RTI activists in the country have demanded that the BJP-led NDA government make the RTI Amendment Bill public, as per the pre-legislative consultation policy of the Government of India.
Image Coutesy: DailyO
The Narendra Modi government is trying to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005, but RTI activists in the country have raised concerns that the proposed amendments would weaken the legislation, which has empowered millions of people to hold public authorities accountable.
On 25 May, the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (NCPRI) wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing “anguish and concern” regarding the “regressive” amendments to the RTI Act 2005 being proposed by the BJP-led NDA government.
Urging Modi to not dilute the Act, the activists associated with the NCPRI have demanded that the government make the text of the draft RTI Amendment Bill available in the public domain for scrutiny and discussion, before it is introduced in Parliament.
Among the most worrisome proposed amendments, said the NCPRI while citing media reports, was the proposal that the central government and state governments would decide the salaries of information commissioners through rules — a move that is likely to compromise the independence and autonomy in the functioning of the commissioners.
The information commissions (ICs), set up under the RTI Act are critical to citizens exercising the hard-won Right to Information, which allows citizens to question and seek information from public authorities. The ICs are “the final authorities to adjudicate on claims of access to information which is a deemed fundamental right under Article 19(1) of the Constitution.”
“The RTI law currently pegs the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief of all information commissions and the information commissioners of the Central Information Commissions at the level of a judge of the Supreme Court, while those of the state information commissioners are pegged at the level of the Chief Secretary of the state,” said the letter by the NCPRI.
“The status conferred on commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry out their functions autonomously and require even the highest offices to comply with the provisions of the law. Empowering the central and state governments to decide salaries of information commissioners would seriously undermine the independence of information commissions,” it said.
As it is, the information commissions in the country are in a mess, with the posts of commissioners, including that of the chief information commissioner, lying vacant in several state ICs.
The draft rules in the amendment bill, issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Government of India, has reportedly been approved by the Cabinet.
But the text of the amendment bill has not been made public, and no comments and suggestions from the public has been sought yet.
“This manner of legislating important laws undermines people’s democratic right to know and participate in the legislative process and prevents public scrutiny of the provisions of a proposed bill.”
The RTI activists — including Aruna Roy, Anjali Bhardwaj, Nikhil Dey, Venkatesh Nayak, Shailesh Gandhi and Shekhar Singh, among several others — have demanded that the Modi government make the amendment bill public in keeping with the pre-legislative consultation policy of the government of India.
“In 2014, a Pre-legislative Consultation Policy was adopted by the Government of India which mandates that all draft legislations (including subordinate legislation) be placed in the public domain for 30 days for inviting public comments and a summary of comments be made available on the concerned ministry’s website prior to being sent for Cabinet approval,” the NCPRI reminded the BJP-led NDA government.
“The necessity and significance of public consultation in the process of law-making is widely recognised by democratic governments across the world,” the letter added.
More than six million RTI applications are filed every year, and the RTI Act is “the most extensively used transparency legislation globally,” to quote the NCPRI. “The law has been used by people to fight corruption and wrongdoing in the system.”
“We strongly urge you to ensure that the RTI Act, 2005 is not diluted in any manner,” said the NCPRI.
“The text of the proposed RTI Amendment Bill must be immediately put in the public domain, along with reasons for proposing the changes, to enable wide discussion and public debate before it is introduced in Parliament. An effective participatory consultative process must be adopted to invite public comments and suggestions on the proposed legislation.”
The importance of the Right to Information, and the threat that it poses to public authorities by holding them answerable, can be gauged by the rising number of attacks and murders of RTI activists in the country. In fact, the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra — which have been ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for over two decades and one-and-a-half decades, respectively — have seen the highest number of attacks on RTI users.
There has been so much happening in India in the recent past and particularly, this past week. The country today sits on a tinderbox; waiting to explode at any moment; no one can deny this! A cursory glance around will make one realise the abysmal depths to which the country has plummeted to, during these last four years!
On 22 May, the brutal gunning down of anti-Sterlite protestors by the Tamil Nadu police in Thoothukudi is a blatant example of a repressive State machinery. More than eleven people were killed and many more injured, in an authentic people’s movement with legitimate demands. The powers that rule the country are clearly identified with the corporate mafias who care two hoots about the rights of the poor or environmental safeguards.
In the aftermath of the results of the Assembly elections in Karnataka on 15 May, the country witnessed the unprecedented act of a Governor throwing all Constitutional propriety to the wind. Unethically, he swore in someone to be CM and provided a ‘carte blanche’ to his political party to buy up MLAs from parties which had the requisite numbers to form the Government; fortunately the Supreme Court stepped in and ensured that the ‘pretenders’ in this case were not given the throne. Their game plan did not work and the legitimate victors were given the reins of power earlier this week.
‘Demonetization’ has been a major heist on the country, favouring the rich and the ruling political dispensation. There is enough of empirical data to show how the poor and the middle-class of the country have been affected. Millions of Indians today try just-to-survive without access to the basic amenities of life. They have to scrounge to eke out a living. The poor become poorer every day. It is not surprising that the Oxfam Report ‘Reward Work, Not Wealth’ released recently during the World Economic Forum held in Davos stated, “The richest 1% in India cornered 73% of the wealth generated in the country last year, presenting a worrying picture of rising income inequality”. Government policies are designed to be pro-rich, a group, which will certainly be helpful to the ruling political class, when they have to come out more aggressively in the implementation of their agenda. Fuel prices have skyrocketed to an all-time-high, with eleven hikes in as many days.
Suicide by farmers continue in alarming numbers all over the country. ‘Firstpost’(24 May 2018)reports, “in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district, Rahul, a 32-year-old sugarcane farmer, killed himself because he could not afford to treat his younger sister who was diagnosed with cancer and the doctor had suggested a surgery. The local sugar mill owed the household about Rs 3 lakh, which was not paid at a time when the family needed it the most. Rahul’s suicide was the trigger that compounded the fury and anger of sugarcane farmers from across the state. The farmers united under the banner of ‘Indian Farmer Union’ and held protests at various places”. A recent report from ‘Crisil’ the country’s leading rating agency, shows that today the rural wage growth has reached an all-time low of 0.2% ( from 8.4%) under the UPA and that the farmers now do not even get a support price!
In another recently released study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) fourteen of the world’s most-polluted twenty cities, are in India; ironically many of them happen to be in Uttar Pradesh including Varanasi city. Healthcare is still beyond the reach of the poor Indian. In an Adani-run Hospital in Bhuj, Gujarat 111(out of 777) newborn babies died in a five-month period ending 20 May- a whopping 14%! In global indicators on several important parameters, like freedom of religion/belief, human rights, freedom expression – India’s rankings have touched all-time lows.
A fly-over collapses in Varanasi and several ordinary citizens are killed! Human rights defenders like Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, intellectuals and others who take a stand, have false cases foisted on them, they are hounded, harassed and some even killed. On 21 May, a poor Dalit in Gujarat was beaten to death and his wife molested. Women and children are consistently targeted if one goes by the number of rapes that have been come to light very recently. The poor and the marginalized, the Dalits and the tribals, the minorities and other vulnerable, are on the receiving end of tyrannical rulers.
Cobrapost in an ‘Operation 136’ sting showed the country how some of the top media houses agreed to run a pro-Hindutva campaign in the run up to the 2019 General Elections. The agenda, in exchange for money (‘black’ of course!) was to denigrate the opposition, highlight all positive stories on the ruling party and to mainstream Hindutva. A clear and strong “yes” from some of the biggest media people in the country to Hindutva, black money and paid news. On the other hand, any journalist who takes an objective stand and for truth and justice is not only intimidated but some brutally murdered!
There is indeed so much happening (warranting 24×7 headlines) in the country all the time, but tragically a good section of our paid and so-called mainstream; media hardly highlight these grim realities. Some of the senior Supreme Court Justices reminded us recently –that what is at stake is the Constitution, the secular fabric, the future of our country! There is no one ranting and raving on these critical issues on the channels saying, “The nation wants to know”; there is no one demanding from the Prime Minister why he has maintained total silence on the police killings in Thoothukudi ?Why the ‘acche din’ after four years is only a big bluff? Why corruption, criminalization and communalism are the flagships of the country today? These and several more burning questions which affect the soul of the nation and which demand honest, truthful answers!
Instead, what gets prime time news, with the some anchors frothing and fuming is an innocuous circular letter from Archbishop Anil Couto, of the Archdiocese of Delhi written to the Catholics of his Archdiocese requesting for prayers until the General Elections of 2019. The letter dated 8 May, is a call for prayer beginning on “May 13, 2018 which marks the Anniversary of the Apparition of the Blessed Mother at Fatima, consecrating ourselves and our nation to the Immaculate Heart”.
An objective analysis of Archbishop Anil’s letter, draw the following conclusions:
As an Indian citizen, the Archbishop has every right to voice his opinions/views
As the Archbishop of Delhi, it is his duty to be a Pastor and instruct the Catholics under his care both on spiritual and temporal matters
It is an age-old practice for Bishops all over the world to send out Circular or Pastoral Letters before any major event (including elections) which could affect their people in any way!
The letter clearly does NOT take sides; does not name any political party ; does not tell people whom to vote for
The letter is addressed to a particular group of people ( that is Catholics of Delhi) it is directional in nature; a request and certainly not mandatory
The letter is a call to prayer!
So then, what is the hullabaloo about? A letter of this nature, to a tiny fraction of a miniscule minority in the country, is perhaps not going to determine the outcome of any elections! (but Christians like any other person of faith do believe that PRAYER WORKS!). Why is the BJP/RSS combine, with some of their media henchmen, on the ‘warpath’ on a letter, which is asking for prayers? Unless of course. their response is an admission of guilt and fear that, they stand woefully exposed! They are also overly –cautious of what ‘western nations’ may think; after all, several of their kind live in those countries and continue to have their children educated in them. Then there is their ‘standard’ reason: anyone who challenges our agenda and us is not ‘patriotic’!
Archbishop Anil begins his letter with the words “We are witnessing a turbulent political atmosphere which poses a threat to the democratic principles enshrined in our Constitution and the secular fabric of our nation.” There could not be perhaps a better opening statement, so down-to-earth, so contextual- which sets the tone of why one needs to pray and fast. Can one deny the fact that what we witness in India is not ‘a turbulent political atmosphere’? When a ‘few’ decide what one should eat and wear; see and write; or whom to worship; when the very core of the country’s secular and pluralistic fabric stands to be destroyed; when all that is sacred in the Constitution is being eroded – how can one ever abstain from making such a statement? It is a sin not to do so.
