Tag: media in India

Saakhi: When Media Reduces War to a Video Game, News to Some Stale Jokes

The ease with which the media can now manipulate minds arises from the nature of the new media consumers. They are perennially connected to multiple devices in planes, in cafes, in parks, and even at the dining table. But they do not seek, they are content to receive.

Saakhi is a Sunday column from Mrinal Pande, in which she writes about what she sees and also participates in. That has been her burden to bear ever since she embarked on a life as a journalist, writer, editor, author, and chairperson of Prasar Bharti. Her journey of being a witness-participant continues. 

In a period of lawlessness, your brain suddenly splits. It begins to experience time in two dimensions. One is the subjective time driving your personal life, your personal ambitions, dreams, and reflective abilities. The other is the vast historical time as experienced by races and generations before you. That as you read about it, appears to be a huge juggernaut at once ruthless and uncaring of individuals and their hopes or aspirations each time it begins its journey on some path planned by destiny.

Can we accept, as media persons, that leadership, time and again, is bringing forth vast changes in all spheres, including in your profession, making you feel small, redundant, and full of self-doubt? The laws proliferate and change so fast that every one of us suspects he or she may be breaking a half-understood new law somehow. And so when a citizen we know to be totally innocent of the charges levelled against him/her is hauled and “held back for long questioning”, by authorities, our first reaction is to wonder even if momentarily that maybe he has broken a law somewhere along the way. Authoritarianism feeds on such an atmosphere of doubt and confusion about the constitution. Hence the proliferation of decrees and ordinances, and bills being passed hurriedly by voice vote.

A long existence under such circumstances makes the people docile and ready to follow the new rules of the game unquestioningly. In 2023, we learn countries earlier considered ‘friends’ must now be seen as unfriendly under the new treaties signed by those who live and work only in the vast time not available to us. The more space the Vast Time buys for the state, the less there is for us to ponder over the new developments. We accept projects and new buildings made with public money being gifted personally to us by the leadership. We accept becoming stooges to superpowers we see shaking hands and giving bear hugs to our leadership. The future shall, we learn, no longer grow organically out of our known historical past but a new world order, newer coalitions that mandate a new interpretation of history.

Schools, colleges, and institutions all must abandon old history and subscribe to new ones even if it doesn’t make sense. Our subjective time seems to have ceased to matter. Suddenly a war erupts far off but our media is feeding us a mish-mash of irrational images, myths, make-believe, illusory visuals: leaders launching billion rupee projects, new trains, new colleges, speaking to students of a new AI-armed tech-savvy India, flying off suddenly and seen next in the remotest idyllic setting praying to ancient gods with Vedic rituals. Kishore Kumar’s lines spoken to a dictatorial mother come to mind: “Aapne iss ghar ko Swarga aur hum subko Swargvaasee bnaa diya hai (You have made this home into heaven and we are now all heaven dwellers)”.

Only the irrational, you find endures.

The pattern followed is the same all the world over. First, they come for those who create values to destroy those who know what those values are. Then you co-opt value givers’ phrases from the abandoned past and use them to great effect in international gatherings of like-minded new friends. Then you hand the baton to the media and they fill the space with loud music from a totally make-believe band. By now one can recognise the bespoke spokespersons of this brave new world: the ever-furious moustachioed generals and “domain experts”, the constantly interjecting anchors with their mile-long questions answered with more questions by shrieking spokespersons, the matronly motormouths with their perfectly lacquered nails and pouting red O mouths. The only unforgivable crime is an open confrontation with the real authorities.

The media’s salvation is trying to achieve what it can no longer achieve, the trust of consumers. Most of us the world over, frankly read the papers and watch the news like stale jokes written by some bad stand-up comedian and send links to WhatsApp groups with three idiots laughing till tears flow.

Illustration: The Wire

Armed conflict, idiocy, and a disorienting fear of extinction, there is no worse combination. It is fast creating a monochromatic world around us all full of people with hollow eyes, zero attention span, and a great reluctance to dive deep into facts and get the context right for heaven’s sake. The ease with which the media can now manipulate minds the world over arises from the nature of the new media consumers. They are perennially connected to multiple devices in planes, in cafes, in parks, and even at the dining table. But they do not seek. They are content to receive. They feel perhaps withdrawing from areas of public involvement they will at least increase the private time they have and enjoy it.

So, the news of a dam breaking and inundating vast swathes of land and killing hundreds, of earthquakes, tsunamis, and cyclones killing and destroying thousands of homes just brings on no protest marches or public effort to bail out the affected. Those in proximity keep making videos of mountains crumbling, homes disappearing in gorges, and bombs reducing whole human clusters to ash and dust. Among those who are watching it on their laptops or smartphones, it only brings a sad shrug and rolling of eyes, “Ah, the Climate Change!’ The war in the West Bank or Armenia or Ukraine is similarly dismissed as a natural mutation of “historic cycles of ethnic warfare”. And the media pushes its agenda further by colouring it with religious tones so strong that human misery gets hidden.

No wonder loneliness, depression and drug addiction are on an unprecedented rise everywhere. You feel you cannot stop this juggernaut, you just throw yourself under its wheels.

What would it mean if one saw war as it really is? It means to see human nature in its greatest pitch of tension, terror, and cruelty. But if the media will, as it does each day, reduce the whole tragedy to black and white, the Good on the one side and the Baddies on the other, war seems like a video game played indoors with little breaks for food and a quick smoke.

It is time our media cut across the linguistic walls of China to accept the reality of the great divide within it. Also how war magnifies everything associated with everything from history to language: emotion, fury, wild exultation, stubbornness, and xenophobia. They give you a high before they destroy professions and professionals. Real-time wars on the ground or during elections are waged mostly through information dissemination in local language media. It is one-sided mostly and will answer no nuanced questions, only old answers neatly copied and cut-pasted from religious texts and military leaders’ biographies in English.

But our media today is in possession of tools for accurate information and verification from so many sources and in so many languages. It must re-establish the fast-evaporating relationship between ideas and structures among the common men and women. The struggle for the future of the earth is taking place more and more in the realm of people’s language where propaganda wars are waged using vernaculars as an effective tool of action. Without realising, most war reporters seem to see things on the war front as the authorities wish them to see. To be independent as a war reporter is not necessarily to criticise them but to step out of false theories of historic rights and wrongs and begin to see and report human beings as fellow human beings rooted in one’s personal space and personal reflections, capable of ‘feeling’ the pain they describe.

Backstory: How the Media Makes Crimes Against Women Disappear

A fortnightly column from The Wire’s ombudsperson.

Rarely does a day go by without some new information in the media on the horrific Shraddha Walkar murder case. The exceptional alertness shown to the malevolent acts perpetrated by Walkar’s intimate partner, Aftaab Poonawala, is both necessary and commendable. It has helped highlight the unsuspected depths of bestiality that often undergird sexual relationships in contemporary India. 

This reporting on the case signals something more: the coming together of criminal justice, majoritarian politics, cultures of masculinity and media attention. Have we reached a point where the universal imperatives of crime and punishment, and the public attention paid to it through the media, are now decided by factors such as who the murderer is and who the murdered was? This is an important question given how some cases receive aggregated media attention while others are simply “disappeared”.

Who are these murdered women who are “let go”? Who amongst us would know the name of the woman the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was a party in eliminating? His disciples in their hundreds of thousands don’t even recognise that such a crime had occurred. The examples of murderers and rapists escaping the full penalties of their egregious crimes are a legion and emerge from across regions and communities. Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who wore the resplendent robes of a bishop, was charged by a nun of having been used as a sex slave by him. Today, he walks free after an additional sessions court in Kerala pronounced him “not-guilty”.

