I usually tell people not to believe anything that comes on WhatsApp, because that's how low the general quality of conversation on it happens to be when it's looked at in totality.
The Indian government has been curbing free speech and attempting to increase its control on speech over time. People have been wrongly arrested and punished for liking something on Facebook, forwarding something on WhatsApp (that those in power don't like), etc. These incidents only serve to add more fuel to the government and many citizens who actually support higher control and monitoring of all conversations.
In the last four years of this central government, the rhetoric of "you don't have to worry if you have nothing to hide" has been doing the rounds among many citizens who would otherwise not support such measures if some other parties were in power. It's as if they can't see the issues or don't want to see the issues.
If not for the Supreme Court, which runs on its own pace and rhythm, India would've become an authoritarian "democracy". The only hope, IMO, lies with the judiciary. No political party is different on these lines. Whoever comes to power wants more control and power.
Without better education and awareness (with even the so called educated people falling hook, line and sinker to fake news), there's not much hope. It's worrisome how much ammunition these incidents provide to the government to curb speech.
P.S.: India has a restricted form of free speech, where vague terms like public order, affecting the sentiments of others on religious grounds, and such can be legally used to deny speech and also punish people arbitrarily.
P.P.S: India doesn't yet have a data privacy law either. The very concept of privacy was laughed at for quite sometime, until August 2017 when a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court declared that the constitution, through various articles, does grant privacy as a fundamental right.