Some of the media fascists in our country would love to defocus from the current realities, which plague our country by providing undue attention to a letter like this. However, what takes the cake is that even some fence-sitting Catholics (who love to run with the hare and hunt with the hound provided they are in good books with the ‘powers that matter’) have also demanded that Archbishop Anil substantiates his statement with documentation/ facts. Sounds like a sick joke or perhaps these are NOT aware of what is happening in the country today. One self-appointed ‘Catholic Leader’ from Gujarat, (who in the past desperately tried to get into the ‘good books’ of Modi and the BJP there), takes umbrage at the letter. Others fear that it may have repercussions on the Christians (a BJP person who no longer finds himself ‘in the news’ wants India to ‘break ties’ with the Vatican!).Pro-BJP Christians have started writing ‘open letters’ (they certainly have a right to do so!) in a poor attempt to justify the unjustifiable!
The rest of the letter is an invitation not only to pray but also to fast every Friday of the week and “that we organize an hour of Eucharistic Adoration every Friday at a convenient time in all our parishes, religious houses and institutions, specifically praying for our nation.”
There is a beautiful prayer attached to the letter, which is recommended to be said during the adoration. The prayer resonates with the Upanishads (from darkness lead me to light), with Tagore’s ‘Gitanjali (into that heaven of freedom), with our national motto ‘Truth Triumphs’, with the Prophets of the Old Testament, with Jesus’ stand on what is wrong in society and above all, with the teachings of Pope Francis, including his insistence that ‘media must be bearers of the truth’. The prayer above all highlights the guiding principles enshrined in our Constitution: Justice Liberty Equality and Fraternity. (This prayer, with the necessary adaptation should be translated into all Indian languages and could be prayed by all women and men of goodwill across the country in the run up to the elections of 2019).
The life of Jesus: his person, message and mission are without ambiguity! Jesus is no ‘political’ messiah; he is the Saviour who came down to earth to prepare his people for eternal life. Jesus however showed to people that the ‘Kingdom of God’ is in the here and now! He takes sides with the poor and marginalized, with the ostracized and the gentiles. His vision and mission are there for all to embrace. However, he is not afraid to take a stand against the Herods and Pilates, the scribes and Pharisees of his time- they represented an unjust system and all that was wrong in society. Jesus ultimately had to pay the supreme sacrifice. The Prophets before him did the same and so did countless martyrs after him. Catholic Social Teaching, with the May 1891 Encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum’ has been consistent on being a voice for the voiceless; in speaking truth to power. Vatican II highlights several of these dimensions. St Pope John XXIII in his 1963 Encyclical ‘Pacem in Terris’ highlights four non-negotiables for Peace: Truth, Justice, Charity and Liberty and calls for their internalization in the Church and in the world.
Over the years, the Church has taken visible and vocal stands against Communism. Some years ago, the Bishops of Kerala were all out on the streets when there was a threat to nationalize education in the state! It is no state secret of the pivotal role St Pope John Paul II played in the dismantling of communism in Eastern Europe. Pope Francis has been consistent with his teachings. He has challenged Bishops and Priests to defend the poor, the outcasts and the oppressed; he has spoken bluntly and directly to oppressive regimes, which do not respect the dignity and the rights of every human.
Some of the responses to Archbishop Anil’s letter sadly show that there are ‘fissures’ in the Catholic Church in India. Some of his fellow-bishops seem to disagree with him; or distance themselves from the letter or just say, “the timing is not right” (when is the right time to speak the TRUTH?). It was a similar scenario last year when Archbishop Thomas Macwan wrote an internal letter asking for prayers prior to the Gujarat assembly elections. The message that comes from those who express their discomfort with such a letter, is loud and clear: they are more interested in protecting their selfish, vested and material interests rather than standing up for the person and message of Jesus which radiates Truth, Compassion Justice, Equality and Liberty for all . The Bishops of India would be sending out a powerful message of unity, both to the Catholics and the entire nation, if they take ownership of the letter of Archbishop Anil and circulate it (with the necessary adaptations) in their respective Dioceses too.
Archbishop Oscar Romero was brutally gunned down by the brutal regime of his country El Salvador on 24 March 1980. The day before he was killed in his Sunday homily he called out to his Government saying, “In the name of God, and in the name of his suffering people; those who have suffered so much and whose laments cry out to heaven with greater intensity each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression immediately!” Later this year he will be canonized a saint. He was truly a prophet, a martyr for justice; he was not afraid of the power and might of his Government! He was ready to lay down his life for his people! All of us can learn much from him and even try to imitate him in some ways!
The Church in India desperately needs prophets today, endowed with the vision and mission of Jesus, who get out of their comfort zones and are not afraid to speak truth to power! Every disciple of Jesus is not only invited but also challenged to do so! Do we have the faith and courage to respond to that challenge?
South Asian activists came together at Holland Park in Surrey on the evening of May 26 to protest the killings of 12 anti-Sterlite demonstrators by the Tamil Nadu police.
Image: Indian Express
Organized by Radical Desi, the rally started with a moment of silence for the demonstrators killed by the police in Thoothukudi, and also for nearly 60 Palestinian protesters killed by the Israeli forces in Gaza recently.
The speakers unanimously condemned the police high handedness in the world’s so called largest democracy and expressed their solidarity with the activists who have been fighting against the controversial Sterlite plant in Thoothukudi. They agreed that irrespective of the party line, most parliamentary parties in India, including the ruling BJP, the opposition Congress and even the CPI(M) have encouraged state repression and allowed the police to be used as mercenaries by the corporate houses.
