It’s a sad lockdown for our embattled liberal classes. A letter written early this month by Sonia Antonia Edvige Albina Maino Gandhi, de facto editor-in-chief of The National Herald, to hold all government advertising for two years is a shock to all Modipathic scriveners. The unsolicited advice is supposed to save the coronavirus-hit economy, but is only motivated by her desire to revive her political relevance. Between May 2014 and March 2019, the NDA’s ad-spend was Rs 5,700 crore.
Covid has rescued Madame Gandhi, currently facing corruption charges in the Herald case—the next hearing has been postponed to May 16. The same virus in whose name she wants to starve the press—both national and regional—saved her bacon. The Congress rules Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Puducherry. This doesn’t bode well for regional papers. BJP blasters ignore the fact that curbing press freedom is in the Gandhi family DNA. Modi’s blog last March was telling.
He wrote, “Dynastic parties have never been comfortable with a free and vibrant press.” It was the UPA government, which brought a law to imprison anyone posting anything “offensive”, whatever that means. UPA-II fell because the burden of corruption broke its back—the coal block auction con, 2G scam, CWG loot, Westland rip-off, Tatra truck scandal, cash-for-vote racket, Adarsh hustle, the IPL flimflam and the Satyam shell game. No wonder, Sonia spent just Rs 2,658 crore on publicity in 2004-2014, while the NDA gave Rs 5,000 crore.
Today, the tone of many TV anchors who see Modi as India’s Robin Hood is sycophantically shriller than an empty teakettle. The tone of op-ed writers in the Western media against the BJP is no less strident. But then, the Gandhis, who claim to have led India to freedom, have a snake and ladder policy on press freedom. The Nehru administration filed numerous cases against papers, which opposed the 1947 Partition. On June 25, 1975, his daughter and Sonia’s mom-in-law Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency, imposing censorship and suspending fundamental rights.
The only media that stood up to her was this newspaper and The Statesman—their journalists were jailed and advertising choked. When The Indian Express gave Rajiv Gandhi bad press about the Bofors case, the Congress engineered a strike and lockdown. In the 2009 amendment to the IT Act, UPA introduced Section 66A, which curbs freedom of speech.
Indian governments, like of all third world countries, have distrusted journalists. Modi’s rule is no exception. Critics are trolled savagely, and in some cases murdered by fringe fanatics. Court cases are filed over flimsy evidence. Teachers and parents are jailed over school plays. In World Press Freedom Index 2019, India dropped three points, ranking 140 of 180 countries, with a constant annual drop of two ranks since 2017. Journalists have restricted or, at times, little access to ministries. The PM doesn’t believe in press conferences.
Now, the media has come together to support Modi’s leadership over the Covid crisis. It is an opportunity for him and the press to heal and abandon the mutual distrust, which started with constant media hounding over the Gujarat riots. Sonia had given him the “maut ka saudagar” political barcode. Now she is trying to crash the party by dispensing facetious advice. Modi doesn’t need it.
Now she is trying to crash the party by dispensing facetious advice. Modi doesn’t need it.
(The author can be contacted at ravi@newindianexpress.com)