Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], December 20 : Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, on Saturday said that speaking "bad words" about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also "hate speech" as he opposed the hate speech bill passed in the Karnataka Assembly.
Narayanaswamy reminded the incident of Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge calling PM Modi "nalayak beta" two years back. He said that even Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah did not have the "guts" to stop Priyank Kharge because he is the son of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
"There is a discussion about the hate speech bill that the Congress government has brought... Some people talk about the home minister and the prime minister with bad words; that is also hate speech. Priyank Kharge once said Nalayak PM," he said.
"Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was also there, but they have not stopped him because they have no guts to touch Kharge because his father is AICC President... Using the filthy language and the hate speech is the practice of the Congress party," he added.
Karnataka Legislative Council on Friday passed the Hate Speech and Hate Crimes Prevention Bill, 2025, amid ruckus in the upper house of the state legislature as both Congress MLAs and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs engaged in a heated argument.
Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said the proposed legislation was not driven by political vendetta but was aimed at curbing hate speech and hate crimes, whereas BJP MLC CT Ravi attacked the Congress, claiming that the party would not win if elections were held in the state today.
Defining hate speech, Parameshwara said it refers to "the communication of hate speech by making, publishing, or circulating, or any act of promoting, propagating, inciting, abetting, or attempting such hate speech to cause disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred, or ill-will against any person (dead or alive) or a group of persons or an organisation."
Explaining the intent of the legislation, the Home Minister said that hate crimes needed a precise definition to effectively address statements and actions that target specific communities. "It's about someone speaking out against a particular community," he said.
Any person convicted under this bill could face a jail term of up upto 7 years and/or a fine of Rs 50,000.