Opinion Karnataka hate speech Bill exposes Congress’s failure to tackle hate politically
Congress’s reliance on legal means to combat formidable political force of Sangh Parivar shows lack of foresight, organisational reach
The Congress government led by CM Siddaramaiah has drafted the new hate speech legislation in part to overcome judicial reluctance Has Karnataka blazed a new legal trail that will tame and control, if not entirely vanquish, the inexhaustible and increasingly menacing power of hate speech? Or is The Karnataka Hate Speech and Hate Crimes (Prevention) Bill, 2025 to be read as an admission of political weakness, if not actual defeat? The answer may lie in reviewing the tactics adopted by the Congress government since it came to power in 2023. Soon after coming to power, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah warned the state police against sloping off into some shade of “saffron” while on the job. After all, it had been less than two years since personnel in two police stations at Kaup and Vijayapura sported saffron clothes while on duty on Vijayadashami. That happened under the empowering gaze of the “double-engine” BJP-led government. But beyond the symbolism, the police had also shown increasing reluctance to file FIRs against those who spewed hate speech, particularly in the coastal districts, where minority-baiting and communal violence had become the norm. Certainly, the political warnings from both the CM and the Deputy CM have served to correct the perceived imbalance in police treatment of hate speech and hate crimes, particularly against minorities.
It took the Congress government longer to establish a Special Action Force to combat, specifically, communal violence in the districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Shivamogga (which have been identified as the “communally sensitive” and violence-prone districts). On its part, over the past two years, the BJP has done its utmost to drive the discourse back in the direction where it was most at home: Being brazenly assertive about protecting Hindu rights, even through blatantly illegal actions. The 100-year anniversary of the RSS became yet another moment for taking possession of the streets and asserting its role as saviour of the majority.
Minister Priyank Kharge then decided to take on the RSS more directly. First, he insisted that the RSS must, like all other groups, parties and organisations, seek necessary permissions for public marches. This delayed, but did not thwart the staging of the celebratory march — replete with lathis — in Chittapur in north Karnataka (marches in other parts of the state went surprisingly unchallenged). When the Home Minister, G Parameshwara, answered recently in response to an RTI that as many as 518 RSS marches were held without incident in 2025, the “objective” data was held up as a sign of the “discipline” of the RSS. Yet the Home Minister has not thought fit to portray this as the current government’s achievement in maintaining law and order.
A fatal flaw
Further, on Kharge’s urging, the government sought in October 2025 to prohibit the misuse of public, and especially government, properties by private entities. The prime target was indeed the RSS. Though this was stayed by the court, it had one exemplary “side” effect. It compelled the RSS to admit that the “organisation”, as many have noted, is not registered as a legal entity. Mohan Bhagwat himself took pains to explain why this massive and well-funded hydra could remain an entirely unaccountable “organisation”. And even provocateurs such as Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat and Puneeth Kerehalli — to name just two Hindutva activists — have rarely felt restrained by the law.
The Congress government has drafted the new legislation in part to overcome judicial reluctance. The hope is that defining hate speech and hate crimes as punishable offences beyond existing provisions will pave the way for a new jurisprudence. But can Congress rely entirely on legal challenges to a formidable political force? Even organisations such as the Campaign Against Hate Speech (CAHS) — which has carried out the most systematic and meticulous documentation of hate speech and crimes in Karnataka — have only cautiously welcomed the Bill.
What can and should Congress do to develop a more imaginative and robust political pushback against the steady, molecular and — already, everywhere — embedded power of the Hindu Right and its family of organisations? CAHS has shown that the proposed law relies on “emotion-based” understandings of hate speech rather than quantifying the material harm it causes. This fatal flaw reveals how little the “right” to invoke “hurt sentiments” has been challenged or shifted through building up a new political vocabulary and repertoire of action. In this sense, the new legislation, if passed, shows that, for now at least — apart from well-meaning moves to promote and extend constitutional values — the party sorely lacks foresight and organisational reach, despite its impressive electoral performance.
The writer is a Bengaluru-based historian and was professor of History at JNU, Delhi
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