On Saturday, the upholder of all things secular and the ultimate savior of the nation, Narendra Modi tweeted: "Greetings to journalist friends on World Press Freedom Day. Free press is a democracy's cornerstone and must be preserved in letter & spirit."
Irony just dug its own grave and rested in peace.
India is facing a new kind of war — one that is fought online. Recently, there have been quite a few frantic calls of concern for articles published online one minute and missing the next.
It is common knowledge in journalist circles that some news publications and channel owners are blatantly telling their staff that no news stories critiquing Modi will be published. A reputed news channel funded by businessmen allegedly close to Modi has also given an ultimatum to its news anchors.
On April 29, an article in DNA titled “Mamata Banerjee calls Narendra Modi ‘butcher of Gujarat’; here are 9 myth busters on 2002 post-Godhra riots,” aggressively shared on social media, was taken down the next day. Clicking on the link of the article led to a blank page.
The article, a 9-point list “busting nine myths” about Gujarat “perpetrated by Modi’s PR machinery” has each point backed up with statements of facts that were culled from institutional records such as Supreme Court, NHRC report, etc.
The author, Shehzad Poonawala, later said: “Narendra Modi’s PR machinery took the article down since they’re uncomfortable that every point I made was backed with facts.” He also said that "they (DNA) are obliged to function within certain constraints and limitations."
Unfortunately for Modi and his torchbearers of truth, the article has been relocated to a safer place, a private blog and can be easily found.
Not just regular writers, but A-listers like Shobha De are either being systematically shut up or abused online. Her recent column titled 'Which woman wants to marry Narendra Modi?' appearing in Mumbai Mirror had mysteriously disappeared from her blog as have a few other posts related to Modi.
"This is just a foretaste of what lies ahead. Those censorship fears are not unfounded," wrote De in a column.
Also last week when the most widely shared news on the Indian Internet scene — pictures of Digvijay Singh romancing a journalist surfaced, most of us were interested in who the journalist was, her age, marital status, profession, etc. Not many would care to ask how a woman's computer was hacked and her private pictures were leaked out for the world to see, which is a serious crime in India.
In election season, this can pass off as the rival political camp getting even with Singh. That a woman's privacy was encroached in the process is not something many might pause to think about.
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