'Anuj Bidve’s murder isolated incident’

British MP Keith Vaz, who was in the city on Saturday, talks to DNA about the Anuj Bidve murder and absolute freedom. Excerpts of the interview:

Q: There’s speculation if the Bidve murder was a random act of violence or race, hate crime.
A: Well, it’s been designated as a hate crime, which includes racially-motivated crimes. But we will know what the killer’s true motive was once he takes the witness stand. And if he does admit that he committed the crime due to reasons of race, then it’s a very serious matter and should be treated as one.

Q: Is there a growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the UK? Is it related to the global slowdown?
A: That’s been said in case of a lot of other countries, not just Britain. We have to wait and see if that’s what happened in this case. But in general, people get very insular during a recession and they tend to take it out on immigrants. We must watch out and take action if something like that indeed does happen.

Q: In your report titled Roots of Radicalism, you said the internet content should be censored by service providers, as it is the main tool used to spread terror. Can this be misused by oppressive governments?
A: Governments won’t have a role in the content censorship. The responsibility will lie solely with the service providers. What we’re talking about censoring are words of people like Anwar-Al-Alauki sitting in Yemen and telling people to blow up people in other countries over religion.

Q: In 1989, you stirred against Rushdie for on Satanic Verses? Your take on the Jaipur fiasco?
A: There is no general rule where people should intervene and censor. I don’t know why this decision was made but whatever the decision is, I respect it. There is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech. People can’t just step up and say something that will offend a lot of people.