Most recently, there was the case of the Haryana sports minister Sandeep Singh, who had sexually targeted a junior athletics coach. Haryana’s Manohar Lal Khattar government appears more than willing to go with Singh’s claim that these are allegations mounted to defame him. 

One of the biggest challenges for those fighting for justice is indifferent media coverage. There may be initial enthusiasm in reporting a crime but within a few days the story drops out of sight, testifying to how deeply patriarchal and political power influence media coverage of crimes against women.

On February 9, Delhi was witness to a unique press conference to mark the release of a fact-finding report anchored by the Uttarakhand Mahila Manch, along with organisations across the country. It signalled a determination not to allow the story of Ankita Bhandari, who was sexually assaulted and killed, vanish from the public space just as she herself was when she was pushed into a nearby barrage. In the process of their fact finding, the 19-year-old came to represent the young women of Uttarakhand, desperate for employment, committed to keeping home fires burning, yet fiercely protective of their own sense of self. 

Ankita had barely got into her first job as a receptionist at the Vanantra Resort in Uttarakhand’s Rishikesh when her employers tried to force her into doing sexual favours for VIPs staying at the resort. In a WhatsApp chat with a friend, she laid bare the pressure to provide such “extra service” and how she had replied that she would not comply. As it turned out, she paid with her life for that refusal. 

If these bare facts of the story are not sordid enough, what really exposes the rot within was the way institutions meant to protect young women like her, whether they were the local police, state political authorities,  or even the State Women’s Commission, proved to utterly incompetent or deliberately indifferent. Attempts were made by those complicit in the crime to control the narrative at every stage, cloak their own involvement in the murder and destroy evidence.  

From September 18, 2022, the day she was murdered, the fiction was maintained that she had gone missing. The main accused, Pulkit Arya, the son of a powerful BJP politician and former minister, went so far as to give the local patwari a “detailed missing report”, painting Ankita as a “mentally stressed” person whom he and his friends tried to calm down.

In actual fact, the woman had been captured by this man and his associates and subjected to mental and physical torture. They later pushed her off a cliff into the nearby Chilla barrage. Meanwhile, another brazen attempt to destroy evidence in the case was the bulldozing of the resort, including the area where Ankita had her room, on the orders of BJP MLA Renu Bisht.  Projected as an act of outrage meant to “punish” the criminals, it appears to have been wilful destruction of evidence.

Some of these details had emerged in the reporting of this story when it broke last September. The point to note, however, is that those media reports were essentially disconnected and left half-told. The value of the fact-finding report produced by the women of Uttarakhand and their feminist colleagues from other states, lies precisely in its holistic treatment of the case (‘Uttarkahand: Fact-Finding Team Alleges Cover Up in Police Probe of Ankita Bhandari Murder’, February 7).

What is also distinctive is the prism of gender they used. Important aspects like the failure of institutions, the legal arguments, the need for better witness protection, and details of post-mortem findings are assembled. Questions about whether the identity of the VIP who had asked for “extra services” was being protected by the authorities were raised. But what made the fact finding quite exceptional was the careful attention it paid to the larger backdrop – from the very high rate of rape in Uttarakhand and the pitifully poor employment avenues that exist for women to the impacts of tourism and the growing demand on the women in this sector to provide sexual services.

Ideally, such fact finding should have been done by the media in real time, but perhaps that is too much to expect of an industry constantly caught up in a volatile news scenario and susceptible to pressures from powerful actors. But the least that could have been expected from the national media was focused attention to the findings of this report. That, unfortunately, was not forthcoming.

It needs a rare empathy to keep alive the memory of a woman from a mountain village. The national team that produced report demonstrated that quality in abundant measure. As the team members put it, their report was conducted to keep alive the memory of a young girl aspiring to be a worker but who lost her life because she refused to be coerced into sex work.

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Siddique Kappan’s courage

Two years after a completely cruel and totally unjustifiable arrest, Siddique Kappan emerged with his spirit and commitment to journalism intact (‘Will Continue My Fight’: Siddique Kappan Walks Out of Jail After Over Two Years’, February 4). He had no inhibitions about telling the world just how monstrously he had been treated, right down to the denial of proper toilet facilities as a form of torture. In many ways, his story will go down in the annals of the history of journalism in this country as a remarkable one of professional resilience. A journalist got prosecuted and persecuted, not for a story that he wrote, but for a story that the State imagined that he would write; not for “anti-national crimes” that he had committed but for fake charges of “anti-national crimes” foisted on him by the State.

Siddique Kappan. Photo: By arrangement

To get a glimpse of just how outrageous this was, one just has to rewind to hotshot lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani’s arguments in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Uttar Pradesh state government against Kappan’s release:

“Kappan was in a meeting of PFI in September 2020. It was said in the meeting that funding had stopped. It was decided in the meeting that they will go to sensitive areas and incite riots. On October 5, they decided to go to Hathras to incite riots. He was funded with Rs 45,000 to create riot… He claimed to be accredited to a newspaper ‘Tejus’. We have found that he was accredited by the official organization of PFI. PFI has to be notified as a terrorist group. One State, Jharkhand, has notified it as a terrorist group. He was planning to incite riots. It’s a little bit like what happened in 1990. It is a fit case for invoking 124A also because they are creating disaffection using the rape of a minor girl.” (excerpted from an OpIndia piece).

This tissue of assertions defy all evidentiary logic, but then when have facts ever come in the way of the Uttar Pradesh government’s malicious intentions? As Kappan revealed after coming out of jail, he was tortured by the UP police to get him to confess that he had links with terrorist groups (‘Siddique Kappan Says Police ‘Tortured’ Him to Admit Links to Terrorist Groups’, February 4). They even tried to get him to admit that he ate beef (this could have only happened in UP!).

Many who have had to go through similar ordeals have chosen to keep their silence and try and carry on with their lives. Kappan, from all evidence, is not about to forget those who had accompanied him on that fateful trip to UP or indeed other journalist colleagues in jail elsewhere in the country. His priority now, he says, is to stand with them: “Journalism is in danger in India and (the State gets away with) jailing journalists because nobody dares to defend them.” 

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Media and earthquakes

The quake that devastated large parts of Turkey and Syria has extracted a human cost that just cannot be quantified – over 22,000 people have died, hundreds of thousands of others injured, with cities that once vibrated with life now reduced to rubble. The images of the crumbled bodies of children are the most gut wrenching. Suhasini Haidar of The Hindu, while recalling her experience of reporting on the tsunami of 2004 (‘Reporting on loss, grief and resilience during a tragedy, The Hindu, February 10), writes that the “memories that remain are the haunting cries of parents who had seen their children being taken away by the force of the tide. One mother kept telling me how she had held on to her infant tightly, but the wave had wrenched him from her arms…”

So what are the responsibilities of journalists covering such disasters? The first is the realisation that journalism can be a crucial life-saving addition to rescue work by relaying information from ground level to the concerned agencies, affected communities and the world at large in real time. Here, the ability to understand complex phenomena, and to interpret them in a language that is easily understood, is vital. This is where adequate prepping, speaking to experts, equipping oneself, can make all the difference. 

A thumb rules of conducting oneself as a journalist in such situations is to ensure that your reporting does not come in the way of rescue work, endanger the lives of already vulnerable people, or add to the existing trauma and panic.

Video screengrab showing a damaged neighbourhood in Turkey. Photo: Twitter@abierkhatib

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‘National Interest’ and media control

This column has already noted how the Information Technology Rules, 2021 is being maintained as an open platform that can be tweaked in real time to conform to the government’s requirements. Recently, in an exhibition of supposed moral panic, new guidelines were issued to get Indian TV channels to broadcast for at least 30 minutes every day “content in the national interest”.

