New Delhi: Opposition parties on Tuesday slammed the Centre over raids on journalists linked with NewsClick portal, alleging the “coercive” actions were directed only against those who speak truth to power, even as the government asserted that probe agencies are independent and work in accordance with law.
The Congress alleged the raids were a “fresh distraction” from the “explosive” findings of the caste survey in Bihar and the growing demand for a caste census across the country.
In a statement, Opposition bloc INDIA strongly condemned the raids and alleged the BJP government’s “coercive” actions are directed only against those who speak truth to power and not against those who spread hatred and divisiveness.
However, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said probe agencies in the country are independent and work as per law.
“I need not justify the raid. If someone has done something wrong, probe agencies work on it... Nowhere is it written that if you have got money through illegal manner or done something objectionable, probe agencies cannot investigate that,” Thakur said in response to queries at a press conference in Bhubaneswar.
“The probe agencies are independent and they work as per the law.” The Delhi Police’s Special Cell on Tuesday searched 30 locations connected with online news portal NewsClick and its journalists in a case filed under the anti-terror law UAPA following allegations that it received money for pro-China propaganda.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) said in its statement that the government has also tried to convert the media into a mouthpiece for its partisan and ideological interests by allegedly facilitating the takeover of media organisations by crony capitalists.
“Both the government and its ideologically aligned organisations have resorted to reprisals against individual journalists who spoke truth to power. Furthermore, the BJP government has also spearheaded regressive policies like the Information Technology Rules 2021 that constrict the media from reporting objectively. In doing so, the BJP is not only hiding its sins of omissions and commission from the people of India, it is also compromising India’s global standing as a mature democracy,” the Opposition alliance said in the statement.
“The BJP government’s coercive actions are invariably directed against only those media organisations and journalists that speak truth to power. Ironically, the BJP government is paralysed when it comes to taking action against those journalists inciting hatred and divisiveness in the nation,” it said. “We steadfastly stand with the media and for the constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and expression.”
In the last nine years, the BJP government has deliberately persecuted and suppressed the media by deploying investigative agencies to suppress the British Broadcasting Corporation, Newslaundry, Dainik Bhaskar, Bharat Samachar, the Kashmir Walla, the Wire etc., and most recently the journalists of NewsClick, the Opposition parties said.