They also demanded the release of political prisoners, such as Prof. GN Saibaba and Chandershekhar Azad and the scrapping of draconian laws that are often used to suppress voice of dissent. The participants also raised slogans against state violence and sought the release of all political prisoners. The ongoing practice of extra-judicial killings of political activists by the police also came under criticism. Kesar Singh Baghi, whose son was murdered by the Punjab police, was also in attendance.
Among the speakers was visiting leftist activist from India Sardara Singh Mahil, who insisted that the present ruling classes of India are no different from the British rulers of the past as they continue to inherit their legacy of repression.
Others who spoke on the occasion were leftist activists Parminder Swaich of East Indian Defence Committee, Sucha Deepak, Sikh activists Gian Singh Gill and Kulwinder Singh, besides Avtar Gill of the Rationalist Society, and cofounder of Radical Desi Gurpreet Singh. Piara Singh Chahal recited revolutionary poems on the occasion. Ganesha, Savitri and Gokila Rajendran from Tamil Nadu and rationalist and Marxist activists Navtej Johal, Jagrup Dhaliwal and Sadhu Singh Jhorhraan, besides Komagata Maru Heritage Foundation leader Harbhajan Gill were also in attendance.
Interestingly, no local elected official showed up at the rally despite invitation, even though Surrey has a number of MPs and MLAs of Indian origin.
Exposé reveals some of the biggest names in the Indian media agreeing to business proposal by undercover reporter seeking promotion of Hindutva agenda and influencing of electoral outcome for a price.
New Delhi: Nearly two months after Cobrapostfirst reported how some media houses were prepared to strike business deals to promote the Hindutva agenda and help polarise voters in the run up to the 2019 elections, the website has released a second batch of video recordings shot surreptitiously by an undercover reporter that shows managers and owners of some of the largest newspapers and TV channels succumbing to the same package of Hindutva advertorials.
Cobrapost said on Friday that the recordings it made showed how some two dozen news organisations were willing to “not only cause communal disharmony among the citizens but also tilt the electoral outcome in favour of a particular party” for a price.
The only two media houses whose representatives refused the undercover reporter’s proposals were the Bengali newspapers Bartaman and Dainik Sambad.
In what is likely to alarm the finance ministry and the income tax department, several of the media houses – including, in some cases, proprietors like Vineet Jain of the Times Group – have been recorded discussing ways in which proposed transactions running into hundreds of crores of rupees could be conducted using cash, i.e. black money.
The Times Group owns the Times Now channel, the Times of India and several other media platforms. The ease with which Jain discusses ways in which the undercover reporter could pay the company using black money by routing those payments through other business houses and families is hard to reconcile with Times Now’s campaigns in favour of demonetisation – which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said was needed in order to deal with black money.
Cobrapost sent an undercover journalist, Pushp Sharma, to pose as “Acharya Atal”, a man who identified himself as a representative of an unnamed “sangathan”, or organisation, but who gave the impression that he was a member of or close to the Nagpur-based Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). In the recordings the website put up on YouTube on Friday afternoon, Acharya Atal can be heard trying to strike deals with media house executives involving the promotion of a Hindutva agenda through advertorials – paid-for content – that would run on their newspapers, radio stations, TV channels and websites.
Vineet Jain of Times Group The biggest name to be stung by Cobrapost was Times Group owner and managing director Vineet Jain. In a number of videotaped conversations, Jain and the group’s executive president, Sanjeev Shah, can be seen and heard discussing the proposed deal in which Acharya Atal said he would pay Rs 500 crore in exchange for advertorials and events that that would be presented as programming on Krishna and the Bhagvad Gita but which would serve as a cover for Hindutva and its political agenda.
Times Group MD Vineet Jain (right) with finance minister Arun Jaitley (left). Credit: Facebook
In one of the meetings, Jain and Shah offer guidance to the undercover journalist on how to make payments in cash even though they said the Times group itself had no use for cash.
“We found them naming some big corporate houses which could help make black money squeaky clean,” Cobrapost said.
It added that while Vineet Jain said, “Aur bhi businessmen honge jo humein cheque denge aap unhe cash de do” (There are other businessmen who would give us cheque against the cash you may give them), his aide Shah elaborated on this to the undercover journalist saying: “Who will take that from him in Delhi suppose if Goenka says I want it in Ahmedabad so that I Angadiya will have contact in Ahmedabad where they will exchange in number on a note or whatever.”
Incidentally, Rs 500 crore is equal to a little more than 5% of the total revenue of Rs 9,976 crore that the Times group earned in 2017.
Kalli Purie of India Today group In his meeting with Kalli Purie, vice-chairperson of the India Today group, Cobrapost’s undercover journalist spoke about using Krishna and the Bhagvad Gita to promote Hindutva since Ram and Ayodhya had become controversial. He said the ‘sangathan’ would make use of the Krishna messaging the India Today group would put out to promote Hindutva among the wider public as part of its “infield activities”. The reporter also spoke about translating the campaign for his “political gains” and even said that he should not be held accountable later for polarisation.
Kalli Purie of India Today. Credit: Facebook
Purie indicated she was agreeable to the idea but added that “if you are doing some infield activities that we don’t agree with editorially, we will be criticising you”. She urged ‘Acharya Atal’ not to resort to polarising activities but when he said the course of the election campaign may not leave him any option, his insistence did not become a deal breaker.