What’s interesting here is the guidelines on what constitutes themes of national and social importance could change from “time to time” (‘National Interest Content on TV Channels: What the I&B Ministry’s New Advisory Says’, January 31). But what precisely constitutes “national interest” and how does the government ensure that what it considers as “national interest” is not foisted on channels. Is this yet another attempt by the government to get its foot in the door in editorial functioning? We need to watch this space.

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Readers write in…

Rakesh Sharma’s documentary

A Wire reader sent in this mail for the information of the general public: “There is so much talk about the banned BBC documentary. However, many of your readers may be aware of an outstanding documentary by Rakesh Sharma called the Final Solution (so aptly titled) on YouTube on the same subject which can be viewed here. While Rakesh Sharma is not a brand in the sense BBC is, the message crafted and conveyed deftly is as good or even better than in the BBC documentary. Even if your readers are not struggling to lay their hands on the link to the BBC documentary, I urge them to view Final Solution. Just a word of caution – it’s very disturbing.

“Following is a description of the film (reproduced from YouTube): “Final Solution is a study of the politics of hate. Set in Gujarat during the period Feb/March 2002 – July 2003, the film graphically documents the changing face of right-wing politics in India through a study of the 2002 genocide of Moslems in Gujarat. It specifically examines political tendencies reminiscent of the Nazi Germany of the early/mid-1930s. Final Solution is anti-hate/ violence as ‘those who forget history are condemned to relive it’.”

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Statement from NPC

The National Press Club (NPC) based in Washington, DC, sent in details of its statement: “The NPC statement, released here on Tuesday, identifies the Indian government’s suppression of the Modi-critical documentary as part of a larger threat Prime Minister Narendra Modi poses to Indian democracy.

“India should be proud that it is the largest democracy in the world, but it cannot hold on to that identity if it continues to erode press freedom, persecute journalists, and suppress news that holds a mirror up to its shortcomings,” NPC president Eileen O’Reilly said. “Since Modi came to power, we have watched with frustration and disappointment as his government — time and time again — have suppressed the right of its citizens to a free and independent news media.”

The NPC “strongly urge(s)” India to rescind the ban and allow Indians to “decide for themselves whether they agree or disagree with its findings,” she said.

“The BBC is one of the most respected news sources in the world and is known for its high editorial standards,” O’Reilly said. “We also demand in the strongest terms the government stop its persecution of journalists and suppression of press freedom in India.”

In the past two weeks, the Indian government has done everything in its power to prevent domestic and international audiences from grappling with overwhelming evidence of Modi’s complicity in the anti-Muslim pogroms of 2002…The NPC’s stand against the Modi regime’s brutal censorship campaign joins a chorus of condemnations from global press and democratic freedom organisations, signalling growing international recognition of the grave threat Modi poses to Muslims, religious minorities, a free press, and democracy itself.

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Clanger alert

Some days ago, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor protested the emasculation of South Indian names in a tweet, pointing out that Kerala and Tamil Nadu were misspelt as ‘Kerela’ and ‘Tamil Naidu’ on a MyGov Republic Day poll.  He tweeted: “All of us Dakshin Bharatvasis would be grateful if the Hindi Rashtravadis running MyGov.in could kindly take the trouble to learn the names of our states. Please!?”

I was reminded of this when I came across a line in the Wire piece, ‘Siddique Kappan Says Police ‘Tortured’ Him to Admit Links to Terrorist Groups’ which read: “He went on to say that he has been in Delhi since 2013 and has covered beats such as parliament, Congress and minorities for a Kerela-based Malayalam news portal.”

But it is not just Southern states that were mangled this time, it’s also time to correct the spelling of ‘Uttarakhand’, in the headline ‘Uttarkahand: Fact-Finding Team Alleges Cover Up in Police Probe of Ankita Bhandari Murder’. 

The desk, I am sure, will take care of these blips.

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Death of the Mahatma

The special feature, ‘The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi’ (January 30), in The Wire to mark what was the 75th anniversary of post-independent India’s first and most fateful political murder, was striking in its creative use of the strengths and fluidity of the internet media. The sources drawn upon were wide ranging; the minimalist illustrations sharply poignant; the calendar of events, precise. Both the temporal and spatial dimensions of that historical juncture have been captured admirably. 

This, I believe, is an important template that could be used to map other cataclysmic developments – of the past, present and future.

Write to ombudsperson@cms.thewire.in

‘Within Six Months, We Can Bring Media under Control, Take Them Over’: New BJP TN Chief

Annamalai made the statements on July 14, while addressing party workers during a road show from Coimbatore to Chennai, before taking oath as party president.

New Delhi: Newly appointed president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), K. Annamalai, has said he can bring the “media in the state under control within six months”, news reports said.

Annamalai made the statements on July 14, Wednesday, while addressing party workers during a road show from Coimbatore to Chennai, before taking oath as party president. He is expected to take oath on July 16 at the party headquarters in Chennai.

L. Murugan, who is now minister of state for information and broadcasting, would take care of all the media, he said.

Tamil Nadu information technology minister Mano Thangaraj told The Hindu, “His statement is an intimidating one. It is highly condemnable…I see this [Mr. Annamalai’s remarks] as a way of coercing the media into being favourable to one party, while the media have the responsibility to uphold freedom of expression.”

Also read: RSF Names PM Modi among 37 ‘Predators of Press Freedom’ with Kim Jong-Un, Imran Khan

According to the daily, Annamalai said, “Forget about the media. Don’t worry about things like they are carrying ‘false news’ about us, what can we do… Within the next six months, you will see that we can bring the media under our control, take them over… you don’t worry about anything. No media can keep projecting false information continuously.”

He further said, “Former BJP state president L. Murugan is the Union minister of state for information and broadcasting. All the media come under him. There cannot be ‘wrongs’ continuously. The media cannot continuously project false news. Such news cannot be used for politics.”

According to the News Minute, Annamalai was promoted from vice-president of the Tamil Nadu BJP unit in less than a year after the previous state BJP chief L. Murugan was inducted in the Union Cabinet.

Watch | Media Bol: ED Raids Against NewsClick and TV-TRP-Twitter Controversy

In the lastest episode of ‘Media Bol’, senior journalist Urmilesh discusses raids against ‘NewsClick’, TRP scam and other issues relating to media with his guests.

The last few days have been challenging for some of the independent media houses and journalists. Many editors, even those journalists who had in the past received Padama Shri, have been charged with criminal offences.

Meanwhile, the TRP scam that emerged out of Mumbai has slowly started to fade away from people’s memory, as editors who have been accused in the scam moved Supreme Court to avoid arrest after a first information report (FIR) had been lodged in Delhi.

On the other hand, the news of an unprecedented scale raid by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against NewsClick, an independent news portal, made headlines when this video was recorded.

Senior journalist Urmilesh discusses these issues that have made news from the world of media recently in the latest episode of ‘Media Bol’ with senior journalists Dr. Mukesh Kumar and T.K. Rajlakshmi.

 

 

 

‘Belief in Media Reports Means End of Rule of Law’: Govt Counsel in Delhi Riots Case

The Delhi police asserted that the “narrative” pointing fingers at BJP leader Kapil Mishra for starting riots was false, and was only based on media reports.

New Delhi: Special public prosecutor, Amit Prasad, appearing for Delhi police in connection with a Delhi riots case observed that if the investigation, prosecution and the country were to go by what was being reported by the media, then it was the “end of rule of law” in India.

Coming down heavily on the media, he accused it of picking up “narratives” peddled by the accused.

“Instead of investigating agency doing the investigation, the accused would rather use all the contemporaneous media reports to make the court believe that what they are saying was correct,” he said in a snide remark, according to a report by The New Indian Express.

These comments were made on behalf of Delhi police at a Delhi court while opposing the bail application of Pinjra Tod member and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Devangana Kalita in connection with the Delhi riots case. Kalita is facing stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for her alleged role in the conspiracy that led to the riots.

The prosecution told the court that Kalita was creating “narratives” to blame BJP leader Kapil Mishra for Delhi riots, and the same was being spread virally to make people believe that it was indeed the truth.

The barrage of criticism against the media was launched by the public prosecutor when Kalita’s counsel, Aditi Pujari, had pointed out that the Delhi riots were started by pro-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protestors, but not anti-CAA groups citing a media report.

The public prosecutor said that the accused while “creating a narrative” wanted to paint Kapil Mishra to be behind the riots and further tarnish the image of prosecution by pointing out that it was against one community.

“First the accused create a narrative and then make the larger masses believe that the narrative that you are giving out is correct… Will these media reports decide the fate of prosecution? Why has the accused relied on media reports? Because the accused also need to take shelter under something,” Prasad has been quoted as saying by Indian Express.

He further asserted the “narrative” that pro-CAA protestors had started the riots was false, pointing to the statements of witnesses.

On the contention of Kalita that her case was different from that of co-accused Sharjeel Imam, Prasad pointed out that the tweet put out by Pinjra Tod indeed proved that Kalita was supporting Imam and both of them were connected.

“When I want to connect the two, the accused says they were travelling in separate paths and not to connect them. All that the accused was trying to do is create a narrative and not go beyond that,” Prasad added, according to the Indian Express report.

To this Kalita’s counsel, Pujari, hit back saying that the prosecution was relying on selective WhatsApp messages to implicate her. “Every bit and piece of investigation cannot be part of the chargesheet,” Prasad said in a comeback.

The court scheduled the next hearing in the case on Wednesday, December 16.

In Case Against Shehla Rashid, a Glimpse Into Centre’s Approach to Kashmir Crisis

Instead of engaging with the people of Kashmir – and activists like Shehla Rashid – the Centre has tried to repress dissent.

The widespread use of fear and intimidation, having rammed through a particular vision of India – 37 days and counting – must be called out at every twist and sordid turn.

Shehla Rashid Shora has been a voice of sobriety. Her stand, nuanced and even-handed. I trust what she says while rubbishing the blatantly engineered reports that masquerade as news. That a series of tweets from this 20-something activist sends the mighty Indian state burrowing into the IPC is as pathetic as it is indefensible. This is the action of a haughty, unconfident state that routinely settles upon the softest of targets to reiterate a misplaced sense of omnipotence. It does so at the cost of its dignity and credibility.

Also Read: Court Grants Protection From Arrest to Shehla Rashid in Sedition Case

Never has Indian media been this powerful and in a position to stand up for what’s right. And, never has Indian media been so obsequious. It has allowed the state to go unchallenged allowing individual liberties to be run over. It has gone from ‘duty to report without fear’ to fear-mongering to its latest avatar: a tactical arm in the government’s intimidation project with publications on Twitter and WhatsApp blending with demagogues of prime time.

It was difficult not to come away nauseated by a recent video clip in which Shehla was mobbed by journalists as she tried to defend her tweets. Microphones were jabbed into her face, a crowd of twenty plus males pushed, shoved and ganged-up. They cut off her arguments while baiting her for a sensational byte that passes for news in our country today. The equanimity with which Shehla stood her ground till she had delivered her statement in full was a lesson in how aggression may be deflated with a pinprick of poise.

Also Read: Kashmir Under Siege: One Month of Silence

It is censorship that causes fear and terror. It is the spread of disinformation, misinformation and the absence of information that cause rumours, unpredictability and destabilisation. Censorship is anti-national. Censorship is seditious. Censorship breeds hate and fear where we need compassion and understanding.

When the media and government have all but abdicated their role in this regard, individual citizens like Shehla have to take up the baton. If the government believes that she is wrong, that there is no high handedness by the armed forces and that peace and calm actually prevail in the Kashmir Valley, it should simply call out Shehla’s claims and allow the free flow of information. That it does exactly the opposite, using the law to silence her, speaks volumes.

Security personnel patrol a deserted road in Srinagar. Photo: Reuters/Danish Ismail

The grace that should characterise the largest democracy in the world, the compassion of the land where the thoughts and ideas of the Buddha and Gandhi flourished are missing today. Where is the largeness of heart and inclusiveness? And if these qualities are to be given a go by, where at least is the political thinking?

Shehla is a young Kashmiri woman. She is articulate, intelligent and educated in one of the finest institutes of our country. She is a candidate who could effect that much needed compassionate and empathic approach between the corridors of power in Delhi and the people of the Valley. Rather than hounding and threatening her with jail, shouldn’t the Indian state be engaging with her?

Is there much to be gained in understanding Kashmiri sentiment to bring real (un-curfewed) peace on the ground? The opportunities presented by a Shehla is belied by myopia and delusion of the state. Time after time, New Delhi has had opportunities to resolve the Kashmir crisis by engaging with the local people through those who occupy the middle ground. And every time, New Delhi has decimated this middle ground by blundering or with arrogance.

Outreach not part of the plan

Is it possible that this government is so inured to the anguish and pain caused by its actions that it has become hypnotised by their own propaganda? Do they actually believe that the people of Kashmir welcome the revocation of Article 370 and Article 35A and are grateful for being imprisoned in their own homes? While they have, in the finest detail, worked out how to repress basic human impulses in military, demographic, legislative and administration terms, they seem to be unconcerned by oppression, fear, anguish and suffering – the real human collateral. Clearly, outreach to the population of Kashmir is not part of the plan.

So when many governments before have failed – that too, when Kashmir was a special state with its constitution and flag – does this government truly believe that when Kashmir is a vassal of New Delhi, things are going to turn peachy? Or would they acknowledge that this has just given the Kashmiri freedom movement a new rallying cry? There is a feeling among those who know and understand Kashmir that the blood that will flow after the blockade is lifted will dwarf the past 30 years of militancy and separatism. The government has perhaps not worked out, or worse, doesn’t care that without a state government, the moral responsibility for this and everything that comes hereafter will be that of New Delhi alone.

Also Read: The Kashmiris are Still Waiting to Speak. This Time, Their Voice Will Carry Far.

In a video ex-finance minister Yashwant Sinha, fresh from having visited Kashmir, recounts meeting a person quite high up in the government. Having patiently heard Sinha on the alarming humanitarian crisis in the Valley, this gentleman chillingly explained that the government has put into place something called the ‘doctrine of state’ somewhat in the tradition of Machiavelli, Chanakya and Metternich. This doctrine states simply: “use force to quell rebellion”.

Had the government cared to read history, it would have known that dissent is not rebellion; that brute force has never triumphed over individual liberty. Sadly this only serves to clarify an inability to comprehend the extent to which the Kashmiri will go to preserve her aspirations for self-determination. That despite the might of 700,000 troops over the past 30 years, the spirit of defiance burns bright and undiminished in every Kashmiri. That hereafter, Kashmiris will view themselves not as citizens but victims of a colonised and occupied state.

What is most disheartening is that the government fails to appreciate that these actions have rendered a struggle that privileged self-determination over sectarian concerns to a dangerously simple religious binary. Any future conflict that will bloody the streets of Kashmir will be characterised as a struggle between Hindu occupiers and Muslim natives.

Kashmiri girls shout slogans as they attend a protest after scrapping of the special constitutional status for Kashmir by the Indian government. Photo:  REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Backed into a corner

This government has backed itself into a corner with no options left. It has alienated its torchbearers – politicians who argued in favour of Indian administration will now be seen as traitors by their kin. It has alienated about 4,000 to 6,000 detainees (no official confirmation), some as young as 13. Could this give militants a new line to recruit in the future?

What is more, having been introduced to each other in jail by the Government of India, they are at this very moment sharing stories of persecution and developing a common sense of violation that will unleash itself in the months and years to come. The government has forgotten that militancy in Kashmir was catalysed by those who were thrown in jail after the ‘rigged elections’ of 1987. It has, indeed, forgotten the role that British jails played in our very own freedom struggle.

Also Read: In a Ravaged Kashmir, One Woman’s Fight to Give Birth

It has alienated political workers, local leaders, human rights workers and activists – vital earpieces to understand what people are thinking, those who act as checks and balances on the radical and extremist fringes.

Frighteningly, the government also has a list of mosques and imams who have been intimidated to not speak against the reading down of Article 370. Will that stop them?

I need hardly to recall the 8 million people of the Kashmir Valley who are under house arrest. The anguish of the mother who is unable to buy milk for her child. The slow decay of the father who needs dialysis treatment. The shattered dreams of the daughter who, having paid her online college fee, is unable to take her exams. And the thousands of Kashmiri students studying in far off and often hostile Indian cities, unable to pay their fees and meet their basic needs.

It has alienated people like Shehla.

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A Pregnant Lady walking on the streets of Srinagar. Photo: Zubair Sofi

What then must be done?

To avoid the looming catastrophe, the government must swing into a conciliatory mode immediately. The high court has given Shehla interim protection against arrest, but the Delhi police should proactively drop the embarrassing case of sedition slapped on Shehla. All other similar and frivolous cases must be dropped. Then, without waiting for the court to decide, the government should admit that keeping the Valley under lockdown indefinitely wasn’t part of the plan. Prisoners should be released. Article 370 and 35A should immediately be restored.

The government should, through the use of any credible intermediaries that may be left (or, indeed, willing) attempt to restore normalcy as quick as possible. It must ensure that the crisis in health and economy, which they refuse to admit, are swiftly addressed. It must get kids out of jails and back in schools, where a counselling programme towards peace should be initiated. A good place to begin this healing process would be via the same imams who they have on their lists.

In the rest of India, it should put its vast media machine and the army of trolls into reverse gear and manage public sentiment that is out of control. It must reign in the hate-mongering in TV studios. The government should retire its choreographed dancers, drum beaters, and pull off the deeply offensive video clips that show brutal domination of our people. And it should ask potential investors in Kashmir to deploy their surplus cash into the beleaguered Indian economy.

Finally, when all this is done, it should go back to the people of J&K and consult them about the future of their state. The only people who matter when it comes to the status of J&K are the people of the state.

However, this needs humanity, humility, wisdom, compassion and inclusiveness – qualities that are in short supply at present. So, what is likely is that we will have to wait till enough lives, livelihoods and dreams of the armed forces and the Kashmiri youth have been culled at the altar of religious pride and a misplaced idea of what India is about.

Perhaps, we will have to wait till what is happening in Kashmir happens across the country. The thing about authoritarianism is that once it has devastated one group, it needs to move on to some ‘other’ to continue its rampageous life. So, it is only when the people who were till yesterday dancing over the corpse of Article 370 and 35A get a taste of oppression and the heavy hand of the state themselves, will we begin to realise that Kashmir is merely a lab rat for the rest of India. That what happened in Kashmir yesterday is going to be our tomorrow.

Ashvin Kumar is an Oscar-nominated, two-time national award winner. He has made films on Kashmir for the past ten years, most recently the feature film No Fathers in Kashmir.

What Chandrayaan 2 Taught Us About India’s Media Landscape Today

Who knew there was suddenly a market for soft, civilised language and nuance in the age of brain-dead TV channels?

Not a single dawn sees its dusk in the social media age without the honourable members of the media inserting themselves into a story and putting up a cringeworthy sideshow, perfect for a future newspaper called The Daily Tamasha.

And so, in the year of the lord 2019, it is ISRO’s partially failed mission to the moon, Chandrayaan 2, which did not quite provide the desired opportunity for self-promotion for those who had flown down to its headquarters i.e. Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As PMO speech writers tore up their chest-thumping drafts, and image managers had to quickly come up with a replacement photo-op (like the PM patting the ISRO chairman on the back 59 times), Aaj Tak‘s original hopes lay dashed.

There is so much certitude in #NewIndia, so much certainty that the space programme began in 2014, that it seemed Rahul Kanwal of Aaj Tak hadn’t heard of the Challenger coming down.

§

Hours before the Chandrayaan trouble, Deepak Chaurasia of News Nation was asking if India would be the first country to colonise moon….

…little realising the TV9 Telugu had already reached there and even lined up a panel discussion, which of course had to be cancelled due to technical reasons.

Unaware of fate’s unseen hand, Deepak Chaurasia had earlier in the night bravely revealed how he had prepared for the great day.

§

The Indian Express had to quick make changes to its front page, revealed its city editor Rahul Sabharwal.

Which was certainly better than the Malayala Manorama two months ago, whose desk heads, so sure of black space just as they are of white, announced that Chandrayaan had taken off, locked their elaborately designed front page and gone home, only to realise that it was still on ground in Sriharikota and it was too late to shout “Stop, Press”.

§

But, of course, the day belonged to Pallava Bagla, the veteran science writer, who knows more about ISRO than most journalists put together.

Bagla did what political reporters have forgotten to do for the last 64 months: demand answers from the man at the top of the hill if things go wrong.

Thankfully, hours before the moon lander was to land, Bagla had taken his insurance certificate on Twitter, with a patriotic ‘cc’ to @PMOIndia.

But at the press conference following the Chandrayaan disaster, Bagla did something that is not kosher in #NewIndia: ask a question and demand accountability.

It was loud, over the top, the tone a little too sharp, and perhaps the wrong moment, but only people who haven’t seen or heard Pallava Bagla would say that.

Then again, who knew there was suddenly a market for soft, civilised language and nuance in the age of brain-dead TV channels?

Also read: The Farther Away From Chandrayaan, the Pettier the Winds Blow

Bagla, a former India correspondent for Science magazine, apologised later through two tweets.

So did NDTV founder Prannoy Roy.

But that wasn’t enough for the burgeoning fauj of desk bhakts in the media, especially those whose covert and overt target is the battered and beleaguered NDTV.

A few jumped in to support Bagla but in vain

For one, it was time to rake up an old ghost.

§

But it is the response of journalists to Narendra Modi hugging the ISRO chief that got many teary-eyed.

It took a couple of them to point out the sheer irony of the hug and the humbug.

§

Since institutional memory in Indian journalism is not quite at its strongest, Rasheed Kidwai linked to a 1987 India Today story to show how Rajiv Gandhi, who too was at ISRO headquarters when the ASLV mission failed, reacted.

And Mrinal Pande, the former editor of Hindustan, pulled out a picture from the archives, on the ground with India’s first man in space: Rakesh Sharma.

Also read: Why Chandrayaan 2 Was a Success Well Before ‘Vikram’ Got to the Moon

Indrani Bagchi of The Times of India wished the studio warriors of the commando comic channels god bless and god speed.

And back on earth, and back to earth, Aaj Tak had lunar advice for motorists driving in fear of the new traffic penalties.

Note: This article was edited at 12:40 pm on July 21, 2020, to replace the first image, republished as-is from the original but which was later flagged to The Wire as being doctored.

This article was originally published on the Indian Journalism Review.

When Journalists Start Speaking Comfort to Power

How can journalists question the system when they are the system?

There have been many films made around journalism. Bollywood turns journalists into caricatures – in an earlier time, they were all bearded, jholawala idealists; now they just carry television mikes and bark questions at people – but several good films have come out of Hollywood, such as Citizen Kane, All the President’s Men, The Post, Spotlight and even The Front Page.

