India is the mother of democracy, as we have been proudly informed by our Honourable Prime Minister and members of his esteemed political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is well-known for its understanding of democracy.
A key aspect of being a proper democracy is an effective muzzling of the press. A caveat here. As William Shakespeare informed us in another context, a tiny fraction of the press believe they are born unmuzzled, others have muzzles thrust upon them and then the vast majority accept the muzzles with great glee.
Military-grade spyware, bought from good friends like Israel, another democracy, have been used against Indian journalists who did not comply. Jail terms, open threats, indirect threats on potential employers – the options available to a democracy, maternal or paternal side, are many.
If – just as a matter of argument – there are members of the press who are not Indian but still insist on commenting and reporting on India, what does one do about it? It has taken the mother of democracy a while to come up with an effective strategy.
The trick, sorry I mean strategy, has been used on loyal columnists who may have once resorted to extremely mild criticism. You take away the overseas citizenship access from their families. Mummies and daddies and uncles and aunties now have extra incentive to be nice so that their little kiddies don’t suffer. It’s quite effective.
Just withdraw the Overseas Citizenship of India access from pesky foreign journalists who have the gall to criticize the mother of democracy, the Emperor and anyone else associated with the emperor. Almost as bad as criticism is the absolute underhand tactic of giving voice to the under-privileged, suppressed, oppressed, downtrodden and so on. Some voices are not meant to be heard, especially in democratic font.
And thus French journalist Vanessa Dougnac has had to leave India after 23 years for her “malicious work”. In fact, a Google search revealed that Dougnac had written about both the CAA-NRC problems in Assam as well as the migrant crisis during the Pandemic. Already on the thin end of the malicious wedge there! Shocking!
French journalist Vanessa Dougnac leaves India after journalism permit revoked
The main bulwark of democracy is ceaseless praise of political power. Evidently this was not made clear to Dougnac and others. Or, more likely, they didn’t have the skills to figure it out for themselves. I go out on a limb here – I am not making excuses for such malicious people – but it is possible that Dougnac and others in similar predicaments believed that journalism means “showing truth to power”.
Well, I guess they know better now!
https://thewire.in/media/french-journalist-vanessa-dougnac-leaves-india-amid-expulsion-threat
To further entrench the mother of democracy’s democratic credentials, the authorities sent a notice to X, formerly known as Twitter, and with the name change not really known for being an upholder of free speech beyond whatever the current owner designates as free speech depending on his mood.
An official X handle, Global Government Affairs, issued a post on February 22 stating that the Government of India had issued notices X take action on certain posts and accounts. Because of the nature of the Indian Government notice, X says it has no option even if it does not agree with the terms of the notice. (see screenshot.)
It appears that the Mother of Democracy does not want information to be shared about the ongoing protests by India’s f$rm%rs. States where these agriculturalists are in protests have already seen death, pellet guns, teargas and internet shutdowns. These are important tools long used in democracies. Especially the mothers of…
https://www.deccanherald.com/india/elon-musks-x-claims-modi-government-issued-executive-orders-to-withhold-specific-accounts-and-posts-2905165
So there we have it. New evidence that there is no democracy like ours!
There are other states that behave in similar manners, but oddly, they are called very different names…
Hmm. Wonder why.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.