Emotive issues will curb hate speech in poll times

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: In a conversation at the 'Hate Speech Beda', a campaign to curb hate speech, Harish Narasappa, a senior advocate and co-founder of Daksh India, spoke about how to counter hate speech, especially during elections. Narasappa is also a member of Karnataka Election Watch, and National Election Watch and has been actively involved in countering hate speech.

Harish started by saying that hate speech is not defined under the Model Code of Conduct or the Representation of the People Act. But there are provisions which say that one must not use differences of religion, caste and community to garner votes.

He added that attacking a candidate’s religious identity also amounts to hate speech, along with other markers of their identification. He went on to say that emotive issues should be delved into during the brief period of the poll campaign. Ideological reasons or desperation encourage hate speech.

However, candidates tend to be careful during the Model Code of Conduct, as the opposition parties can drag them to court even after a candidate has won a seat. Along with this, Harish Narasappa also noted that the machinery and mechanism can’t keep up with the pace of campaigning as it is done in a short timeframe, between when the candidates are announced and the elections – close to a mere 15 days, to call out all the violations made.

“As people who insist on free and fair elections, we must call out such incidents. We must not hesitate to identify behaviours that constitute hate speech and create a record of it, further sharing it with the election commission,” he added.

However, the public gets disappointed that action is not taken immediately, Narasappa said. “We must also try to promote an environment where hate speech can be curbed, like creating forums where candidates can come up to address issues that are relevant to citizens,” he concluded.