Thursday 15 April 2021

Shashi Tharoor's misplaced faith in a Free Press

Dr. Shashi Tharoor writes in Project Syndicate- 

A flurry of assaults on freedom of the press in recent months

has occurred in Congress governed Chattisgarh. Interestingly, journalists there oppose a bill which protects 'media-persons' because they believe that their supposed protectors will beat them with vim and vigor.  

In Maharashtra, where Congress is part of the ruling coalition, police harassment of a celebrity news anchor and a top female Bollywood star has passed all limits. It now appears that the Government was also using a tainted 'encounter specialist' to extort money from India's richest man.

has raised troubling questions about the state of India’s democracy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The state of a country's democracy depends on the quality of the Opposition. Tharoor's party can offer no alternative Prime Ministerial candidate. Nor can any other party. This is a shocking development in a country with a billion voters. 

This the true scandal which should concentrate Tharoor's mind. A Press may or not be free. It can't magically create an alternative to the current regime. That is the business of Opposition Members of Parliament like Tharoor himself.  

India has long had a free and often raucous press.

Save when it didn't because Congress's leader got cross with it. 

But the situation has changed dramatically since Modi’s government came to power in 2014.

Indeed. Prior to 2014, there was more than one potential Prime Minister. This meant politics was competitive. Then Rahul refused to step up to the plate. Worse still, no one else was allowed to challenge Modi. So there is now no alternative to the BJP at the Center. Politically, the Press has ceased to matter. It has no defenders because it fulfils no political function. 

In late January, police filed criminal charges – including sedition, which carries a life sentence – against eight journalists who covered a protest in Delhi that turned violent. Their crime: reporting the claims of a dead protester’s family that he had been shot and killed by the police. I face the same charges for having tweeted their claim when it was reported.

 The man who was killed was Sikh. Falsely claiming he had been shot was highly reprehensible. The crime of sedition applies to undermining the authority of the Police and causing them to be attacked by instigating people of a particular community using 'fake news'. Tharoor is pretending that the sedition charge arises out of an attack on a particular politician or political party. This is not the case. What we have here is an allegation of seditious libel against public officials. Those concerned have a defense in law if they can show they had no mischievous intention and acted with due care and diligence. The Supreme Court has stayed the arrest of Tharoor and others. One of them, however, was disciplined by his employer. 

Six journalists and I (a Congress party MP) are accused of “misreporting” facts surrounding the death. We face charges in four states ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

No. Delhi is not ruled by the BJP. The Delhi Police made the charge- being most nearly concerned. However it is true that similar charges were made in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana which are indeed BJP ruled. 

The publisher, editor, and executive editor of the investigative news magazine The Caravan face ten sedition cases in five states for reporting the story, and the magazine’s Twitter account was briefly suspended by government order.

Caravan does have greater culpability. They are making out that a British pathologist, who had previously testified that no conclusions can safely be made just by looking at photographs, was able to conclude that a man who hadn't been shot, had in fact been shot, just by looking at photographs. 

Ours is hardly an isolated case. In 2020 alone, 67 journalists were arrested, while nearly 200 were physically attacked in the 2014-19 period, including 36 in 2019, according to a study by the Free Speech Collective.

However, on a per-capita basis, BJP ruled states had the lowest number of arrests or other incidents involving journalists. Guess which State had the highest? Congress ruled Chattisgarh.  

A journalist arrested on his way to report on the aftermath of a gang rape in Uttar Pradesh state has been in jail for six months, being allowed out briefly only to visit his ailing mother in Kerala state, more than two thousand kilometers (1,243 miles) away.

Tharoor is referring to Siddique Kappan who, the Government claims, is a senior P.F.I leader who has raised money for banned organizations. He claimed to be working for a paper in Kerala which closed down two years ago. Five others arrested with him in Mathura were not journalists, nor was Mohammad Danish previously picked up in connection with the Delhi riots- viz  Atiqur Rehman, Rauf Sharif, Mohammad Danish, Alam, Masood Ahmad, Feroz Khan, and Asad Badruddin. All the accused have been charges with receiving funds to the tune of Rs 80 lakh from financial institutions based in Muscat and Doha for the purpose of creating unrest and riots in UP.

Tharoor is making it appear that a bona fide journalist went from Kerala to U.P in pursuit of a story. The facts suggest otherwise. Kapil Sibal is representing Kappan. If any one can get him off, it is Sibal. 

