The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:
India, along with the world, is going through an unprecedented crisis. But even such a huge humanitarian crisis hasn’t stopped the legends of the English media to continue spreading their hate and lie filled agenda. The Hindu’s Readers’ Editor writes a weekly column every Monday. According to the terms of reference of the Readers’ Editor, the column must address “one or several aspects of readers' concerns, suggestions, and complaints,..” and should serve “as a platform and forum for readers' views”. More often than not, instead of speaking about the reader’s concerns, the RE ends up talking about his concerns!
Today’s column is titled as “No dissent, no democracy” and he talks about “No government, whatever be the circumstances, has the right to take away our freedoms, justice and equality”. This batch seems to be desperate for an emergency 2.0 to be imposed in the country and are in despair that the Modi government is not doing the same. His today’s list of concerns is merely a rinse-repeat of what the entire English media has been doing since 2014. Let’s take a look at them.
1. “On the birth anniversary of the framer of the Indian Constitution, B.R. Ambedkar, civil rights campaigner Gautam Navlakha and scholar and activist Anand Teltumbde were forced to surrender to the National Investigation Agency for their alleged involvement in the Bhima-Koregaon riots of 2018. “
So no arrests or surrenders should be made or planned on April 14th of every year? How does the RE assume that good prose can make up for bad logic? And what is the offence for which they were “forced to surrender”? “Alleged involvement” in riots! What does the RE propose that the police do, even after they find evidence? Should they write an article for The Hindu and get permission from His Highness N.Ram before making an arrest?
2. “The Uttar Pradesh government has filed a case against the founding editor of the news portal The Wire , Siddharth Varadarajan, for allegedly spreading fake news against Chief Minister Adityanath and making an “objectionable comment” about him.”
Again, should the permission of N. Ram be taken before filing a case? Siddarth Varadarajan lied in a tweet and hasn’t bothered to even apologize. In times of pandemic, what freedom allows someone to spread lies and get away with it?
3. “In India, dissenters seem to either be killed, as we saw in the case of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh,…”
Are you by any chance implying that the government has killed these “dissenters”? Or are you by any chance implying that these are the only four “dissenters” killed in the entire history of India? Gauri Lankesh was killed in 2017. Have there been no killings of “dissenters” after that? Does that indicate that India is moving towards being more open towards “dissent” and therefore more open towards “democracy”? Do you know if all these cases have been solved? Have convictions being given out by the courts of law?
4. ..” Or are subject to an unfair judicial process, as is happening to Dr. Khan, Mr. Navlakha, Mr. Teltumbde and Mr. Varadarajan. “
What is unfair judicial process in Mr. Varadarajan’s case? That he should have been allowed to lie and get away with it? What is unfair in Mr. Navlakha’s case? That he had to surrender on April 14th? If you are really so concerned about “unfair judicial process”, why not raise your voice consistently against the so many under-trials languishing in our jails? Why not raise your voice consistently against the unreasonable delays in handing out verdicts? Why not raise your voice consistently against the “unfair judicial process” when it is impacting the bottom of the pyramid? Why do eminences like you wake up when a case if filed against your fellow eminences for fake news or involvement in riots?
5. “And comedians risk being on the no-fly list.”
Can you please enlighten us as to what was comic about what that alleged comedian did on a flight? Anyone who did what the alleged comedian did would have been on a no-fly list. Why would any airline want to have an abusive and hate-filled passenger on their list? Instead of condemning how the alleged comedian misused Rohith Vemula’s death and created a ruckus on the flight, you have miraculously chosen to link this is “dissent”!
The Readers editor further tells us about an anthology called India Dissents that documents about dissent since 3000 years. We are told that the anthology has works ranging “From the Charavaks and Gautama Buddha to contemporary public intellectuals like Romila Thapar and Amartya Sen,”! Whoa, did he just equate Gautama Buddha with Amartya Sen? Is our English media so bereft of arguments that they are now resorting to such mindless comparisons?
The Union government is a large entity and can do many things at the same time. So the English media must stop suggesting to Modi that he drop everything and focus only on Corona. Would The Hindu for example stop reporting news on all sectors and focus only on Corona? If anything, dissent is alive and thriving. The Hindu is the best example of dissent in times of the Modi era. Every single day, the newspaper is filled up articles and news that rant against the Modi government exclusively.
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