June 17, 2008 ☼ competitive intolerance ☼ Constitution ☼ culture ☼ democracy ☼ freedom of expression ☼ history ☼ India ☼ politics ☼ Public Policy ☼ rights ☼ society
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
A lurker on Atanu Dey’s blog pointed to two fantastic reports from TIME magazine’s archives.
May 28, 1951…Part of the Indian press, said (Nehru), is dirty, indulges in “vulgarity, indecency and falsehood.” To teach it manners, Nehru proposed an amendment to India’s constitution that would impose severe restrictions on freedom of speech and expression. He asked for power to curb the press and to punish persons and newspapers for “contempt of court, defamation and incitement to an offense.” Nehru told Parliament: “It has become a matter of the deepest distress to me to see the way in which the less responsible news sheets are being conducted . . . not injuring me or this House much, but poisoning the minds of the younger generation.”
Nehru said his measure was aimed at Communist and Hindu extremist agitation. His real targets: Atom, Current, Struggle and Blitz, four Bombay-published sensational weeklies which have consistently attacked Nehru’s domestic and foreign policy, scurrilously attacked the U.S. [TIME]
In the event, parliament passed the first amendment that placed curbs on fundamental rights, including on the rights to speech and property.
June 11, 1951…A small but determined parliamentary opposition, led by Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, former Minister for Industry, bitterly attacked the amendment.
Mookerjee (to Nehru): You’ve got 240 supporters in this House, but outside in the country millions are against you.
Nehru (shaking his fists) : [Your] statements are scandalous . . .
Mookerjee: Your intolerance is scandalous . . .
Nehru (shouting): Any person who says that this amendment of mine curbs the liberty of the press utters lies . . .
As Nehru explained it: “We should not only give the press freedom, but make it understand that freedom.” There was a lot of doubt whether Nehru himself understood the meaning of freedom. His excuse for requesting the law: the scurrilous outpouring of Indian scandal sheets. But as the All-India Newspaper Editors Conference pointed out: there was nothing to prevent the government from using its new powers against the legitimate press when & if it chose. [TIME]Nehru’s followers have been consistent in following in his footsteps. Dr Mookerjee’s modern-day followers would do well to heed the position of their political-intellectual forefather.
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