Conversely, reporting that is sympathetic to the government proceeds unchecked,

Not if it happens in Maharasthra or Mamta's Bengal.  

even if it is inaccurate, propagandistic, or inflammatory, particularly in retailing bigotry against minorities or discrediting the political opposition.

Tharoor's party, of course, is happy to retail bigotry against the majority.  

The mainstream media, whether print or television, has been cajoled and cudgeled into cheerleading for Modi’s government.

Says a guy who works for a dynasty which knows plenty about cudgeling- not cajoling. 


Once dominated by government programming, India’s visual media landscape is now brimming with numerous private offerings, with over a hundred 24-hour television news channels today in multiple languages. My state of Kerala alone has 13 all-news channels in the regional language, Malayalam.

Come to think of it, Kapil Sabil created a pro-Congress TV channel and employed Barkha Dutt as its anchor. But because Congress had no leadership worth the name, the enterprise quietly folded leaving Dutt utterly furious.  

But competition has fueled a race for eyeballs and advertising revenue that has steadily eroded the quality of Indian journalism.

Regional news channels can thrive because there is an effective Opposition. In Kerala, the Communists may get a second term because of their charismatic leadership and Health Minister Shailaja's deft handling of COVID. Tharoor needs to help his party reform itself. Why should he himself not be the leader if Rahul remains gun shy? At least, let Priyanka come forward.  

Whereas the Fourth Estate once placed a premium on editorial standards and journalistic ethics,

while riding barebacked on winged unicorns through the empyrean 

it has morphed into a grotesque platform driven by sensationalism and vilification.

Tharoor has sought to sensationalize his own predicament so as to vilify the ruling party. 

The news must be broken – and so, it seems, must the newsmaker. The government and its stalwarts are almost never the targets: the opposition, civil society, and dissenting individuals are.

This is nonsense. If the media senses that the Government is losing popularity and that an Opposition leader has the potential to win, then- in order to get 'eyeballs'- it dramatizes this competition. It has happened before and it will happen again- once there is 'blood in the water' and a capable Opposition leader who looks Prime Ministerial. 

As more Indians enjoy the fruits of literacy and the increasing affordability of smartphones and reduced data costs, India has witnessed a boom in print circulation as well as in social media as a news source, especially among young people. But newspapers are also conscious that they must compete in a tight media environment, where TV and digital media set the pace.

Quite true. But if Politics is boring because the Opposition is useless, then news channels focus on something else- sports, scandals in Bollywood, anything with a bit of drama.  

They know that every morning they must reach readers who have watched TV and read WhatsApp already. So, newspapers feel the need to “break” news in order to outdo their TV and social media competitors.

The cult of the scoop is over a century old. If there are no scoops in politics- just Rahul putting his foot in his mouth again- then scoops regarding celebrities will be aggressively pursued.  

The result is that India’s media, in its rush to run a story, has fallen prey to predictable hazards, often becoming a willing accomplice of the motivated leak and the malicious allegation, trading integrity for access to well-placed government sources.

You can remove the word 'India' in the above and replace it with the name of any other country whose politics has become boring because the Opposition is useless.  

In this environment, the BJP has undermined the free press through co-optation and intimidation, thus ensuring that much of the press produces only news that is sympathetic to the causes the ruling party holds dear, or that distracts the public’s attention from government failings.

The BJP would be foolish to waste resources doing any such thing. So long as Rahul will neither lead nor allow anyone else to lead, Politics at the Center will be as dull as dishwater. Modi understands this. He can be combative- as he is being in Bengal- but so long as Congress remains utterly useless the better play is to project himself as a White Bearded seer who can magically restore public confidence by displaying his calm wisdom and flawless integrity. Thus, we have the paradox of Modi growing in stature as the Economy lurches from one debacle to another.

India’s news media ought to be holding the government accountable,

No. The Courts and the Legislature hold the Executive accountable. The Media can uncover scandals and raise awareness of pressing issues. But it can't create a credible Opposition out of a bunch of corrupt sycophants devoted to an idiot roi faineant. 

not kowtowing to it. The good news is that not everyone has forgotten the watchdog responsibility that free media must exercise in a democracy. The Editors Guild of India has asked Modi to revoke the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, arguing that the new rules undermine press freedom.

But this won't revive the fortunes of a dynasty which is dying nasty. 

