Opinion | JNU, Slogans And The Limits Of Free Speech: When Dissent Ends And Incitement Begins |
If we thought the dust had settled on the issue of anti-national sloganeering within the precincts of one of India’s premier higher education institutions—Jawaharlal Nehru University—with the crackdown on student leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Shehla Rashid and Anirban Bhattacharya in 2016, the hiatus was perhaps only waiting to be broken by another, more insidious incident.
On the night of 5 January 2026, in the immediate aftermath of the denial of bail to both Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam—directly accused of inciting mob violence and communal riots in Delhi in 2020, and of threatening to cut off the North East from the rest of India by blockading the Chicken’s Neck Corridor—JNU student bodies, mainly affiliated to Left-oriented political dispensations, reportedly raised highly objectionable slogans calling for the death of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. An FIR was lodged subsequent to the said sloganeering, and disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the offending students by the university, including possible eviction from hostels and potential arrest.
Let us first consider the legal aspects of the matter in question.
Of the many freedoms enjoyed by the citizens of India, the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India is considered the bedrock of democracy, subject only to the reasonable restrictions placed upon it by Article 19(2). Needless to say, the scope and extent of this freedom, and the restrictions that may be placed upon it, have time and again been challenged in courts of law.
If we contextualise the recent sloganeering incident at........