New Delhi: Several opposition MPs on Friday welcomed a Supreme Court verdict that said the words of a poem shared by Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi on social media did not promote disharmony or hatred, and hoped that the message reached people as well as the state and Union governments.
Pratapgarhi was booked in Gujarat’s Jamnagar for allegedly posting an edited video of a “provocative” song on social media.
Welcoming the judgment, Pratapgarhi said, “I am very thankful to the Supreme Court for quashing a baseless FIR against me, but I had to fight a long battle. The observation and points made by the Supreme Court on freedom of expression are important, this message should go to the nation.”
“A debate is needed over how different governments have been crushing dissent over the last few years and how police are being used for it,” he said, adding that unlike him, not everyone can reach the Supreme Court.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram also welcomed the judgment.
“I welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court. Humour, satire are all part of free speech. We must listen to it and just laugh and move on is the reasoning of the Supreme Court,” he told reporters in the Parliament complex.
Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena (UBT) called it a good decision.
“The Supreme Court has made a very good decision and I wholeheartedly welcome it. Today, the government has become intolerant towards poetry, shayari and comedy, rushing to courts to file appeals and FIRs — this is shameful,” she said.
“Hopefully, after this verdict, people will learn a lesson, especially in Maharashtra, where unnecessary chaos is being created over a stand-up comedian even in the state Assembly. This verdict should put an end to the frenzy of filing FIRs over such matters,” Chaturvedi added.
Jebi Mather of the Congress spoke on similar lines.
“A very welcome observation by the Supreme Court, especially when the ruling dispensation has on multiple occasions tried to curb art that is critical of it. We have seen multiple occasions where comedians have been targeted. The government should read the Supreme Court judgment and make it its policy,” she said.
The 46-second video clip uploaded by Pratapgarhi on X showed him being showered with flower petals as he walked waving his hands and a song playing in the background, which the FIR alleged had lyrics that were provocative, detrimental to national unity and hurt religious feelings.
On January 3, Pratapgarhi was booked for sharing the alleged provocative song on social media in the backdrop of a mass-marriage function he attended in Jamnagar.
The Congress MP challenged the January 17 order of the Gujarat High Court, which dismissed his petition for quashing the FIR filed against him, saying the investigation was at a nascent stage.
Among other sections, Pratapgarhi, the national chairman of the Congress’s minority cell, was booked under sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, race etc.) and 197 (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