Pushp Sharma had earlier met TV Today’s chief revenue officer, Rahul Kumar Shaw, who had conveyed to him his own support for the sangathan’s agenda. “I must tell you, I am very very pro, very pro to the government”. Soon after the meeting with Kalli Purie, Shaw sent an email proposing a Rs 275 crore advertising campaign – an astonishing amount for what was officially going to be described as promotion of the Bhagvad Gita. The value placed on this one campaign alone was 20% of the total revenues earned by the India Today group in 2017.
Cobrapost stings 25 media houses The second and final instalment of the exposé – codenamed Operation 136 – saw a total of 25 media houses “crumble under the weight of a ‘big business opportunity’ that was knocking on their doors without asking,” Cobrapost said.
The sting covered a total of 27 organisations of which “almost all bent themselves backward to grab this opportunity,” barring Bartaman and the Dainik Sambad.
Apart from the Times of India and India Today groups, the undercover investigation covered Hindustan Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Zee News, Star India, ABP, Dainik Jagran, Radio One, Suvarna News, Red FM, Lokmat, ABN, Andhra Jyothy, TV5, Dinamalar, Big FM, Prabhat Khabar, K News, India Voice, the New Indian Express, MVTV and OPEN magazine.
Cobrapost was forced to withhold the recordings and communications it had from its interaction with the Dainik Bhaskar group after the latter managed to obtain an ex-parte injunction from the Dehi high court. The website has said it will challenge the injunction.
Hindustan Times: ‘If you give couple of crores, automatically my editorial is under pressure’ Another big media house, the Hindustan Times, also found the undercover reporter’s proposal attractive with the group’s executives offering “editorial support” to ‘Acharya Atal’ for his activities as part of an advertising package.
In a meeting with Avneesh Bansal, associate vice president of HT Media Ltd, ‘Acharya Atal’ is told that money spent on advertorials will produce editorial dividends too: Bansal: Mera personal suggestion yeh hai, I am sure media strategy is a very very big part of Sangh strategy, so you should attack in two ways. One is tying up with media houses, so if you are giving me a couple of crore rupees to talk positive about you, automatically my editorial is under pressure not to go deep negative … Keep funding the media house so agar hum ek positive cheez ke liye fund kar rahe hain, they will refrain form being go deep negative, but they can’t ignore a news Acharya Atal:Theeek hai, usko hush up kar dein, low tone de dein
Bansal: This is one. Acharya Atal: Theek hai.
Bansal: Doosri cheez kya hai, you should find a PR company of repute which has inroads in the top market, right, and they can control the reporters, kyonki they are the source of news. Bansal then differentiates between reporters who have a fire inside them and other reporters who are “light minded and who are not working for professional desire but monetary desire” and says the PR company will work through them.
A standard pitch The pitch made by the reporter in his meetings with management personnel and owners of media houses was similar: he wanted them to run a media campaign on his behalf promoting Hindutva, offering them an ad spend ranging from a few crore rupees to Rs 500 crore in the case of the Times group.
The reporter’s modus operandi in dealing with large media houses was to dangle his bait before junior executives, who then led him higher and higher up the corporate food chain. In the final stage, Pushp Sharma tried to meet with the owner directly in order to establish what he said was an “emotional connect” that would convince the ‘sangathan’ that the media house genuinely believed in the goals of the Hindutva campaign and was not simply engaging in a transactional relationship.
The “essential ingredients” or the deal were “spread wide before them” at the outset and repeated in each meeting. The agenda included promoting Hindutva in the initial phase of three months through customised religious programmes to create a congenial atmosphere. Then the campaign was to be “geared up to mobilise the electorate on communal lines by promoting speeches of Hindutva hardliners, the likes of Vinay Katiyar, Uma Bharti and Mohan Bhagwat, among others,” said Cobrapost.
Finally, as elections approach, the campaign would move to “target opposition leaders, namely, Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, caricaturing them using less than dignified language like Pappu, Bua and Babua, respectively, for them, in order to show them in poor light before the electorate.” The arrangement included running the campaign on all platforms – print, electronic, radio or digital including, e-news portals, web sites and social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
In his meeting with Kalli Purie, ‘Acharya Atal’ insisted the campaign also run in Cosmopolitan, the group’s fashion magazine.
Offer to swing Karnataka assembly results Operation 136, Cobrapost editor Aniruddha Bahal said, also revealed that most of the media houses are either owned by politicians themselves, particularly the regional ones, or patronised by politicians, and therefore it was natural for them to become their masters’ voice. “Crony journalism and the search for revenue made for a lethal cocktail”, he said.
In the case ABN Andhra Jyothy, a prominent Telugu TV news channel patronised by TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu, Cobrapost said, its chief marketing manager E.V. Seshidhar was candid enough to admit: “We have very good connects with TDP … We have do [sic] lot of what do you call we have main official what do you call for AP government Andhra Pradesh government, we have official event telecaster rights for Andhra Pradesh government.”
Stating that this connect went beyond the TDP, to include the BJP and other outfits, it said Seshidhar even went on to state that their newspaper Andhra Jyothy holds so much sway that they could influence the outcome of the Karnataka elections.
Senior journalists also turned power brokers Cobrapost said that it not only approached those whose job it was to negotiate deals and bring business to the organisation, but also some some senior journalists who have now become owners or CEOs and found them “genuflecting before their big-ticket client” and “happily agreeing to work for his agenda”.
In this regard, it made mention of Purushottam Vaishnav, who is now CEO regional news channels at Zee Media, saying he agreed to “run down political rivals by unleashing their SIT ([investigative team] on them”.
