuesday after a two-day conference on “cultures of protest” was cancelled following opposition from the BJP-affiliated ABVP, which claimed the seminar was “anti-national”.

Protesters and critics argue that such nationalist statements have undermined free speech and religious tolerance in the country, especially during the latest round of fiercely contested state elections, the results of which will be announced next month.

One Delhi University student, who declined to be named for safety reasons, said that such comments from Mr Jaitley could make people reluctant to become involved in student politics. “The simple politics of Jaitley standing up and saying this is that he wants to create the tension that people who say anything against the government are anti-national,” said the student. “That way the government removes itself from criticism — if you criticise them, you are anti-national.”

Last year Mr Rahul Gandhi, vice-president of the opposition Congress party, said that the “most anti-national are people who are suppressing the voice of students in this institution” after a row over “anti-national” slogans at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

In a separate announcement on Saturday, India’s election commission reprimanded politicians for inflammatory campaigning, which it said could disrupt the peaceful conditions needed for free and fair elections. In an open letter to all the country’s political parties issued three days after India’s most-populous state, Uttar Pradesh, went through its fourth round of polling, the commission said that statements on the basis of “religion, caste, creed, community and language” could disrupt peaceful elections.

“The commission has noted with dismay that (previous advice is) not having the desired result and has recently noted a disturbing tendency of inflammatory statements being made often by political leaders with underlying object of mixing religion with their election campaigns,” it said.

Earlier this month, Mr Modi attempted to appeal to Hindu voters in Uttar Pradesh, which has a large Muslim population, by saying that villages with graveyards should also have cremation grounds — a reference to the different ways the two religions dispose of dead bodies.

The opposition meanwhile has been openly wooing Muslim voters. “Muslims need to vote en masse for the BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party),” said opposition leader Mayawati over the weekend. FINANCIAL TIMES