The Shrinking Space for Debate in India: A Judicial Warning Bell Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan's recent lecture at the National Law Institute University (NLIU) has sounded an alarm about the dwindling space for debate and dissent in India.
Speaking candidly, he highlighted the disturbing trend of ordinary activities being criminalized by the state, with even consuming chicken biryani on a Ganga riverboat treated as an offense worthy of three months' imprisonment.
The arrest of 14 Muslim men for eating biryani during Ramadan was not just an egregious miscarriage of justice but also a symptom of how normal activities are being criminalized.