“Content mein jo aapki taraf se input aayega wo absorb ho jayega … humare taraf se jo content generate hoga investigative journalism hum log karte hain karwa denge jitna hum logon ne kiya hai utna kisi ne nahi kiya hoga wo hum log karenge (Whatever input you will send in the form of content that will be absorbed … the content we will generate … we have been doing investigative journalism, we will do it for you. [Compared to Zee] none of the channels has done so many … we will do that),” it quoted Vaishnav as saying.
RSS inroads into newsrooms Cobrapost also claimed that its investigation established that the RSS, and as a corollary, its ideology of Hindutva, have made deep inroads into the newsrooms and boardrooms of Indian media houses where even owners either blatantly admit their allegiance to the party in power and its parent organisation or are eager to have an association with them.
“For instance, Big FM senior business partner Amit Choudhary admits to the relationship between the company that owns Big FM and the party in power in no uncertain terms,” it said, as it quoted Choudhary as saying: “Waise bhi Reliance BJP ka supporter hee hai (Anyway, Reliance is always a supporter of the BJP).”
Similarly, it quoted Basab Ghosh, regional sales head of OPEN magazine, which is owned by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, confessing his organisation’s allegiance to the RSS: “Acharyaji shayad aap bhi busy rehte hain aap shayad Open dekhte nahi hain regular. Main aapko ek baat bataata hoon. Open jitna support karte hain sangathan ka shayad hee koi karta hoga. (Acharyaji, perhaps you are a busy man and maybe you don’t read OPEN regularly. Let me tell you one thing. Nobody supports the Sangathan [RSS] as much as does OPEN).”
‘BJP MLA claimed she was told by Sangh people to demolish mosques’ Cobrapost said of all the interviews that the journalist had with the owners and personnel of various media houses in the course of its investigation, the one with BJP legislator from Belapur, Pune, Manda Tai, who is also the owner of a local channel of Pune, MVTV, stood out. While criticising her own party and claiming that it was the RSS leadership which ensured she got a ticket to fight the election after she switched loyalties from NCP to the BJP, she revealed: “Mere ko Sangh wale bol rahe the ki Muslim masjid todo, ye karo. Main boli sorry main ye nahi kar sakti. Masjid sthal sab kachre ke maafiq dekhte hain. Itna log ka hum hay nahi le sakte hain kyonki aadhe log apne se jud gaye hain (The Sangh people were telling me time and again to destroy the masjids of Muslims. I told them ‘Sorry I can’t do that.’ They all look at a masjid as something like trash. I cannot afford to earn so much ill-will of all those people [by resorting to such hate] because many Muslims have joined the BJP).”
Cobrapost said while such open confessions could be brushed aside as “personal opinions”, given the position Tai held in the organisation, they “cannot be taken lightly”. It said “all these on-camera confessions make it clear that the malaise of paid news has set in deep as it is no longer confined to a few individuals who would show no scruples while publishing paid content, camouflaging it as news stories or reports. Over the years, paid news has become institutionalized.”
17 media organisations were exposed in first tranche At the time of its first ‘cash for coverage’ expose in March, Cobrapost had revealed how it had surreptitiously filmed the interaction its reporter had over several months with top executives at dozens of leading newspapers and television channels across north India.
Part I of ‘Operation 136’ – which derived its name from the rank India got in the World Press Freedom Index of 2017 – had reproduced excerpts of interactions Cobrapost’s undercover journalist had with 17 organisations including with India TV, which belongs to Rajat Sharma, an editor known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s largest Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran, local Uttar Pradesh channel Hindi Khabar, the entertainment and news television company SAB Group, the English newsaper DNA (Daily News and Analysis) which is owned by Zee and Dainik Bhaskar, Amar Ujala, the news agency UNI, the entertainment channel 9X Tashan, the UP news channel Samachar Plus, the Uttarakhand channel HNN 24×7, the Hindi newspapers Punjab Kesari and Swatantra Bharat, web portals ScoopWhoop and Rediff.com, IndiaWatch, Hindi newspaper Aaj and the influential Lucknow-based news channel, Sadhna Prime News.
Sting team left shocked Incidentally, following the first release of tapes, Cobrapost editor Aniruddha Bahal had said that even his undercover journalists were left surprised by what they discovered. “To our utter shock most of them not only agreed to do what he asked for but also suggested myriad ways for undertaking a well-orchestrated, overtly communal media campaign on behalf of their prospective big-ticket client.”
Cobrapost had earlier stated that its investigation had revealed yet another example of the Indian media’s penchant for twisting facts or serving pure rumours as news, as was recently witnessed during the Kasganj communal riot in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year. “What our investigation shows is symptomatic of the malaise that has set deep in the labyrinths of the citadel called Fourth Estate. It also shows that Indian media is on sale, lock, stock and barrel,”
The release of the latest tranche of tapes only confirms this ugly truth.
The Wire spoke to a few media houses for their reaction and this may be read here…
About a week after the riots in Aurangabad district, a fact-finding team comprised of Rameshbhai Khandagale, Vira Sathidar, Ravi Gaikwad, Gautam Kamble, Pramod Mandade, Sudhir Dhavle, Sadiq Qureshi, Rashtrapal Gavai, Yusuf Khan, Pratik Nandgaonkar, and Divesh Kumar visited the affected area to find out the responsible people and causes behind the violence which left two people dead. The riot left about 60 people injured including 31 policemen.
