Three weeks after the Centre in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court leveled “hate speech” charge against senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday backtracked from its statement. It issued a fresh affidavit clarifying that the attribution to Swamy was a “statement of fact” and not an “expression of opinion or decision” of the Government.
The new affidavit filed in continuation of the previous affidavit of October 28 submitted, “The counter affidavit filed by respondent (Ministry of Home Affairs) is in no way the conception of the respondent relating to the book in question written by petitioner (Swamy).”
The earlier affidavit filed by MHA Under Secretary laltlana Changte stated in para 11, “The petitioner has written a book named Terrorism in India wherein he made hate speech against the community of India..the book is to be considered in all aspects as it contains matter which ‘promotes feelings of enmity and hatred between Hindus and Muslims in India’. Therefore, the petitioner has violated sections of IPC.”
Going back on this comment, the latest affidavit said, “The submissions made in the counter affidavit particularly the contents of para 11…what is stated is merely the statement of fact and is not any expression or opinion or decision of the answering respondent (MHA).”
Swamy challenged the constitu-tional validity of IPC Section 153A punishing hate speech after he was booked under this provision in Assam for delivering an alleged inflammatory address at Kaziranga University. Court had stayed summ-ons issued against Swamy.