Freedom of expression

Freedom of speech is our fundamental right and any attempt to infringe it is looked upon as unconstitutional, undemocratic, and uncivilized act. On many a occasion judiciary has come forward to protect this right as Supreme court has very recently done by lifting ban on Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnha, for which he was expelled from BJP.Ban on the book was imposed by Gujarat government primarily alleging that Sarder Patel, the most revered personality of the state, was shown in poor light in the book. Supreme Court’s verdict is a fitting reply to Modi Government’s autocratic attempt to gag the voice of democracy.However, it should be noted freedom of expression does not necessarily empowers an individual to write or say anything he likes. If his utterances or writings are detrimental to our society or pose threat to our social unity, government must rein in such activities. But this threat perception is relative and in many cases triggers controversies. Happily, court verdicts in most of the fundamental right cases are acceptable to the sensible and well meaning section of the society.