The last time we heard something comically hi-tech was when they talked about how a microchip embedded in the `2,000 note would enable it to be tracked via satellite, or whatever digital panopticon the minders of new India may prefer. Now comes a comical twist to the controversy over the fake news order. There’s talk of a hi-tech snooping sensor! Something that would be more suitable for tracking endangered tigers in our forests. Stout denials have been duly issued, but in the miasmic air that hovers over New Delhi it almost doesn’t matter. The anxieties in official circles are quite palpable, as is the sentiment on India’s noisy but robust versions of Fleet Street.
For those not updated, a snapshot. The I&B Ministry, under Smriti Irani, issues a fiat that journalists who stand accused of peddling “fake news” would have their Press Information Bureau (PIB) accreditation withdrawn, pending investigation. Now, it’s common consensus that while strongly loaded, even partisan interpretations of news can be present in print media, arguably in a justifiable way, the phenomenon of outright “fake news” is more a creature of online/social media, where its dissemination is faster and does more damage. Online media, significantly, was not covered under the proposed rule.
A huge backlash saw a responsive PMO rushing to make amends. Within 15 hours, the order stood withdrawn. All agreed that PM Modi had done right. Some even recalled the anti-freedom measures initiated under Indira and Rajiv Gandhi to show no one was clean on free speech. Then the twist: read it as high comedy or low farce. Reports warned of a PIB card enabled with radio-frequency identification (RFID)—so that the movement of journalists within ministry offices can be tracked! In India, most ‘news’ still comes from the government and its vast apparatus. So real news getting out is always a concern for regimes. Still, a journalistic dog-collar is better thought of as a lurid panic tale worthy of being buried with the `2,000 chip. That such talk exists is itself a sign of the times.