The Outrage About Freedom of Expression Can't Be Selective

The first brutal truth is that there is no absolute freedom of speech in India. The First Amendment to the Constitution in 1951 took away those rights. Since then, governments, parties and regimes of all hues have pushed the barriers consistently by targeting critics who point out uncomfortable facts.

- YASHWANT DESHMUKH & SUTANU GURU

Within hours of Haryana Police arresting Ashoka University academic Alik Khan Mahbudabad, the lead author had posted a strong critique on X, the social media platform formerly known as X. The authors even discussed the issue soon after and agreed that the Supreme Court might step in and grant bail to the professor, as it has done in many cases in the recent past where activists, journalists, academics and critics have been arbitrarily arrested on specious grounds.

During the conversation, the co-author pointed out the elephant in the room related to the rising intolerance and authoritarianism in political parties and their regimes. Goes without saying that much of that debate has landed on the doors of "intolerant" right wing, but the abject failure of the left-liberals to behave in a truly liberal fashion is adding fuel to the fire as they have been blatantly selective in their outrage.

Protests against assault on free speech and individual liberty have become so polarised along ideological and political lines that they have become a meaningless display of partisanship. It is indeed the duty of all sensible citizens to support the fundamental right of people like Ali Khan Mahbudabad to express their opinions without being carted off to jail on vague and specious charges. But the future looks grim because we as a society have become conditioned to selective outrage. In that context, it is indeed time for the Indian liberal to look at the mirror and accept that she doesn't practice what she preaches.