India’s media crackdown

The Indian government’s assault on journalism showed another ugly face after the country’s Information Ministry ordered The Caravan to take down a story on the Indian military’s use of torture and extrajudicial killings against the Kashmiri people, and an ensuing cover-up that took place in December. Although The Caravan — a respected monthly news magazine — said it would challenge the move, a court battle will be expensive and may still not yield the desired result, since the courts have also consistently shown themselves to be sympathetic to the Modi government.

The article was actually part of an edition of the magazine, titled ‘The military under Modi’, which also included a story on the politicisation of the armed forces under Modi. Pakistanis have seen this first hand in recent years, with nonsensical, belligerent comments regularly being relayed by India’s military leadership, and top officials coming out and embarrassing themselves and their uniforms by blatantly lying to support New Delhi’s propaganda. The blocked article included interviews with the family of a government informant who died under mysterious circumstances, and details of “blood money” payouts to keep innocent civilian victims and their families from talking to the media. The article also notes that the payouts are unusual because the Indian military usually silences opposition to its violent rule with further violence. However, in this instance, the victims were from ethnic groups the BJP is wooing, meaning that the money was less compensation and more of a vote-buying effort using army funds. The story also alleges that the Indian Army has a written policy of collective punishment, which is against the Geneva Convention.

India is now ranked 161 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. For comparison, Pakistan is ranked 150, and a handful of outright dictatorships also rank higher than India. The handling of The Caravan story is an example of both India’s rights violations and its crackdown on the media, because the article’s contents could easily be challenged in court, unless the government knows that a trail of evidence exists.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2024.

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