The fact-finding team, formed under the banner of Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyan, Maharashtra, visited the area on May 19 and 20. The committee met with the victims, eyewitnesses, local people, police, administration, political leaders and social activists. Based on those meetings, the fact-finding committee observed that the riots started on May 11, 2018, Friday at midnight, But several people in Moti-Karanja, Shahganj, Nawabpura, Rajabazar, and Gulmandi revealed that preparations for the riot had been underway since almost a month.
The fact that Petrol, Kerosene, Stones, Catapult etc. were used during the riots were collected and stored on the terrace of the multi-storied buildings, is also evidence to its pre-planned nature.
As many as 21 Hindu and Muslim shopkeepers of Shahganj Vyapari Sangh had filed a complaint with the City police chowk on May 7 against Lacchu Pahelwan and his hooligan collaborators for beating, threatening and trying to instigate the communal riot. They had also demanded security from Lacchu Pahelwan and his collaborators. Even after their complaint, no stop was put to their activities.
Therefore on May 8 and 9, the shopkeepers met with S.P Kodekar and Police officer Kadam to demand justice from the harassment of Lacchu Pahelwan and even submitted a written memorandum regarding the same. Many people witnessed that on May 11 the same S.P Kodekar and P.O. Kadam walked along with Lacchu Pahelwan from the site of violence. The people indicated this also as an evidence of the pre-planned nature of the violence.
Fact-finding team has also reported that electricity in Moti-Karanja had been cut off from night 10 p.m. that day and also the electricity in other places went off in many places during the riot. Many transformers were destroyed. CCTV cameras were shut down earlier to save the rioters. All these again clearly points out that the rioters were prepared well in advance.
At the site of violence, people witnessed some armed political leaders walking along with the police. According to the report, All those leaders were Shiv Sena’s leaders. A local member of parliament, Chandrakant Khaire is visible in many video clips. MP Chandrakant Khaire openly admitted to journalists that due to Shiv Sena corporator Rajendra Janjal, his son and ex-MLA Pradeep Jaiswal’s son were rescued from the place of the incident. It is a clear admission to the fact that many Sena leader’s sons also participated in the attack. Hence both Police and local Shiv Sena leaders colluded in this attack is openly visible.
It is being propagated that the immediate trigger for the riot was the removal of illegal water connections. But people in that area said that illegal water connections were not the reason behind the violence. There are more than 35,000 illegal water connections between Kranti chowk to Shahganj area and in the whole city near about 1 lakh, 20 thousand illegal water connections are there. On May 9, the Municipal Corporation did not start their action either from Kranti chowk or Shahganj but started removing illegal water connections randomly in Moti-Karanja Chowk. They removed only four illegal water connection and all of them were Muslims. Farid Iqbal and his colleague, a resident of that area (Moti Karanja) had long before itself submitted a memorandum to the Municipal Corporation regarding the removal of illegal water connections. It is quite clear that the violence had nothing to do with the issue of removal of illegal water connections.
Another reason given for the trigger to the riot is the mango buying incident, there is no substance in this claim either. There was an altercation between a mango seller and his customer. That conflict was resolved and both of them had even embraced each other. But soon nephew of Lacchu Pahelwan came with 8-10 people and started beating that mango seller. People gathered there to save mango seller and they forced Lacchu Pahelwan’s nephew to leave that place. After that Lacchu Pahelwan came and publicly threatened to burn down shops and on May 11, he acted upon his threat and those shops were burnt down.
Shiv Sena holds the Mayor post in the Municipal Corporation. Lacchu Pahelwan’s daughter is an independent corporator but Lacchu Pahelwan controls the actual power. A month back, he joined Shiv Sena and demanded removal of encroachment and hawkers from Shahganj and Meena Bazar area. On May 9, Municipal Corporation sent an anti-encroachment force. Anti-encroachment force removed the encroachments in the Shahganj Chowk (mostly Muslim shops) but when they started removing encroachments of Sindhi shops they received a call from BJP district president Kishanchand Tanwani. And those shop owners told that Anti-encroachment drive had been stopped due to Tanwani’s phone call.
It is clear that Municipal Corporation also functioned with evident bias. Every time during the Ramzan period a market called the Meena bazar is held in Shahganj area. 12 years before, the Bhaji market was its place. But for redevelopment, Bhaji market was demolished and all shopkeepers came on the road. They started putting their shops on roads. Two years back, Municipal corporation allocated Aamkhas ground for Meena Bazar but no arrangements were made in the following years. So all shopkeepers again started opening their shops around Shahgunj road. Recently, Shiv Sena demanded the removal of Meena Bazar. All the vendors went to high court. High court ordered that these vendors should not be removed as their right to life cannot be snatched from them. Therefore, on May 11, Lacchu Pahelwan intentionally burnt down the shops of those vendors.
The whole site of violence is a Muslim majority area. Lacchu was trying to establish his dominance in that area. He used to collect ransom from this area. He used to beat up people if they refused to pay the money. Whole area has been afraid of Lacchu. Lacchu was miffed because, on May 8 in Mango buying issue, people forced his nephew to leave the area. Hawkers and riot victims told that, on 11 May, only those shops were burnt who were not supporting Lacchu’s demand of removal of hawkers. It is important to note that when the shops were being burnt on May 11, Hindu shops and houses located in the Muslim majority area were not burnt or plundered. It also indicates that people just resisted attacks, it was not a riot where attacks happened from both the sides. Shopkeepers of Shahaganj, Nawabpura, and Moti Karanja also said the same thing.
