Opinion Express View on Kerala police going after sound system: Mic drop

This is the story of Microphone and Amplifier, and how they narrowly avoided the frightful fate of being thrown into gaol, shackled and silenced. The tale begins earlier this week, on a muggy day in Thiruvananthapuram, at the condolence meeting for the late Oommen Chandy which was organised by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee. The duo had been employed for the day, their job being to help attendees express and convey to a large crowd their grief at the loss of one of the state’s tallest political leaders. The heartfelt messages and rousing speeches no doubt touched Mic, to the point where, as the state’s current chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, began his speech, Mic let out an anguished groan.

What followed astonished not only Mic and Amp, but all those present. The cops, seeing in the interruption of the Chief Minister’s speech a deliberate slight, swooped down and filed an FIR under the Kerala Police Act section 118(e), which deals with grave violations of public order or danger. The two friends were seized and “unknown persons” were charged, all because Mic did what his brethren around the world do, before kings and knaves alike. It was a victimless and, more importantly, criminal-less incident and, with the chief minister himself intervening, the cops ultimately decided not to compound the absurdity of the situation and closed the case.

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Like all stories, this one too has a moral, particularly for the overzealous cops at the scene. Free speech, whether in the form of a written address delivered by the highest in the land or an inadvertent exclamation by one at the opposite end of the power spectrum, is sacred and must be protected. Let a groaning microphone have its say.