FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN INDIA

(PROJECT REPORT)

SUBMITTED BY CAL B.TECH ETHICS AND VALUES (HUM1021)

BY

NILANJAN PAUL 16BEE1068

RANGIT RAY 16BEE1062

ANKIT 16BCL1022

DEBADITYA MITRA 16BCE1341

SIDDHARTH PANDYA 16BEC1182

SLOT:TD2

Name of Faculty - Dr NIRMAL THYAGU N

(SCHOOL OF ADVANCED SCIENCES )

APRIL, 2017
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We the members of the” Ethics and Values” group would be highly obliged to thank all the
stake-holders of our project titled “Freedom of expression in India.”

First of all we would like to thank Dr. Nirmal Thyagu N, SAS Department, VIT University,
Chennai Campus, without whose contribution we couldn’t have made our project.

Then we would like to thank our honourable chancellor Dr. G Viswanathan for giving us a
chance to pursue our carrier in this prestigious University.

Lastly we would not miss out the great group we got. The co-operation, dedication and the
extraordinary ideas that our group had was priceless. No one could have imagined a project to
get completed without that class and quality.

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 ABSTRACT

This project highlights on the present situation of our country about freedom of expression,
having opinions, eating practices, questioning the government, etc. Some scenes have been made
regarding these incidents happening currently in the country which reflect the lack of right of a
common man to express himself. The various scenes in this movie take us through the four
common scenarios where the common man is facing difficulties and discrimination on day to day
life. At the end we’ve tried to conclude the video trying to arrive at a common point to please
everyone.

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 INTRODUCTION

The Constitution of India provides the right of freedom, given in articles 19, 20, 21 and 22, with
the view of guaranteeing individual rights that were considered vital by the framers of the
constitution. The right to freedom in Article 19 guarantees the Freedom of speech and
expression, as one of its six freedoms.

The freedom of speech is regarded as the first condition of liberty. It occupies a preferred and
important position in the hierarchy of the liberty, it is truly said about the freedom of speech that
it is the mother of all other liberties. Freedom of Speech and expression means the right to
express one's own convictions and opinions freely by words of mouth, writing, printing, pictures
or any other mode. In modern time it is widely accepted that the right to freedom of speech is the
essence of free society and it must be safeguarded at all time. The first principle of a free society
is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. Liberty to express opinions and ideas
without hindrance, and especially without fear of punishment plays significant role in the
development of that particular society and ultimately for that state. It is one of the most
important fundamental liberties guaranteed against state suppression or regulation.

Freedom of speech is guaranteed not only by the constitution or statutes of various states but also
by various international conventions like Universal Declaration of Human Rights, European
convention on Human Rights and fundamental freedoms, International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights etc. These declarations expressly talk about protection of freedom of speech and
expression.

Why we need to protect freedom of expression in India?

Freedom of speech offers human beings to express their feelings to other, but this is not the only
reason; purpose to protect the freedom of speech. There could be more reasons to protect this
essential liberty. There are four important justifications for freedom of expression.

1) For the discovery of truth by open discussion - According to it, if restrictions on speech are
tolerated, society prevents the ascertainment and publication of accurate facts and valuable
opinion. That is to say, it assists in the discovery of truth.

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2) Free speech as an aspect of self- fulfillment and development – freedom of speech is an
integral aspect of each individual’s right to self-development and self-fulfillment. Restriction on
what we are allowed to say and write or to hear and read will hamper our personality and its
growth.

3) For expressing belief and political attitudes - freedom of speech provides opportunity to
express one’s belief and show political attitudes. It ultimately results in the welfare of the society
and state. Thus, freedom of speech provides a mechanism by which it would be possible to
establish a reasonable balance between stability and social change.

4) For active participation in democracy – democracy is most important feature of today’s world.
Freedom of speech is there to protect the right of all citizens to understand political issues so that
they can participate in smooth working of democracy. That is to say, freedom of speech
strengthens the capacity of an individual in participating in decision-making.

Thus we find that protection of freedom of speech is very much essential. Protection of freedom
of speech is important for the discovery of truth by open discussion, for self- fulfillment and
development, for expressing belief and political attitudes, and for active participation in
democracy. The present study is intended to present the provisions of the American and Indian
Constitution which recognize the freedom of speech and expression, the basic fundamental rights
of human being. It is also to be examined that what is judicial trend in interpreting the freedom
of speech and expression provisions. The study also covers the comparison between the
approaches of both countries as far as freedom of speech is concerned.

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 CURRENT SITUATION IN THE COUNTRY

From sedition cases against Jawaharlal Nehru University students for allegedly chanting anti-
national slogans to attacks on journalists in Chhattisgarh, India has been having a bad year for
freedom of speech.

Eleven cases of sedition have been filed against 19 people in merely the first three months of
2016. No cases under this category were filed in the same quarter in the last two years, according
to a report compiled by the media watchdog The Hoot.

The report, points out that the sedition charges against six students of Delhi’s JNU were only the
first of a series of cases filed against people across the country – ranging from Congress Vice
President Rahul Gandhi to Asaduddin Owaisi, the member of parliament from Hyderabad.

