By Ranjona Banerji
The Tripura Police have booked 102 journalists, civil society activists and social media users under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Their “unlawful” activity? To mention that there have been a series of attacks on people and religious structures in Tripura. The reason why a harsh act has been used? Because the victims are Muslim and the structures are mosques. And the accused perpetrators are members of the militant Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, both wings of the Hindu supremacist RSS.
https://thewire.in/communalism/tripura-police-uapa-social-media-posts
The actions of the police and the BJP-ruled state government fall within the general strategy of the RSS to attack Muslims (and other religious minorities and non-upper castes) to try and provoke them and thus claim proof of the RSS’s “Hindus are under threat” lie. And either way, to use all means possible to subjugate all non-Hindus and Hindu lower castes.
The use of a law like UAPA on a series of tweets is the other part of the Goebbels-inspired Nazi strategy: to continue to hammer down on freedom of speech and expression. There are only a few journalists left who counter the BJP narrative and now they know what’s in store for them.
In keeping with the BJP plan for India’s media, the bulk of the mainstream media ignored events in Tripura. It was just a few small voices in the independent media and on social media which provided information on what was happening, as mosque after mosque was vandalized. The Tripura police was however quick to respond and threatened people with the dangers of “misinformation”. And so a counter-terrorism law is imposed on journalists who tell the truth.
The Editors Guild of India issued a statement which said, “This is an extremely disturbing trend where such a harsh law, where in the processes of investigation and bail applications are extremely rigorous and overbearing, is being used for merely reporting on and protesting against communal violence”.
Many journalists have mentioned Shyam Meera Singh being booked only for tweeting “Tripura is burning”.
US-based academic and activist Khaled Beydoun tweeted that he had also been booked under UAPA! As have people in Australia and Bangladesh. Tripura apparently is not to be discussed anywhere in the world!
But let us not fool ourselves about where we are or why we are where we are. We know. We know why. And now, every day, we learn the extent to which our capitulation has brough India. Many reports cannot even mention the violence in Tripura without mentioning the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh during Durga Puja. Bangladesh by the way, is another country.
Many reports also mentioned the UP and Uttarakhand elections as throwaway lines as if that is a justification for what happened in Tripura. Therefore, there is no surprise that India’s mainstream media did not even bother to cover the Tripura violence as it happened. To expect journalism from Indian TV news is a lost cause. And when the perpetrators are RSS outfits, well, should we laugh?
One journalist, who has consistently tracked the violence when few were doing so, complained on Twitter that no one was willing to carry her reports.
Media coverage even now is more likely to be a report on a report, rather than live coverage:
https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/tripura/tripura-police-sc-lawyers-booked-uapa-7609285/
This tactic lets media organisations off the hook when faced with any questions from the ruling BJP. The message is clear to the people of India, if the people of India are bothered: the media will not tell you the truth when the BJP is involved in violence because the BJP will crack down hard on us if we tell you the truth.
The tragedy for Indian media is that getting back from this posture of surrender will be very difficult. And let us not pretend that the world is unaware: we fall lower and lower on all international press freedom indices for a reason: our total, shameless cowardice.
The tragedy for India is that a weak and incapacitated media will only further strengthen fascist forces.
Keep worrying about bindis and discussing Modi’s grand costume changes.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia every Tuesday and Friday. Her views here are personal