Haridwar hate speech a subversion of Hindutva, violative of criminal law: Mahesh Jethmalani

Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani on Tuesday called on the government to punish those guilty of the recent hate speeches delivered during a conclave in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. .In a tweet put out by him on Tuesday morning, Jethmalani said that while he is an ardent believer in the right to propagate Hindtuva, the speeches delivered at the conclave, termed dharam sansad (parliament for religion), amounted to "subversion of Hindutva and a flagrant violation of criminal law".The Senior Advocate also recalled how his late father, Senior Advocate Ram Jethmalani, had argued for Hindutva in the landmark case of Dr. Ramesh Yeshwant Prabhoo vs Shri Prabhakar Kashinath Kunte & ors in which the Supreme Court had affirmed the said right in the context of elections and campaigning holding that Hindutva is a way of life."I am an ardent believer in the right to propagate Hindutva as argued by my late father in the Supreme Court and accepted in that landmark case. But the speeches at Haridwar are a subversion of Hindutva and a flagrant violation of criminal law. UP govt needs to punish the guilty with urgency," Mahesh Jethmalani's tweet said.Ram Jethmalani had argued for the appellants in two cases where the elections of candidates were termed void for "corrupt practices", by the Bombay High Court. The High Court had held that appealing to voters in the name of Hindutva was a corrupt practice under Section 100(1)(b) of the Representation of People Act (RP Act). The Supreme Court in its 1995 decision in Ramesh Yeshwant Prabhoo had upheld the Bombay High Court verdict but held that any reference made to Hindutva or Hinduism in a speech will not be automatically be hit by RP Act restrictions, but would depend on the facts of each case."It is, therefore, a fallacy and an error of law to proceed on the assumption that any reference to Hindutva or Hinduism in a speech makes it automatically a speech based on the Hindu religion as opposed to the other religions or that the use of words `Hindutva' or `Hinduism' per se depict an attitude hostile to all persons practising any religion other than the Hindu religion," the apex court had held in that judgment.