Many governments, past and present, are guilty of mocking the right to freedom of expression and assaults on dissent, but under the present dispensation in Uttar Pradesh, this seems to have become institutional. As per a report in The Indian Express, seven teachers and a school education department officer in the state have been suspended for posts on social media and other internet-enabled platforms that criticised BJP leaders, including chief minister Yogi Adityanath and prime minister Narendra Modi, or questioned the ruling-party endorsed narrative on Pulwama/Balakot or praised Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan for trying to de-escalate tensions with India in the Balakot aftermath. In another case, the district administration in Shahjahanpur has ordered an FIR against an unpaid private college teacher for posting “objectionable comments based on communal, caste, political and religious lines against respectable animals (emphasis added) and politicians”. That is how low the state government has sunk in its attempts to curb unfavourable opinions.
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Uttar Pradesh’s moves reek not just of politicisation—of Pulwama/Balakot and the armed forces—it also makes the state government look intolerant at best and tyrannical at the worst. The fact that the cases are based on WhatsApp and Facebook posts is perhaps a hint that the government is snooping on citizens and their activity online. What is really worrying, though, is that it won’t even brook criticism of governance deficit—one teacher has been slapped with a show-cause notice on why action shouldn’t be taken against him under the IT Act for posting “koi bahut badi teer nahi maar diya (you didn’t pull off some spectacular feat)” after the government released his salary after six months. The state government must remember its vindictiveness and intolerance won’t silence criticism of its failure to uphold its Constitutional duties.