Less known is Deadline USA (1952), starring Humphrey Bogart, a Noir drama about an editor who fights a crime boss while at the same time resisting any attempts by the owners of his newspaper to sell it. As the crusading editor of The Day, Bogart brings his usual feisty persona to the role, but makes sure the star in him does not take over the actor. We are used to seeing him as the tough private eye or the cynical but romantic lover, but here is a troubled character, unable to keep his love life going because he is so devoted to the newspaper and to his job as a journalist.

For journalists of an earlier generation, the film will bring back memories of the newsrooms of yore – typewriters, teletypes, hardboiled news editors, men and women cracking jokes as they go about their day chasing stories. But I would recommend every journalist in India – especially those who are relatively new to the profession – to see the film, or, if they find it too old fashioned (though it is not, and the unfolding of the story is gripping), to at least see the clip below, in which Bogart, the editor, speaks about the importance of a newspaper and its values.

I was reminded of this film because of many events, including recent ones, which have shown the Indian media landscape in a very poor light. That much of the media, print and broadcast, has become a cheerleader of this government is no secret and even those newspapers that consider themselves ‘balanced’ and ‘centrist’ are playing down hard stories that the government may consider negative. Individual journalists make no secret of their pro-Narendra Modi leanings and as for ‘neutral’ journalists, who fall back on wishy-washy platitudes rather than taking a line, the less said the better.

Even then, the manner in which journalists, press bodies and media associations and clubs have behaved after the government read down Article 370 and locked down an entire state by cutting off communications is nothing short of shameful. Forget getting hard stories about the miseries of ordinary Kashmiris, taking a strong editorial line and standing in full solidarity with the journalists of that beleaguered state, the Indian media and journalists’ organisations have waffled or even attempted their own brand of censorship.

Also read: How to Get the Story Through Towering Walls of Hyper-Nationalism?

The Press Council of India is not a body of journalists, but it is supposed to uphold the freedom of the press. Its chairman, unilaterally interceded in a petition filed by Anuradha Bhasin, the Kashmiri editor, in the Supreme Court asking that the curbs on communication be lifted. Though the Council chairman’s suo moto note offers to assist Court in balancing the national interest with the shut down of communications, it is a completely gratuitous gesture that pre-supposes that somehow national interest has to be kept in mind when discussing press freedom. This totally serves the government’s purpose which elevates nationalism and national interest above all else, including individual freedoms. The other members of the Council have reversed this stand, but it only shows how institutions are being subverted and what the future holds.

The Delhi press club denied permission to the fact-finding group that had gone to Kashmir to show any video of what they had recorded. Meanwhile, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, a club that only takes women journalists as members, actually withdrew a booking made by members of the Bhim Army to hold a press conference on the premises. Though not about Kashmir, the principle remains the same and the willing participation in the assault on free speech is equally disgraceful. And none of them have bothered to give any explanation of their actions.

There are acts of omission too. The stopping of Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika at the airport when they were flying out on a holiday did not attract any significant protest from any media organisation and no adverse commentary in the newspapers. Government advertising has been stopped in several large newspaper groups – not all are particularly hostile to the government – and one can well imagine what is happening below the radar with the smaller, less high-profile publications, for whom revenue from such advertising is crucial to survive. Any protest? Even from the publications most hit? Hardly.

Collective journalists organisations have traditionally been weak in India. The old press unions have gone, but even in their heyday, they were more preoccupied with wages and working conditions, not fundamental issues of free expression. Occasional restrictive steps by earlier governments were resisted and there was some resistance during the Emergency, though not enough.

Also read: How Newspapers Reported the Revocation of J&K’s Special Status

What we are seeing now is qualitatively different. There is much that happens behind the scenes, and newspaper managements and editors have not just fallen in line but also imposed boundaries on themselves. It is as if they have internalised the government’s thinking, preferring to play it safe rather than risk anyone’s wrath post-facto.

This situation has been long in the making. For years now, journalists have found that they cannot freely write about the corporate sector, especially about the big business houses, who also often happen to be the ones with hefty advertising budgets. When was the last time we saw some truly first class reporting on a company or a serious forensic examination of its balance sheet in a pink paper? Corporate coverage is a sham, mainly based on company press releases and PR guff.

From there to the current scenario, where political reporting too has become little more than highlighting the achievements of the BJP (and a handful of leaders), opposition-bashing and toning down criticism of anyone from the ruling dispensation.

Now some journalists have gone a step further. The death of Arun Jaitley prompted some really cringeworthy commentary, with journalists not just rushing to show their chummy proximity to the departed leader, but also declaring him to be a friend, guide and mentor. One anchor woefully – and perhaps honestly – said she would have no one to speak to every morning, something other journalists would have discreetly suppressed. But why blame her alone when others too remembered fondly their association with him?

Also read: Today, Freedom From Fear Is Freedom From Mainstream Media

Individual journalists now tend to play it safe and tread a careful line on social media. The government goes unchallenged – criticism on social media is couched in grand philosophical terms, abstractions or bromides, or at best, phoney equivalence where the Congress is dragged in to show that they are equal opportunity critics.

They may well say that there is no need to be continuously antagonistic towards the government and that is a legitimate argument. But when journalists start falling behind every government decision taken in the name of ‘national interest’ or invoke patriotism as a defence, then it is a clear abdication of professional ethics. The establishment – whether the government, or the ruling party or indeed the corporate sector – doesn’t always co-opt with bribery or threats, it just makes the media a part of the system. Soon, journalists start speaking a language that pleases dominant structures. Journalism was about speaking truth to power – no longer.

(This is not limited to India. In Britain, the media is owned by a handful of people who have many other business interests. Additionally, editors and journalists tend to be from similar backgrounds as key political and government figures, which leads to a coziness that prevents real independence.)

The debasement of professional values in the Indian media is not a sudden development – it has been happening over many years and without any effective fightback. Journalists have willingly surrendered their independence. Blaming government interference or management pressure is an excuse that does not wash – media professionals themselves have distanced themselves from their professed ideals. They no longer see their roles as giving voice to the voiceless or demanding accountability from the ruling classes. How can they question the system when they are the system?

Kashmir: ‘Informal’ Advertisement Ban Takes its Toll on Newspapers, Journalists

With the government’s ad ban choking revenue, journalists in the Valley are paying the price.

Srinagar: Syed Rizwan Geelani, 30, never thought that a time would come when he might have to do doing something other than following his passion – journalism – to make ends meet.

But with a family to support, he has very little choice.

Things were going smoothly enough until February 21, 2019, when the newspaper he works for as a reporter, Greater Kashmir, was banned from receiving advertisements from the state government. This prompted the daily to slash the monthly salaries of the staff.

The state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is under presidential rule, ordered the administration to stop advertisements to two English dailies – Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader – earlier this year.

The ban was extended to Kashmir Uzma in April, the sister publication of Greater Kashmir. Despite no formal order, the newspaper owners were informed that the ban was imposed by “higher-ups” without citing any specific reason.

Also read: Govt’s Ad Ban on Kashmir Dailies Seen as Yet Another Attempt at Media Coercion

The ad ban has hit hard the dailies financially as most newspapers in the state are dependent on government advertisements. As a result, the future of around 60 journalists is at stake.

This is not the first time that the government has employed such tactics. In October 2011, the home ministry starved five newspapers for advertisements. The cuts came after the coverage of a 2010 uprising which had left 120 people dead.

Then, on October 18, 2017, the Union home ministry sent a letter to the Jammu and Kashmir government asking them to stop government ads to some media outlets that allegedly published “anti-national articles”.

With no corporate sector in the Valley, government advertisements constitute the bulk of revenue for Kashmir-based newspapers.

Living with a harsh reality

Geelani, who got married last year and has a family now, says things have become very difficult financially.

