What they have been doing and more precisely the manner in which they have been catering news and views through print or visual media is the major component of the capitalist intrigue to make people serve their class interest.

The Campaign Against Hate Speech, a Bangalore-based group of rights activists and citizens, has condemned the “hostile” media coverage of Mohammed Zubair and Teesta Setalvad and the way some news outlets have pronounced them guilty even before the framing of charges. This act of media should not come as a surprise. They have been serving their masters and catering to their cause.

It was in early seventies that the media, especially the national media threw out the façade of liberalism and completely devoted themselves to uphold the cause of the capitalist economy. After BJP came to the power under the leadership of Narendra Modi the media turned a passionate defender of the capitalist economy.

The media launched a virulent attack on the liberal, democratic and pro-people elements and forces. While they preferred to turn passive spectators in the cases where rightist forces were involved, as they were serving the interest of the capitalist economy, they resorted to unprecedented aggressiveness in the matters of the peo-people elements.

Media targeting Shahin Bagh movement and whipping up hostile sentiments against journalist and rights activist Zubair and Teesta is the part of their strategy to strengthen and help the hate campaign and anti-democratic forces. While Teesta has been called a ‘conflict entrepreneur’, a ‘fraud’, ‘fixer of the highest order’, Zubair has been called ‘Hindu phobic’, ‘Hindu hater’, and that he repeatedly attacks Hindu sentiments on Twitter. He is portrayed as a criminal responsible for ‘hurting Hindu sentiments’.

Teesta was arrested just after Supreme Court made some remarks against her. The Supreme Court in its 2004 verdict had exonerated her, but the same Supreme Court found her on the wrong side in the same case. How could it be? Naturally a question haunts the people either the first verdict was wrong or the recent order is not proper. Nonetheless Teesta has been arrested, on the basis of a Supreme Court judgment that exonerated then chief minister Narendra Modi of charges of conspiracy behind the violence.

It is an irony that Zubair, one of the founders of the fact-checking website AltNews which exposed the racket of fake news practiced by the Right-wing ecosystem, has been arrested on the charges of hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity on the basis of a 2018 tweet. The most unfortunate aspect of his arrest has been, the media did not question the rationale or legality of this action. The Campaign Against Hate Speech lamented: “Hardly any channel has questioned whether these arrests were necessary, undertaken with due diligence, or even what evidence the state claims it has against these individuals.”

In the prevalent political scenario, when the rightist forces have been in control of the government machinery and institutions and the middle class particularly belonging to the B-grade towns turning fervent followers of the Hindutva politics of BJP, it would be naïve to believe that the Indian public will hit the streets and demand their release and force the media to do fair and objective journalism. It would also be unfair to expect that the judiciary would take cognisance of the increasing harassment to the journalists and human rights defenders.

The attitude of the Modi government towards the liberal and democratic forces is clearly evident from its accusation of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights observation about the arrest of Zubair and Teesta of being “misleading”, “unacceptable” and “unwarranted”. It is really a matter of shame for India that ever since Modi came to power eight years ago, the country has to listen to such comments regularly by human rights and media watchdogs.

It is indeed a matter of shame that India under Modi has been always on the wrong side of protection of Human Rights. It is certainly not a coincident that Modi government arrested Zubair and Teesta on the day Modi was signing the ‘2022 Resilient Democracies Statement’ along with the G7 bloc pledging to uphold the “freedom, independence and diversity of civil society actors” as well as protect free speech.

It is intriguing that how could Modi government sign the document on democracy presented at the G 7 meet which hails all 'courageous defenders of democratic systems that stand against oppression and violence' and calls upon all signatory countries including India to defend open and pluralistic debate, protect pluralistic civic spaces, and enable fair representation and political participation? It also pledges to guard “the freedom, independence and diversity of civil society actors. This is purely a case of “hypocrisy”.

This is purely an incident of double-speak and double-facedness and this certainly cannot be a virtue. It is indeed sad that saffron rule has been blatantly undermining democracy and democratic rule which Modi government claims to cherish and uphold. It is worth mentioning that India occupies last spot in the list of countries upholding democracy. It is irony that powerful western countries are reluctant to press Modi government to adhere to the democratic norms as Modi government has opened the flood gate for these countries to exploit Indian resources and make capital.

Former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur suggested; “…If I am not wrong, may I earnestly appeal to the learned judges to immediately issue a clarification that it was neither their suggestion nor their intention that Teesta be arrested? If the learned judges remain silent, the inference is obvious”. He sought to know; “AS none of these are ‘terrorist’ offences, so why was the Anti-Terrorism Squad sent to arrest her? But unfortunately this observation of Justice appears to have no effect on the judiciary.

It was repeatedly argued that Supreme Court must look into the cases of such misuse of the judicial procedure. But it is yet to happen. In absence of any initiative innocent and pro-people elements are being harassed. (IPA Service)