Profile villages, track makers of hate speeches: UP govt

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government has asked all district administrations to identify villages that have witnessed violence and lynching in the last five years, saying accused responsible for putting potentially harmful content on social media platforms will be charged under IPC Section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and disrupting harmony).
Following guidelines of the Supreme Court, the Yogi Adityanath government on Wednesday issued frameworks on how to stop mob lynching in the state. “We have strictly complied with the Supreme Court guidelines in drawing up the policy,” a senior UP home department official said.

As per the guidelines, the state government has asked all district police chiefs to draw up a list of people who “have the tendency” to make hate speeches, comments inciting violence and spread fake news and will appoint a nodal officer to collect information from all districts.

There have been 168 complaints of lynching in the state in the last year.

The guidelines mandate state action, not limited to disciplinary action, against those police officers or civil servants who have either abetted the wrongdoing by not taking steps to stop violence stemming from such exchange of misinformation on social media will be treated as complicit in the case.

The government said victims or their families who face mob fury will get compensation, employment or any such indemnity.

Activists, however, have expressed concern the guidelines may be used to armtwist critics of the governmen. “How can you expect fairness from the government, which has decided to withdraw hate speech case against its own chief minister?” asked Tehseen Poonawala, who filed a petition in the Supreme Court last year.

“I never asked for profiling as it may be racial. I asked for taking action on hate propaganda and rumours, and not profile villages and people,” he added.