From the judiciary, to the media. Speaking the truth in Modi’s India comes at a price.
Ask any historian. Heck, ask anyone over the age of 50 today: “What was the darkest period of Indian Democracy?”. And without a shadow of a doubt, they’ll all say it was the Emergency in 1975. For the uninitiated, in 1975, Indira Gandhi made two huge mistakes that would forever tarnish her legacy. First, to consolidate her position and power she decided to subvert the institutions that uphold the democratic fabric of India. She neutered the masses (by most accounts, both literally and figuratively), silenced the media and crushed the judiciary. The result? After lifting Emergency and calling for fresh elections, Indira lost. Badly.
Why? That brings us to mistake number two. She was honest about it.
It would appear our current Prime Minister, has learnt from mistake number two, even as he goes about repeating mistake number one in a deliberate and calculated manner. In an astonishing turn of events, that surprised even their most ardent supporters, the present government over the last year has moved to restrict freedom of expression, muzzle the judiciary and undermined the electoral process in Karnataka as a farce, simply because they didn’t have the numbers. Let’s look at all these one by one.
Judge me, Judge you.
On 12th January 2018, four serving Supreme Court judges called a press conference. In it, they raised serious questions on the handling of case allocations to judges. The tipping point they said, was the allocation of the Sohrabuddin Sheikh Fake Encounter case in which several people close to the BJP were named, not least party president Amit Shah, to a judge ranked 10th in seniority. Moreover, they felt that favoritism was shown in appointing judges to the High Court and the Apex court.
Why is this worrisome? Senior Supreme Court lawyers have echoed Justice J. Chelameswar’s concern over the government’s interference in the appointment of judges, saying there is “too much” interference of the executive in the appointment of “judges with independent minds”. When the check and balance on the government is not independent of the government, it’s difficult to say what is checked and what is balanced.
If you thought this was a one-off, feel free to read about Justice KM Joseph’s plight. The senior High Court judge was up for elevation; however, he made the cardinal sin of defying the government back in 2016. As a result, his elevation to the Supreme Court was put on hold with farcical reasons been put out to save face. As I write this piece, several senior SC judges have voiced their displeasure over this move, both vocally and in writing.
“Godi” Media or Bust
Full disclosure, the writer is a huge fan of NDTV India’s Ravish Kumar and his show Prime Time. So naturally, to discuss the sad state of the Indian Media in 2018, I shall use a term he used on Kunal Kamra’s podcast (which if you haven’t seen yet, you must). Kumar used the term “Godi” media to describe how several “independent” media houses have in fact become proxies for embedded journalism.
Take the Arnab Goswami anchored Republic TV for example. The channel’s ownership structure reveals that the majority stakeholder is Rajeev Chandrashekhar. The fact that he is also the NDA Chairperson in Kerala, and a BJP member isn’t nearly as talked about it should be. As a result, Republic often spouts Pro-Government propaganda under the garb of “news”. Their reward? Access to the Prime Minister. In fact, the Prime Minister has only given personal interviews to two channels, Republic and Times Now.
On the other side of the coin are reporters, journalists and editors like Ravish Kumar and Punya Prasun Bajpai. The former is one of the only journalists to extensively cover the plight of bankers and cash tellers post demonetization, the dire reality of unemployment and higher education in the country. For this, Mr. Kumar faced countless death threats, his phone was overrun by texts and calls trying to intimidate him. Several of these were from people claiming to be affiliated to the BJP. Some of these abusive twitter accounts are followed by the PMO’s twitter handle.
The latter, Mr.Bajpai was recently fired from ABP News. His only sin was doing his job. After covering a story that discredited the veracity of Mr.Modi’s claims that Sitaphal farmers in Chattisgarh have doubled their incomes, Mr. Bajpai was asked to leave ABP News.
Carrot and Stick
The pattern is clear. If you’re a media house, a judge or a government employee you have your right to freedom of expression. So long as your expression tallies with the government’s version of the facts. Fall into line, and you will be rewarded. At the very least, you will not be harmed. Disagree, and you’ll have to face the consequences. It’s not a binary, but it’s becoming one.
Any respectable democracy derives its strength from its citizens. The citizens in turn lean on a free press and a transparent judiciary to feel informed and empowered. Take these away and you cut their legs from under them. It’s time to be more aware of the realities that surround our daily lives, for “none are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
-Azain Jaffer, T.E.I.T