Delhi Police on Wednesday registered a complaint against Mallikarjun Kharge, President of the Indian National Congress (INC) for allegedly indulging in hate speech against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A Delhi-based lawyer had filed the coplaint against Kharge on May 29, alleging that the Congress President had defamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Advocate Ravinder Kumar Gupta had alleged in his complaint that on April 27 this year, while addressing an election rally at Naregal in Gadag district of Karnataka, Kharge had passed a scathing remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As per the coplaint, Kharge had allegedly said that the Prime Minister was like a poisonous snake and if a person wanted to test whether it (Modi) was poisonous or not, he would have to die.
Advocate Gupta had earlier sent a legal notice to Kharge in May, 2023, which said that Kharge received severe backlash from various political leaders affiliated to BJP for his comments against the Prime Minister.
However, addressing another rally at Ron of Gadag district in Karnataka, Kharge clarified that his words were not intended at Modi, but at the BJP and RSS.
As per the notice and complaint, while apologising for his statement against the Prime MInister, Kharge said in Gadag that his remarks were not against the Prime Minister, but against the BJP and RSS, as their ideologies were equivalent to a poisonous and venomous snake.
He mentioned the meaning of hate speech, as given by the Supreme Court in the Pravasi Bhalai Sangathan V Union of India (2014) case. The Apex Court had termed hate speech as an ‘effort to marginalise individuals based on their membership in a group’.
The lawyer further said that any expression, which exposed a group to hatred, came under hate speech. Such speech sought to delegitimise group members in the eyes of the majority, reducing their social standing and acceptance within the society, he added.
The top court of the country said that the hate speech caused distress to
Individual group members. It could have a societal impact. Hate speech laid the groundwork for later, broad attacks on the vulnerable that could range from discrimination to ostracism, segregation, deportation and violence. In the most extreme cases, it could lead to genocide. Hate speech also impacted a protected group’s ability to respond to the substantive ideas under debate, thereby placing a serious barrier to their full participation in Indian democracy, the lawyer quoted the Apex Court as observing.