Defamation cases involving politicians also jumped: 27 cases were filed in the first quarter of the
year compared to just two cases filed in the corresponding period last year, according to The
Hoot.

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Media targeted

During the same period, reporters around the country have been under attack in several places.
In the first three months of this year, 14 attacks on media personnel have been reported, often
resulting in their equipment being damaged. In February, Karun Mishra, the Bureau Chief of
the Jansandesh Times, was shot dead in Sultanpur.

Last month, two journalists were arrested in Chhattisgarh. This comes in the wake of reports that
as many as nine journalists covering the JNU agitation were contacted for questioning by the
Delhi Police. Some of these reporters said that that police personnel even came knocking on their
doors.

The Editors’ Guild even issued a statement claiming that “not a single journalist” is working
without fear or pressure in Bastar, the district in Chhattisgarh most affected by Maoist violence.
“There is pressure from Maoists as well on the journalists working in the area,” said the body,
which has more than 200 editors as its members.

Increasing intolerance

Cases of censorship have also risen this year compared to the corresponding period in the last
two years. While only two such instances were reported in the first quarter of 2015, the tally was
17 this year. These cases range from Urdu writers being asked to declare that their writings
would not criticize the government or the country to comedian Kiku Sharda being arrested,
bailed out and then re-arrested for mimicking godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim in Haryana. While
threats to freedom of speech are not new, the intention may be different this time. As social
scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta wrote in the Indian Express in February, when the government
swooped down on JNU student leaders: The government does not want to just crush dissent; it
wants to crush thinking, as its repeated assaults on universities demonstrate... Nothing that the
students did pose nearly as much threat to India, as the subversion of freedom and judgment this
government represents. The honourable ministers should realize that if this is a debate about
nationalism, it is they, rather than JNU, who should be in the dock. They have threatened
democracy; that is the most anti-national of all acts.

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 ANALYSIS OF THE VIDEOS PREPARED

Scene 1

In scene one, we have a political leader delivering a speech in front of his supporters. He is
talking about religions and how the majority is in threat because of the minorities. He goes on
further to say that Muslims are intruders in our country. Meanwhile a college student passes by
and stops to listen to his speech. He finds the leader’s speech quite objectionable and raises
certain points to which the leader gets offended and encourages his supporters to shoo him away
without even considering his point. This shows how the freedom of expression is being censored
in this country.

Scene 2

In scene two, we have a class on Indian constitution going on where the teacher explains and
applauds the recent decision by the Supreme Court that everybody has to stand before every
movie to the national anthem that will be played. Although this decision was overruled later by
another panel of judges in the Supreme Court itself. When a student raises this point in the class,
the teacher gets offended and scolds him saying he knows nothing even without verifying if the
student is correct or not. This greatly demoralizes the student.

Scene 3

In scene 3,we have four students sitting in a college mess and discussing the recent developments
in the news. One fellow raises the news of Demonetization and says it is a historic decision that
has never been taken before and it will change the course of the country removing all the
corruption. Our protagonist corrects him saying that this decision has been taken before twice
and no significant results were seen and therefore we should wait for some considerable amount
of time before we actually start judging this step, the other fellows start an argument without
even realizing his logic and intent. They also call him a traitor for not supporting the
government’s decision.

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Scene 4

In scene 4, we’ve a reputed restaurant of a city which caters to all types of people, whether veg
or non-veg. When our protagonist approaches the restaurant’s reception to place his order, he
doesn’t find one particular dish called beef galawati kebab. So he turned to the receptionist to
enquire whether they have the particular dish. On this the receptionist gets seriously annoyed and
tells him that they are not supposed to have beef in this country. Our protagonist asks him
curiously, aren’t we allowed to have our meals as per our wishes. But the receptionist has lost his
cool by then and is in no mood to listen or reason with the protagonist and thus drives him away.

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 CONCLUSION

In a nutshell, it can be concluded that while fighting over the issue of freedom of expressions, no
individual has ever reached to a conclusion that can be implemented in general to all such
problems. Our nation is still in the condition where people are fighting over freedom of
expression and no concrete solutions are coming up related to big issues of the country such as
suicide of farmers, malnutrition, unemployment, drought and corruption etc. We mistake the
people who are against the ruling party of the nation for being anti-nationals and consider them
to be as a thought process of the terrorists or the people who dislike nation. But what needs to be
cleared is that those people who are against the ruling party need not necessarily be against the
nation.

But still some self-acclaimed nationalists in lieu of these people who raise issues in national
interest are doing politics and gaining the support of the millions of our countrymen, fooling
them in the name of fake patriotism. We need, at this point of time, to make the people
understand that raising issues in national interest and suggesting corrections to the on-going
government schemes is not an act of anti-nationalism. In fact different kinds of opinions help us
arrive at a better solution to every problem.

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 REFERENCE

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/55W4JLOJQfYClnlLzKj1UO/2016-What-it-meant-for-
freedom-of-speech-and-expression.html

https://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2016/02/19/what-india-said-about-freedom-of-speech-and-
the-jnu-controversy/

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/explained-freedom-to-express-oneself-but-
within-limits/

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