“The situation has put us under stress. The government has to think about it otherwise, we will be on the streets,” he says. He makes it clear that it is not the organisations to blame as their hands have been twisted.

According to Rashid Makhdoomi, the printer and publisher of Greater Kashmir, they were earning around Rs 15-20 lakh per month from the state advertisements. 

“We have to think about our survival, so are bound to take these measures as we are wholly and solely dependent on government ads,” he says. 

The ad ban also prompted both dailies to reduce their pages. The 20-page edition of Greater Kashmir was trimmed to 12 pages while Kashmir Reader is publishing 12-pages instead of 16 now. It has also affected the editorial policy of both newspapers.

One senior op-ed editor said that he can’t even write an editorial of his choice.

 “I have to inform my owner about the subject that I am supposed to write on,” says the editor, wishing not to be named.

Also read: In Kashmir, the State Sees Media as Being ‘Part of the Problem’

A newspaper reporter who covers local economy says the ad crunch and other pressures on local media have created uncertainty in the newsroom.

“Every day there is talk about salary cuts and even layoffs… It is difficult for a journalist to deliver in such an environment” he says.

The reporter says in 2015 he took the decision to return back to the Valley after pursuing an education and working in media outlets in several metropolitan cities for more than a decade.

“As things seem to be uncertain, I am exploring other work options. Life in a newspaper was a perfect setting for me for this phase of my career but due to the uncertainty now I am contemplating other career options,” he says.

An uncertain future

There is a lot of uncertainty and fear among journalists and other employees working with the two dailies.

Greater Kashmir employs around 500 employees including reporters, sub-editors and other staff while Kashmir Reader has more than 100 people on its payroll. The editor-in-chief of Greater Kashmir Fayaz Kaloo was interrogated for nearly a week by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) this month. Following that, the organisation fired three senior editors. 

The agency, according to a report, also summoned the editor-in-chief of Kashmir Reader Haji Hayat Mohammad Bhat for questioning in connection with a “terror funding case”

Insiders say that both the dailies ensure that the front page doesn’t disappoint the state after the NIA summon.

The media in the Valley has been under tremendous strain since 2017. Both central and state security agencies have started detaining and interrogating journalists, starting with Kamran Yusuf, a photo journalist who was arrested by NIA and was behind bars in New Delhi’s Tihar jail for over six months.

The agency also summoned this reporter for an interview he conducted with separatist leader Aasiya Andrabi.

Kashmir papers published blank front pages to protest the ban on advertisements against Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader in march 2019.

In August 2018, another journalist, Asif Sultan, was arrested and for allegedly “hatching criminal conspiracy” and “harbouring terrorists”.

On October 22 the same year, another Kashmir journalist based in New Delhi was summoned by notorious Counter-Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) of Jammu and Kashmir for his work.

Following that, the CIK summoned a few more journalists for their stories and Facebook posts.

On June 24 this year, Ghulam Jeelani Qadri, the 62-year-old editor of Afaaq, an Urdu daily, was arrested in a midnight raid. He was arrested in a 29-year-old case where he and seven other editors had been booked for publishing a statement by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin.

Stifling journalism

The advertisement ban has brought untold miseries to the staff. According to sources, Greater Kashmir has slashed salaries of its staffers by 30-50% and is readying itself to lay off some employees in the coming months if the situation worsens.

Although Kashmir Reader has not slashed salaries yet, the management, insiders say, are using different tactics to force reporters to resign. “We have started to feel the brunt of the ad ban. Various tactics are being used to pressurise us,” said a reporter on the basis of anonymity.

The reporters also fear losing their jobs in the coming months. The newspaper’s owner, Haji Hayat, refused to comment.

As things stand, most journalism freshers are paid peanuts in the name of a salary. A new reporter gets a mere Rs 3,000-5,000 as a monthly salary for over a year. It’s only after four-five years that it is increased to Rs 10,000-12,000. Except for Greater Kashmir, almost all the newspapers have a pay scale between Rs 10,000-15,000.

Also read: In Dark Times for the Indian Media, the Audience Could Hold the Key

For better options, many are forced to move to New Delhi and other states. Although there were a few online web portals that allowed for more opportunities, due to a lack of a revenue model, most have failed to take off.

To top it, many newspapers recruit government employees to work as editors and reporters as a part-time job – further crunching the space for youngsters.

For Geelani, journalism was a full-time job, but may now have to be relegated to a part-time job.

A ‘big setback’

Professor Syeda Afshana, who teaches journalism at Kashmir University, thinks that the current ad ban is ultimately going to hit the journalism in the state very hard.

“I see it as a big setback for the media industry of the Valley and unfortunately you can’t have any alternative to censorship,” she maintains.

She says it’s not easy to make any vibrant economic alternatives for newspapers here so that they may run independently. “You don’t have the concept of crowd funding either and there is no revenue model other than government ads so these organisations can’t survive and the employees can be jobless.”

Also read: J&K Has Banned a Third Local Daily from Receiving Govt Ads: Kashmir Editors’ Guild

According to her, the ban will discourage many interested in the field journalism and force them to look at other career options.

“It’s a big challenge to save these intuitions that have provided a platform and have groomed hundreds of journalists working in different national and international organisations,” Afshana says.

As of now, journalists here have pinned hope that the first elected body in the press club will take up the issue with the government and come to a much-needed resolution.

Auqib Javeed is a Srinagar-based journalist. he tweets @AuqibJaveed

Backstory: A Modi Cult in the Making?

A fortnightly column from The Wire’s public editor.

A couple of weeks ago, I was part of an audience of Delhiites – mostly young professionals but also a significant number who would fall under the rubric of “family audience” – that was watching Omung Kumar’s eponymous film PM Narendra Modi. The prominent disclaimer which began the film, insisting that it didn’t claim to be historically authentic, did in no way disrupt the seamless connect the movie established between the viewers and the protagonist towering in 70 mm colour before them.  

All the creative liberties taken by the filmmaker to impart super heroic, clearly improbable attributes, to the protagonist – such as walking in deep snow without footwear in the upper reaches of the Himalaya in search of spiritual truth – seem to be accepted as real-life experiences. One could gauge this from the moments of pin drop silence, interrupted by occasional whistles and claps, and even the innocent questions young children looking at the screen put to their guardians.

Quite possibly, the majority of those in the auditorium had voted for Narendra Modi in this general election, and every scene that played before their eyes only reinforced the validity of their unqualified endorsement of the man. Nothing underlined this more effectively than the spontaneous laughter that rang out every time a “clueless” Sikh gentleman made an appearance. ‘Man Maun Singh’, depicted as a slave to a woman in a sari speaking accented Hindi, has clearly transited into being a stock comic figure for such an audience.

The question that arose as one watched this film was whether Prime Minister Modi is well on the way to becoming a cult or has the cult already taken shape? The writer of The Wire piece, ‘The Rise of the NaMo Cult and What Lies Ahead for ‘New India” (May 29), dates its provenance to the chief ministership days of Moditva, with its heady combination of Hindutva and ‘Gujarati Asmita’, but which came out of its ‘regional shell’ in the 2014 general election (“launched with fanfare in Varanasi, with the chanting of ‘Har Har Modi’”) and gained even greater weight with the 2019 election. A process helped without doubt by cash reserves that touched stratospheric heights (‘The 2019 Elections Came Down to Money, EVM Machines and the Media’, June 7).

Also read: What the Age of Narendra Modi Means for Indian Foreign Policy

Cults thrive once ordinary people begin to implicitly believe in the powers of benefaction of the leader and they are loathe to question that perception, even when confronted with evidence to the contrary. This requires the twin actions of publicly projecting the cult figure as the personification of greatness, even as the forces construed as inimical to him or her are subjected to vilification on a continuing basis, so that the possibility of a potential challenger is diminished, if not extinguished.

