The Centre For Liberty, an NGO, today urged the Telangana government to drop its proposal to introduce a Karnataka-style hate speech law, and said that such legislation could undermine free speech and be misused for political vendetta.
In a statement, the organisation said that broadly worded speech offences, coupled with sweeping police powers, risked chilling lawful debate and criminalising dissent.
It argued that the State should instead focus on enforcing the existing laws against violence, threats and intimidation.
The NGO said that Telangana's political history showed how speech disputes often escalated into police cases and prolonged legal battles across party lines. A vague hate speech law, it said, would inevitably be weaponised in future political conflicts.
"A free society must punish violence and direct calls for imminent violence, while still protecting unpopular or controversial opinions. Such laws reward whoever controls enforcement," said Ajay Mallareddy, co-founder of the Centre For Liberty.
The organisation called on the State government to publicly commit to abandoning the proposed law, and to strengthen swift and fair action against real-world violence rather than policing speech.