Unfortunately, No Politician in India Vouches for Absolute Free Speech. Here's Why

The premise of the first part of this series was about how the world has looked at the idea of “Freedom of Expression”. Interestingly, while the trial was on in court, the Punjab Legislative Council debated the case and concluded as below : “The book contained language, which was open to objection, it was decided not to prosecute as there was no ground for thinking that the book had attracted any general attraction.” On May 4, 1927, Justice Dali Singh of the Punjab High Court in Lahore acquitted Rajpal of the charges. They came up with the Penal Code Amendment Act XXV of India in 1927, leading to what we currently know as 295A of the Indian Penal Code which states as below: “Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of,, insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to, or with fine, or with both.” — Indian Penal Code XV, offences relating to religion On the other hand, things weren’t going to remain simple. The law had come in place which would go on to assassinate the ethos of Bharat, which very much relied on the absolute “Freedom of Expression” to criticise, discuss, and debate matters related to divinity, spirituality, gods, and goddesses.