The right to freedom of speech and expression is a constitutional right. Article 19 (a) of the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to speak and express freely. People can say anything they want as long as it doesn’t infringe on decency, morality doesn’t affect relations with other countries, and doesn’t threaten the sovereignty and integrity of the country. But then, who decides what is moral, what is decent, what is a threat and what isn’t?
Among the things that are allowed in the right to speech, there is the right to information, freedom of the press, the right to criticise, and the right to broadcast. All of these are now highly threatened in our country.
The Right to Information (RTI) allows people to ask questions directly to the government. There are activists specially dedicated to the cause of finding out what the government is doing. They ask for data related to various things and hold the government accountable. In the past, the RTI exposed the 2G scam, the Adarsh society scam, and the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not consult the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) before announcing demonetisation in 2016. But now the activists who work hard filing RTIs are threatened.
Since the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, ten RTI activists have been killed or assaulted. Overall, over 91 activists have been killed since the Act was implemented in 2005. Over a hundred have been assaulted and threatened. Seven activists ostensibly killed themselves. The number increased during the lockdown. Theoretically, they should be protected under Article 19 (a).
In one case, a lawyer who was associated with the BJP killed an activist in Gujarat. The lawyer was convicted in 2019. The very same people who are supposed to protect the activists are the ones killing them.
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