Anupam Kher, who referred to the current period as the golden age of Indian politics, earned the maximum boos from the audience. Anupam Kher, who referred to the current period as the golden age of Indian politics, earned the maximum boos from the audience.

Day One of the Tata Literature Live! Festival ended on a loud note with the debate, ‘Freedom of expression is in imminent danger’, evoking strong reactions from the audience. With British television journalist Nik Gowing at the chair, author Shobhaa De and Observer Research Foundation India chairman Sudheendra Kulkarni spoke for the motion.

Speaking against the motion were actor Anupam Kher and BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli.

Kulkarni said the growing feeling of oppression was real and added, “To say that all the artistes, writers and scientists who are protesting have joined an artificial revolt is to insult the intelligence of the average Indian.” He also said the PM and his ministers must talk about why the President felt it necessary to express his anguish three times in one month.” De earned the biggest applause of the day when she asked if everyone who had gathered there for the debate would be there if there hadn’t been a growing perception of danger. Stating that she was “happy to be a troublemaker”, De said if the protesters were motivated, it’s simply because they had a conscience.

Kohli, during his turn, said the closest that India had come to fascism was during Emergency, and after that it was with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s defamation bill and the postal bill that would have given the government the right to open everyone’s mail.

He said the fact that this debate was happening was itself a refutation of the stance that freedom of expression was endangered.

Kher, who referred to the current period as the golden age of Indian politics, earned the maximum boos from the audience.

He got a small but vociferous support from the audience, many of whom repeated arguments about the current protest being hypocritical because the writers had never protested against atrocities like the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 or the forcing out of Kashmiri Pandits.

There were moments when it seemed like the situation might get out of hand. One of these was when BJP MP Kirron Kher reprimanded the booing audience and called it the “tyranny of the unelected”.

The other was when Kher and festival founder Anil Dharker got into an argument over the former’s suggestion that the audience present was a “paid audience”, a charge that Dharker strongly refuted.

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