It's Free Speech Only If We Say It Is
News reports coming out of India suggest that Salman Rushdie’s cancellation of his planned speech at the Jaipur Literature Festival was allegedly manipulated by the Rajastahan state government due to political considerations as opposed to any actual security threat. That’s frankly disturbing, on many levels. It’s one thing to request a speaker to not attend because of security issues (and while it can be disappointing in terms of a state commitment to free speech, there is actually some sort of government rationale for doing so.) It’s a whole another problem to fake a security threat so that way the government can duck a political problem or shore up its electoral standing. At that point, the government is essentially deciding what speech they wish to allow.
Other takes on the situation can be found here and here.
Other takes on the situation can be found here and here.