By Ranjona Banerji
Angad Singh thought he might visit his grandparents in India.
Mistake.
Angad Singh landed in Delhi and is stopped at immigration. Soon after, he was told that his passport has been confiscated. He was then deported, with no reasons given.
Is it because Angad Singh is an American journalist of Indian origin? And is it because of the work he has done?
Singh works for Vice. He made documentaries on the Shaheen Bagh protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, on India’s handling of Covid which won him an Emmy nomination and on the year-long farmers’ protests.
Welcome to India.
Or in Angad’s case, you are not welcome in India.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-62685014
The highly sensitive authorities that we have cannot bear any criticism. We know that. Journalists like Rana Ayyub and Aakar Patel are stopped from leaving India. And now journalists and academics are not allowed in.
These are the hallmarks of our own version of democracy.
You can say what you like as long as it’s unmitigated praise of our divine and benevolent rulers.
Of course, it may also depend on religion or caste for some journalists. Being critical and Muslim and Christian and lately Sikh is problematic.
Being Dalit is usually always problematic, although Dalits rarely find space in mainstream media newsrooms.
Discussing Dalit, Tribal and Adivasi issues is also problematic.
Sometimes though you can get bail if you have been arrested wrongly according to the courts, and the government concerned can be severely castigated by the court.
As in this Jharkhand case:
https://thewire.in/law/complete-lawlessness-sc-slams-jharkhand-govt-over-journalists-midnight-arrest
Most other times however, well.
Siddique Kappan has been in jail since October 2020 since he made the mistake of travelling from Kerala to UP. Kappan, a journalist, was trying to get to Hathras to cover the horrific gangrape of a Dalit girl by upper caste men, as well as the ghastly consequences heaped on her family.
Kappan was arrested by the UP police for being a terrorist.
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/supreme-court-issues-notice-to-uttar-pradesh-on-bail-plea-of-journalist-siddique-kappan/cid/1883179
The case for bail, forget an actual trial, has been going back and forth ever since.
For some journalists as we well know, denial of bail and late-night arrests are travesties of personal justice and dignity, and examples of complete lawlessness.
For others, well, let’s adjourn the case and allow the prosecution even more time to justify its actions.
I expect now to be told that the law goes case by case, and how anti-national and disrespectful of me and all the rest of it.
The problem is the pattern.
And the pattern is very clear.
From late-night arrests on flimsy grounds to deportation to being stopped from leaving the country to Pegasus malware to being trolled viciously to being “sold” in auction, every fascist and Nazi trick and contemporary modification is now thrown at anyone who criticizes our Divine Rulers. And journalists pay a heavy price.
The tragedy of course remains that journalists will not find enough support from within the community and can expect almost nothing from their employers. It’s each woman for herself because both newsrooms and owners are happy to prostrate rather than protest.
And the more we genuflect, the greater the punishment.
This account from a Twitter whistleblower underlines once again the slow degeneration of democracy in India.
https://scroll.in/article/1031561/why-a-whistleblowers-allegations-about-an-indian-government-agent-at-twitter-should-worry-users
The Indian government, especially since 2014, has demanded Twitter take down accounts and tweets. In fact, India has made the maximum demands of any country, to remove tweets from journalists and verified accounts.
How funny that many of these demands have been about tweets which criticised the government on its Covid-19 management, on the farmers’ protests, on the Covid deaths…
Sorry, Angad. This is no country for journalists.
Stooges now?
Any number of those!
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal