By Ranjona Banerji
A group of journalists in India have issued an open letter to India’s constitutional authorities “to step in and uphold their constitutional mandate in the wake of open calls from various quarters for attacks on India’s religious minorities, especially Muslims”.
This letter lists how under the present regime, hatred against religious minorities has only increased. In a sense, it underlines just how successful the campaign has been since we forget the last atrocity as we move on to the tackle the latest.
The tragedy within the media is the extent to which the media itself is responsible for the amplification of this hatred against Muslims, Dalits, Christians and other minorities. The othering of large sections of Indians has not happened only by political will and machination. The active collaboration of the media, of government officials and civil society has amplified the hatred.
The letter calls upon various media organisations to “respond urgently”. How far is that likely to happen, given what we have seen over the last eight years? Television media is almost completely putty in the hands of the Modi administration. Some print publications manage to balance on a tightrope of criticism and praise to avoid a malicious backlash. Many others have just capitulated. It is only a few digital platforms which continue with combative journalism.
But it is true that the biggest collapse has been of our Constitutional bodies, set up to protect our democracy from within as the armed forces are supposed to protect from threats without. These have not just failed but have seemingly wilfully allied with the political ideology which wants to debase our democracy and establish a Hindu supremacist state.
The letter ends with these three vital paragraphs:
“When all these events are taken together, it is clear that a dangerous hysteria is being built up countrywide to push the idea that “Hinduism is in danger” and to portray Muslim Indians as a threat to Hindu Indians and to India itself. Only prompt and effective action by our constitutional, statutory, and democratic institutions can challenge, contain, and stop this disturbing trend.
India today stands at a dangerous place, with the founding values of our secular, democratic, and republican Constitution coming under flagrant assault from prejudiced ideas, acts of prejudice, discrimination, and violent incidents, all planned and orchestrated as part of an anti-constitutional political project. That we have seen elected officials and others who have sworn an oath under the Constitution amplifying some of these multiple and connected instances of orchestrated hate through acts of commission and omission, with sections of the media assisting this project, makes the situation even more urgent.
That is why it is both urgent and crucial that India’s constitutional institutions, and especially the President, the higher judiciary, and the Election Commission, discharge their mandate under our Constitution and that the media perform their responsibility to the people of India by asserting their independence and speaking truth to power.”
https://thewire.in/communalism/silence-not-an-option-journalists-appeal-to-constitutional-bodies-to-curb-anti-muslim-hatred
Powerful as these words are, they also demonstrate the total frustration that the democratic Indian has with today’s dispensation. We appear to have wilfully surrendered our liberties to bigotry and hatred and a mob mentality has now infiltrated every aspect of our lives.
There are 28 signatories to this letter and there are more than a few of us who would have signed on if we had known. We remain however a minority. So many are too scared to speak up, even if they do not agree with what is happening.
But what is most distressing is the number of senior media persons – I baulk at calling them “journalists” – who would categorically have not been part of such an exercise. Television is not represented. Apart from The Hindu and The Telegraph no other mainstream Indian newspaper is represented. None of the mainstream regional papers are represented.
These gaps present the massive challenge that the media is faced with: it cannot under the circumstances claim to present facts and information to the people if it is unable to face facts itself. The act of surrender, of genuflection to one political ideology has meant that as a voice, the bulk of the media has silenced itself.
“India stands at a dangerous place”, the letter reads. And anyone who does not understand that statement is clearly on the side of those who have brought us here.
And this includes all those people you waste your time watching every evening on TV. The worst of the lot.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal
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