Draft Misinformation Bill: Navigating truth and censorship

Last February, the Karnataka government turned Bengaluru’s Palace Grounds into a constitutional theatre, declaring that Dr B R Ambedkar’s promise of ‘liberty of thought and expression’ was realised, at a two-day international conference with academics, lawyers and retired judges. One year on, that flourish feels hollow. Going by a leaked draft, the Karnataka Misinformation & Fake News (Prohibition) Bill, 2025, would make burning the Manusmriti, the very act that defined Ambedkar’s protest and yearning for social reform, a cognisable offence. The dissonance is more than ironic. It guts the moral authority with which Congress berates the Union government for throttling dissent through authoritarian laws and practices.