How the ‘opposition’ has extraordinary powers that they use to scuttle voices of dissent as ‘journalists’ rejoice or look the other way

 The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

“If any media writes against Telangana and its culture, we will break their necks and bury them 10km deep”. This is a statement made by Mr. K. Chandrashekhar Rao, as Chief Minister of Telangana. He often makes fun of reporters and their questions in his press conferences; interrupts them in a commanding tone; once wished that journalists get COVID, and awards friendly media owners with Rajya Sabha seats. 

“Behave properly,” said Mamta Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, to the media. Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee once walked out of a town hall conversation, accusing the students questioning her on rape incidents, to be from the Left parties. The Supreme Court of India had to step in to stay the FIRs against the editors of OpIndia even as their editor-in-chief had to move out of Bengal due to threats and state intimidation. The list of incidents from an intolerant TMC government is simply too long to delve into in one article. 

“Don’t forget your limits” warned Bhupesh Baghel in a tweet addressed to the media, just because a comment was made against the boss Rahul Gandhi.  We have all seen recently how the Ashok Gehlot government does not think twice before filing FIRs and jailing journalists – even trying to ignore the Court orders! 

“You used to be a broker for the Congress. Now you are doing the same for Modi” thundered Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi. His government also threw out 7 journalists of Hindustan Times from a WhatsApp group because they were critical of his government. We can spend time and dig out the multiple instances where Kejriwal has abused the media. After all, when Kejriwal was not in power, the Editors Guild could muster the courage to ask him to control his tongue. Why couldn’t they muster the courage again after Kejriwal came into power?

In fact, for all of the instances mentioned above (and many more not mentioned in this article), you would expect Rajdeep Sardesai to be fuming (and not musing) on his nightly debates; you would expect an “Editors Guild has released a statement” tweet from the Editors Guild; you would expect running commentator Shekhar Gupta to “cut the clutter”; you would expect an eloquent editorial from Malini Parthasarathy’s The Hindu deriding the authoritarian attitude; you would expect Sreenivasan Jain to separate out the truth and hype; you would expect YoYa to wax eloquent in front of a mike irrespective of where he is speaking; you would expect an angry Nidhi Razdan demanding apology after apology, and you would expect a quirky only liner tweet from the boss of all – Rahul Gandhi. 

Now, why am I suddenly talking about these intolerant traits of our leaders? Because a lot of headlines these days are along these lines – Opposition slams Modi. Opposition plans joint protest. The opposition said this. The opposition did that. 

And who is this Opposition that gets often referred to? The Chief Minister of West Bengal, the Chief Minister of Telangana, the Chief Minister of Delhi, the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, the Chief Minister of Kerala and members of the ruling coalition of Maharashtra. Almost every single “opposition” party is in power in some state or the other.

It then stuck to me that the “Opposition” that the media keeps referring to, actually holds extraordinary power that is often used to scuttle voices of dissent; that is often used to settle scores with opponents; that is often used to dole out freebies to the media – and all of this without any repercussions when things go south. 

Instead, at almost every instant, the media became largely compliant with the ruling party in many states, judging by their coverage or in fact by the lack of it. Adjectives that are freely employed in describing Narendra Modi are strangely absent when similar comparisons have to be made with the Chief Minister of “opposition” parties. 

We can never forget how Arnab Goswami’s arrest was actually celebrated by the famed members of the English media. You could sense that they must have sent Thank You messages in their WhatsApp groups. If any incident of intolerance by these leaders picks up traction, the media will then try to make this an “All politicians are bad” debate instead of garnering the strength to focus on the incident at hand. 

In pursuit of their biased agenda, the English media has often attempted to shield “opposition” leaders when they exhibit the very same traits they claim to detest. Fortunately for the country, the people are smart enough to see through this charade.