For many years, he never spoke out against the draconian Emergency of Indira Gandhi. He wrote an article in the 80s WHITEWASHING Rajiv Gandhis’ ban on the Satanic Verses. His piece was a laundry list of a whole bunch of bans (it was a piece that was supposed to say, “hey, leave the Muslims alone”).

Now he tries to blame the colonial era laws so that the Nehru family remains unblemished!

Congress Party killed a person by attacking her during a protest at Ramlila grounds. Salil Tripathi justified that action and wrote a piece trashing the protester! That should tell you his position on free speech. (Google for Baba Ramdev on this issue.)

Also google for Salil’s position on Geert Wilders and you will see that his article is a shameful example of how he attacked the victim. The first half of that article is devoted to trashing Wilders and his film. He would never do this for a socialist.

For many years, he was quiet on Taslima Nasrin case as well and has actually justified other bans! Of course, in the recent past, he has tried to add a line or two buried in his article so that no one can point this out about him.

Even the MF Husain case is nonsense. The lawsuits against him were a tit-for-tat by those who ran out of patience after asking for the removal of selective targeting of Hindus. Consider the facts. Salman Rushdie’s book is banned (the issue is whitewashed by salil).

Then the Taslima Nasrin case happens. Many Hindus are arrested for supporting her freedom of expression. Now the Hindus wake up and realize that the state is being used by Muslims as a weapon against Hindus. So they hit back and ask that the paintings of MF Husain which depicts a Hindu Goddesses masturbating be withdrawn.

Suddenly, Salil Tripathi and other Congress Party supporters are outraged! See the hypocrisy? That is not all. Lawsuits are filed against MF Husain as a matter of routine. Husain visits his son and dies while on a visit. Husain himself says he is not evading the lawsuit but that he did not know about the summons (fair enough since he is visiting his son and this can happen), but Salil Tripathi lies and claims that Husain died in “exile.”

Also, the Husain issue is very minor since it was only a tit-for-tat by the Hindus which was used as a pressure tactic to remove the anti-freedom laws.