THINGS WE LOVE TO HATE

Hate speech has become a divisive issue in order to exploit social prejudices for electoral gains. The Supreme Court recently came down heavily on TV channels promoting and fanning religious and sectarian hatred as a means of increasing their ratings. Will anything change?

- Dr Swati Jindal Garg Shopton

CALLING the "visual media" C the "chief medium of hate speech', and questioning the government why it is "standing by as a mute witness when all this is happening" and treating it as "a trivial matter", the Supreme Court came down heavy on the various TV channels pointing out that "hate speech can be in different forms... sort of ridicule a community" and its spread through the visual media can have a "devastating effect". The comments were made by the bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy, who also asked the centre to state whether it proposed to come up with any law on the subject. It was also clarifie by the judges that "we made the reference to this (visual media) because the chief medium of hate speech is apparently through the visual media. In a paper, somebody writes something, nobody reads.... Nobody has the time. But visual media has got a power which has been recognised by this court right from the case relating to censorship. The difference between visual media and print media is so clear-that it has got a devastating effect."

Asking the government to submit its response within two week's time, the apex court also said that as they can't be taking over the powers of the legislature it was best to take up the Vishakha model and lay down some guidelines which will hold the field until the legislature comes up with a law on the matter.

In a democratic country like India, the line separating free speech and hate speech is indeed very fine. While free speech encourages free thinking and debate, hate speech suppresses thought and incites violence. As Martin Luther King Jr has rightly said: "Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true."