Free Speech, Finally

The right to freedom of speech and expression is subject to the rigours of hate speech or seditious content. With the apex court boldly moving to suspend the sedition law, free speech will be protected

- Dr GV Rao

Lead/Sedition & Hate Speech

DEMOCRACY is oft described in its clichéd form as a government of the people, for the people and by the people. Historically, democracy has been a transition from monarchies and oligarchies, which governed their kingdoms by ancient diktats to be seen by divine ordain. These rulers were often indolent, prone to avariciousness and committed to excesses. And those that were governed, the subjects, were oppressed and exploited.

This struggle between the privileged and the underprivileged, between those who were gifted, meritorious and hardworking and those that simply had fortunes and opportunities bestowed upon them due to inherited entitlement led to political revolutions like the French Revolution, which had its basis in slogans like Liberate' Égalité and Fraternaté. This led to the evolution and development of democratic forms of governance.

The word democracy itself finds its origins from the ancient Greek world and resurfaced in the late 16th century: from French démocratie and Greek dēmokratia, which came into existence with the connection of two words-dēmos (the people) and kratia (power, rule).

In furtherance of the lofty ideal of those times, when democratic thinking was in its nascent stage, Voltaire, the eminent French philosopher famously said: I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to death your right to say it.

A further evolution of the concept of power to the people was the free exchange of ideas and the freedom to think, speak and act and came to be inherent aspects of democratic functioning. Benjamin Franklin, founding father of the US, stated: Freedom of speech of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins.