Too much freedom of speech in India, says Farooq Abdullah

NEW DELHI - New and Renewable Energy Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah Tuesday said there was “too much freedom” in India which is being misused to “destroy” the nation.

“There is too much of freedom in India that some Indians are themselves taking advantage of this and destroying the country. There are no limits to the way they are using this freedom,” Abdullah told reporters here in response to a query on the government looking into the possibility of sedition charges against author-activist Arundhati Roy for advocating the secession of Kashmir.

“The country has given the freedom, it is up to them how they use this freedom. It is for them to realise what is right and what is wrong. What to say and what not to say is for a person to decide,” he said.

Kashmir Police are reportedly examining the text of Roy’s speech made at a seminar in Srinagar Sunday in which she said that Jammu and Kashmir was never an integral part of India and that British imperialism was replaced in 1947 by Indian colonialism. She shared the podium with the Syed Ali Geelani, the hardline Hurriyat separatist leader.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday demanded the arrest of Geelani and Roy, terming their remarks on Kashmir as “objectionable” and “an attack on the country’s integrity”.