The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, brought in by the Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan, carries echoes of the draconian Defamation Bill which then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi tried to enact and was forced to abandon in 1988. Consider the objectives stated in Rajiv Gandhi’s Bill: “It is proposed to make publication of imputations falsely alleging commission of offences by any person as an offence. Those who make such imputations often have no intention of pursuing the matter any further with the appropriate authorities. Their only intention appears to be to bring a person’s reputation in to question. It is considered necessary to check this tendency so that freedom of speech, which is the very essence of democracy, does not degenerate in to mere licence….”

The Rajasthan Bill has, ostensibly, a similar purpose.