The bad news is that such developments are a major reason for the recent decisions of democracy watchdogs Freedom House (which downgraded India from “free” to “partly free”) and the V-Dem Institute (which now calls India an “electoral autocracy”) to express alarm about the health of the country’s democracy. “India, the world’s most populous democracy, is also sending signals that holding the government accountable is not part of the press’s responsibility,” wrote Freedom House.

So what? Indians don't care about what Americans think. If they won't give us Green Cards, why should we listen to their lectures? Look at China. It has no Freedom whatsoever and it has now grown so mighty that it can lecture the Americans on their racism.  

The Modi government’s weapon of choice is the colonial-era sedition law: an overwhelming majority of sedition cases have been filed in the seven years since Modi and his BJP came to power, according to data compiled by the website article.

This makes sense. Congress likes seditionists and terrorists and gangsters of every description. But the vast majority of voters want these guys locked up. Tharoor is helping Modi by showing that he is tough on the bad guys.

Incidentally, the laws on rape and murder are 'colonial-era' as is the charge of abetment to suicide (Section 306) under which Tharoor has been charged. It dates back to the anti-Suttee campaign. However Section 498-A, under which Tharoor has also been charged, was brought in by a Congress Government some 40 years ago. There is a greater probability of his conviction under it. 

In a criminal justice system that has changed little since the colonial era, detentions, charges, police investigations, and trials ensure that even if actual convictions are rare, the process itself is the punishment.

As Tharoor knows from personal experience. This case has been hanging over his head for 7 years.  

Freedom of the press is ultimately the best guarantee of liberty and progress.

Nonsense! It may pave the path to Fascism or Communism or plain and simple anarchy.

Tharoor & Co must understand that Politics is about doing smart things for the country- not telling stupid lies and expecting the Press to unseat your opponent for you.  

It is the mortar that binds together a free society

No. It may be an expression of that 'mortar', but then again it might not. 

– and it is also the open window that, in Mahatma Gandhi’s famous metaphor, allows the winds of the world to blow freely through the house.

Not having any walls enables things to get breezier yet. Sadly, only local winds will enter the house. In Summer, you can't throw open your window and expect to be refreshed by arctic gales. 

If Modi’s efforts to de-institutionalize what used to be a dynamic and independent Fourth Estate persists,

What is lacking in this article is any evidence that Modi has done anything at all to the Press. Suppose Tharoor had such information. He should give it to the Court so that Modi can be prosecuted according to the Law. He may also ensure the information is published far and wide provided that doesn't hamper an ongoing investigation or if the matter is sub judice. There is no evidence that Tharoor & Co have done anything of the sort. It is this laziness of theirs which has lost them power.

Rahul Gandhi recently attracted ridicule for appealing to some elderly relatively junior ex State Dept dude to get America to intervene in India's internal affairs. This reminded people that Congress had got Europe and America to deny Modi a visa on trumped up charges. Why could the then ruling party not prosecute Modi in their own country? The answer was that India's courts demand hard evidence. Since there was evidence exonerating Modi whereas that which went against him was shown to be concocted, Modi got a clean chit.  Later other Hindu women jailed on false charges of genocide or terrorism were released from jail because the Case against them was discovered to be fabricated.

 Tharoor is repeating the mistakes made by Manmohan Singh. He is making grave charges but won't substantiate them in any way. Why pretend Modi had Tharoor charged with sedition when, clearly, it was the Police acting to protect their own reputation? Why pretend a militant member of the P.F.I was actually a journalist when, clearly, he and his fellows were nothing of the sort? Tharoor may want P.F.I votes in his constituency, but he is alienating the majority community by espousing the cause of a dangerous fanatic. 

Tharoor ends thus-  

public confidence in the media will steadily decline, along with confidence in Indian democracy.

Why won't he admit that if journalists get locked up for spreading fake news, then public confidence in the media will increase? It is very convenient to treat 'freedom of the press' as a sacred cow. If an investigative journalist gets hold of incriminating evidence against, just get some rag to print an even more obscene article which, because it is so wildly improbable, will kill off any interest in the sober truth. 

Confidence in democracy rises where voters have a choice between competent and inspiring leaders. This is what Tharoor & Co refuse to provide. They feel it is someone else's job to bring down the Government. Today, Tharoor is pointing a finger at the Press. Tomorrow he may blame the Priests. Day after, he will say all is the fault of Consumerism and Neo-Liberalism. Finally, he will invest in a tin-foil hat and rave about the fluoride in the tap-water.  

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