So has the Modi cult stabilised? Difficult to say, but clearly the self-projection that marked Modi’s early years in power has done its work well enough to ensure that ordinary people now invest him with extravagant virtue and pristine rectitude, without even having to be prompted by his own considerable skills of self-communication.

What one could venture to state is that the Modi-as-cult-figure is a work in progress, which will be furthered in the days ahead through Yoga Day demonstrations and Independence Day speeches, “society building programmes” and celebrations of national anniversaries. A cult figure does not need to address a press conference – let that small job be left to Amit Shah. It can even undertake something as seemingly quixotic as an overnight break in a Himalayan cave, wrapped up in a saffron shawl, and gain country-wide murmurs of admiration.

Modi-as-cult-figure can take the occasional unilateral rhetorical detour – calling upon his party to gain the trust of Muslims, for instance. But there can be no diluting of the prime ideological agenda – that of furthering Hindutva. So a new motto is pronounced –  “Sabka Vishwas” (gaining everybody’s trust) – at a time when there is a sharp spike in random vigilante violence against Muslims in an orgy of post-May 23 triumphalism, but on which nothing is said (‘Why Hindutva’s Dark Fantasy About India’s Muslims Could Become Real’, June 2).

The Indian mainstream media, with a few exceptions, have over the last five years emerged as one of the main forces that have lent this cult-in-the-making a crucial authenticity and ‘publicness’. This is also why this media cannot be a force to counter it (‘The Mainstream Media Is No Ally for Those Fighting the Cult of Narendra Modi’, June 3).

How then can a challenge to it be mounted? To expect a few media entities and individuals who have thus far courageously stood outside the all-encompassing ring of allegiance, to actually dismantle it, is unrealistic. To expect that this can be achieved by them in an atmosphere that is growing increasingly partisan, vituperative and hostile; where funding is shrinking and sustaining media operations has become an enormous challenge, is unreasonable.

A few good people in the media cannot undertake this task alone. It requires an enabling environment that has to be built by society as a whole. It is about raising the question posed by a school educator (‘Letter from a Teacher to the Parents of His Students in ‘New India’, May 30):

“In the five days since the elections finished, there have been five separate incidents of communal hatred…Is this the India you want for your children? It’s certainly not the India I want for my students.”

It is to call out, at the broadest social level, the Sangh parivar for its politics of fear (‘Modi 2.0 Must Check the Sangh’s Role in Generating Politics of Fear’, May 26). It is about bringing together the people and voices behind movements and agitations, whether over the deliberate undermining of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (‘What Does a Second NDA Term Entail for India’s Environmental Policies?’, May 27),  the struggle for justice in the case involving Payal Tadvi, a young doctor, whose identity as a tribal and Muslim left her vulnerable to the slurs of her upper-caste colleagues, until she could bear them no longer (‘Payal Tadvi’s Case Follows Predictable Pattern of Victim Blaming’, June 3), or any other.

Also read: A New India Has Emerged and Narendra Modi Is Its Voice

It is also about generating an alternative discourse. The piece, ‘Modi Cannot Be Combatted Through Politics as Usual’ (May 30), argues that it is in the “near-total absence of a grand vision and supportive ideas from Modi, whose megalomania has distanced him from the cares and concerns of the deprived, the marginalised, the oppressed”, that there is an “opportunity to shape and alternative discourse”. But a sustainable, alternative discourse is impossible without alternative politics and achieving an alternative politics will be the challenge of the next half-decade.

Repression is also information withheld

As the rest of us have gone about our lives over this past year, human rights activists locked up in the Bhima Koregaon case have remained behind bars. It is simply shocking to learn about the innumerable stratagems employed by the Maharashtra Police to ensure that they do not get what is their fundamental right, the right to bail.

As defence advocate Nihalsing Rathod pointed out in The Wire piece, ‘A Year Later, Rights Activists Accused in Bhima Koregaon Case Struggle for Bail’ (June 6), since the first round of arrests that took place exactly a year ago, applications for bail hearings have come up at least 60 times, “but they have not been decided upon”. This is also a story of suppression of information. The sizeable “literature” that the Pune Police has gathered to damn the activists – which at 5,000 page would give Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace competition in terms of wordage (and possibly creative licence) – has not been made available to the accused themselves, despite a court order.

Now that the general election is over, what exactly is this dragging of police boots all about? Is it the impending Maharashtra elections that they are now waiting for? If the media were half as pro-active in probing into this, as they were in putting out the police’s version in the case, Indian democracy may have been spared this blatant display of state repression.  

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Wire reader, Geetanjali Jha, believes that the AAP minister was misquoted in the June 4 piece, ‘Its Time to Defang ‘Meritocracy’, an Argument That Claims Lives’ (which incidentally has an embarrassing typo in the heading – the word ‘Its’ should have been ‘It’s’ or ‘It is’). She was present at the event in which the minister spoke and vouches for the fact that he did not say that the focus given to the death of Payal Tadvi “diverts” society’s attention from issues of “development”. She goes on to state that while she herself is a student and does not represent any party – and definitely not AAP – she believes this misinterpretation of what the minister said might amount to misleading readers and voters.

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Another reader, Mayur, who like Geentanjali believes in The Wire’s “bold and courageous journalism”, is disappointed that nobody, including The Wire, is “talking much about the draft national education police 2019 that will adversely impact the future of India and that of young Indians”. He is particularly worried about Section 8.4 that talks about amending Section 12.1 of the Right to Education Act, which reserves 25% of seats for children belonging to the disadvantaged and weaker sections in private schools.

Mayur writes: “The idea behind this clause was to create inclusive classrooms where the Disabled, SCs, STs, HIV-positive and EWS children come together. This poses a strong resistance to caste and class discrimination in our society. I suppose that’s exactly the reason why it is being diluted.”

He wants The Wire to dwell on this theme and says he would be happy to provide it with “evidence from research papers and data from states that counter the recommendations in the draft.” Now that is what I call a thinking, pro-active reader.

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The general election verdict may have faded from public memory, but readers still seem exercised over certain aspects of it. Biplov Ghosh sent in infographics to suggest that all was not well with the way the votes were counted. He writes: “According to data given in Election Commission of India’s official website, the total voter turnout in all phases of Jharkhand is 14,199,120 (it is the sum of the total voter turnout in all four phases in which election held in the state). But when we add up all the votes counted in each constituency on counting day, we arrive at a figure of 14,962,473, which is 763,353 more than the original count of voter turnout in all phases. How is it possible? This phenomenon has been noticed not just in Jharkhand but in many other states.”

Meanwhile, Akbar Basha has proposed an intriguing idea. “I was wondering how do political parties, who spend so much in canvassing for votes, pay their employees (karyakartas)? The whole system seems wrong. We all know that no-one will fund any party unless they are assured profitable returns of some kind. I don’t know if the Indian Constitution allows this, but why can’t our country be run by a private or public company which is solely Indian? Every panchayat, municipality, state assembly or Lok Sabha election can then be fought by various companies and the most deserving one among them can be given the chance to run the nation on a transparent basis and in a way that there is zero tolerance for irregularities of any kind. The company, in turn, should be paid for its efforts and ensure that all its employees get paid. Perhaps with such transparency, we will really get to see actual work done, instead of being given mere lip service. There has to be a performance review for each panchayat, municipality, constituency, employee and leader. The additional benefit of this approach would be to create more jobs!”

Sachin Kadam, as a regular reader, gets the last word for his suggestions on improving the outreach of The Wire. He suggests that it should allow readers to download news in order to read it offline. There should also be an automatic “daily edition download”. Such features can be made chargeable – just as is the case with The New York Times and The Economist.

Write to publiceditor@cms.thewire.in.