THE STATE OF FREE SPEECH IN INDIA

Arrest over social media post raises concerns over protection of constitutional rights

- BY NIDHI RAZDAN | Special to Gulf News

Last week, India’s Supreme Court granted bail to Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a professor with the prestigious Ashoka University, who had been arrested for a social media post on India’s Operation Sindoor. On merit and law, the arrest itself was a gross overreach and completely unwarranted. And yet, the country’s top court did not quash the case. Instead, it went on to gag the professor from speaking on the matter, castigated him for “dog whistling”, confiscated his passport and set up a probe team of police officers to study his post.