Bengaluru, Dec 19 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Labour and Employment, Shobha Karandlaje, has written to Governor Thawarchand Gehlot, urging him to withhold assent to the controversial Karnataka Hate Speech and Hate Crimes (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2025, citing several shortcomings in the proposed legislation.

Shobha Karandlaje, taking to social media X, wrote on Friday: “The Hate Speech and Hate Crimes (Prevention) Bill, 2025, hands the State sweeping authority to silence opposition voices, restrain the media, and intimidate the citizens who defend Karnataka’s land, language, and Dharma.”

“This isn’t a Hate speech prevention bill, it’s rather a bill that prevents the right to Speech,” she stated.

“I have written to the Hon’ble Governor of Karnataka, drawing attention to provisions of the Karnataka Hate Speech and Hate Crimes (Prevention) Bill, 2025 that are vague, overbroad, and susceptible to misuse, and seeking withholding of assent and reservation of the Bill for Presidential consideration under Article 200,” she said, attaching the letter with the post.

“We will not let Congress turn the law into a tool to choke free speech and democratic dissent,” she stated.

The letter stated, “The stated objective of the Bill is to address hate speech and hate crimes. However, upon careful examination, it becomes evident that Bill, in its present form, establishes a State-controlled mechanism for monitoring, assessing, and penalising speech, rather than narrowly addressing expression that poses a clear and imminent threat to public order.”

“The structure of the Bill enables executive authorities to determine the permissibility of expression, thereby transforming the law into a tool capable of suppressing voices critical of the government,” she said in the letter

“Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression to every citizen. Any restriction on this right must strictly conform to the limited grounds specified under Article 19(2). The Bill departs from these constitutional limits by employing broad, vague, and subjective expressions such as ‘disharmony’, ‘ill-will’, and ‘prejudicial interest’, which are not precisely defined,” the letter states.

The vague and expansive language of the legislation is capable of being invoked to silence Kannada language activists, women’s organisations, SC-STs, backward classes, minorities, journalists, student groups, and civil society organisations that raise issues of governance, social justice, or administrative accountability, the minister’s letter reads.

Earlier on Thursday, the Karnataka Assembly passed the controversial Karnataka Hate Speech and Hate Crimes (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2025, amid chaos and without debate by Opposition members.

Strongly objecting to the manner in which the Bill was taken up, Leader of the Opposition R. Ashoka tore a copy of the Bill on the floor of the House.

Amid uproar and strong opposition by BJP and JD-S MLAs, Speaker U. T. Khader put the Bill to a vote and announced that it had been passed.

The BJP MLAs raised slogans, alleging that the Assembly Speaker was acting improperly and setting a bad precedent.

–IANS

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