NEW DELHI: The Maharashtra government has in an order dated August 27 given police powers to take action against those critical of the state or central government if it deemed such critiques to be particularly offensive. Political observers apprehend this could threaten free speech.

The government order allows the police to invoke a colonial era sedition clause — 124-A of the Indian Penal Code — against any person who "by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible rep ..