Arrested development

Congress-led Karnataka Assembly has set a disturbing precedent

The Congress party in Karnataka appears to be emulating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre in its draconian approach to free speech. The Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly, K B Koliwad, has authorised a one-year jail sentence on two editors for writing critical and allegedly defamatory articles. This decision reflects the kind of legislative overreach that sets dangerous precedents in infringing constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech, not to forget an unwritten foundational value of Indian democracy in accepting freedom of the press. Equally disturbing is the fact that one of the two articles, which was written in