Attackers burnt down a 100-year-old building located at Shahganj-Rajabazar chowk. It was attacked because the owner of that building was a Muslim. In that building one Hindu family was residing and there were three other shops. All of them were tenants. None of the government representatives visited or helped them. Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) extended financial support to only Hindu tenants. BJP has not offered an help to Muslim tenants.
Extreme hatred towards Muslims was clearly visible in the Haris Qadri’s case. Haris left home in search of his younger brother on Friday midnight. Around 2:30 am, the family members came to know that he was injured. They brought him back. Haris was still alive so they took him to the hospital. He was injured because of the bullet. But soon he died in the hospital. On next day, around 11 am, SRP jawans broke down the doors of Haris’s house. They went to the terrace of three-floor building and beat Haris’s uncle.
Their Hindu neighbor asked the SRP Jawans not to trouble Haris’s family and they also told that Haris was seriously injured. But SRP Jawan beat even women of Haris’s family. SRP Jawan conducted combing operation only in the Muslim houses. Combing operation was conducted in the Nawabpura, Baijipura, Kiradpura, Ramanspura, Chelipura, Gincy, Roshangate etc. Muslim majority area. Even now combing operation is going on. Till now, neither the Collector, Police administration, Home Minister, or Chief minister have visited this area. A number of Muslims have been seriously injured in the police firing. They are under treatment in various hospitals. No one from state, police and administration visited them. Police did not even noted their injuries and registered FIRs. It is evident that police are not recording this information because they wanted to portray lessened intensity of the violence and safeguard themselves against any actions for misuse of power. During the riot, only one community faced the police bullets. Combing operation was also targeted against Muslims. The number of injured is more in the same community. Even the number of arrest is higher among Muslims. Compared to Muslims, the number of arrests or injured among the Hindus are very less. This also then raises a question on whether this is a riot or a planned attack?
On May 11, people chased Lacchu Pahelwan’s gang after they started fighting. So Lacchu’s people gathered near Hanuman temple of Gandhi Nagar and started throwing stones towards Moti Karanja Chowk. Muslim community also gathered at Moti Karanja Chowk to oppose stone pelters march which was trying to enter in the Muslim area. Some attackers took an opportunity of that chaos and from the different route, and they entered the Muslim majority area such as Shahaganj, Raja Bazar etc. This was a method employed for the attack. MP Khaire said that his commitment is to save only Hindu community. This is an anti-constitutional statement by an elected member of the parliament. Insecurity among Hindus was systematically constructed with spreading of false propaganda such as Muslim population is increasing, Muslims are snatching away the opportunities of the Hindus etc. Shiv Sena wants to polarise the Hindu community by creating anti-muslim sentiment among the Hindus. During the violence, Shiv Sena leaders were walking with Police. Police conducted combing operation in the house of the boy who died in police firing. All those events expose the nature of government.
The institution of the state is much bigger than the handful of thugs and local leaders. The state could have controlled those attacks with short time span but the government wanted those attacks to happen. Hence at the place of the riot, police and Shiv Sena leaders were all found together.
The fact-finding team has concluded that this was not a riot but pre-planned attack on one community and police, local administration as well as political leaders participated in this attack.
Harsh Mander, former IAS, said that any riot which continues for more than four hours is a state-sponsored riot. In Aurangabad, the attack continued from night 10 to morning 7. This attack would not have been possible and continued for so long period without state participation. Team has also alleged that the attack was entirely a political attack. Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire directly participated in that attack. It is an attempt to construct fear and hatred of another religion and consolidate vote of a community by polarising people on religious grounds.
“The intention of attack is to teach a lesson to the opponent and to create terror among Muslims,” said the report.
The team has demanded that the “mastermind of attack” Chandrakant Khaire should be arrested immediately, along with the Police officers.
The Government of Maharashtra not only failed in maintaining peace and security but also allowed four riots (attacks) to happen in the last five months. And in every place police took a biased stand with the Hindutva rioters. Hence action should be taken against Home minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis as he should be made responsible for those riots, demanded the team.
Team has also demanded that the action should be taken against municipal corporation officers for their suspicious functioning along with the immediate stoppage over combing operations with the release of all the innocent people from custody.
“Rs. 50 lakh compensation should be given to two families who lost their family members in this attack, Rs. 5 lakh assistance should be given to people who were injured in police firing and other injured should be given 2 lakh rupees assistance. Adequate compensation should be given to the people who lost their property in this attack,” demanded the team through the report along with the demand of the inquiry of the incident through the one sitting judge of the high court.
India may have sharply increased the number of bank accounts following Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming to power. However, regrettably, India has the largest share of inactive accounts, too. A just-released World Bank survey, which provides this crucial detail alongside several others, says, “Account owners with an inactive account varies across economies, but it is especially high In India.”
Saying that the share of inactive accounts in India is 48 percent, “the highest in the world and about twice the average of 25 percent for developing economies”, the World Bank seeks to blame Modi’s policies for this. Titled “The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fin-tech Revolution”, the survey report says, “Part of the explanation might be India’s Jan Dhan Yojana scheme, developed by the government to increase account ownership.”
Authored by Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, Saniya Ansar, and Jake Hess, further referring to the Jan Dhan scheme, the report states, “Launched in August 2014, the programme had brought an additional 310 million Indians into the formal banking system by March 2018”, but laments many of them “might not yet have had an opportunity to use their new account.”
As against India’s 48 percent inactive accounts, as observed over the last 12 months, the report states, “In Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka about a third of account owners have an inactive account, while in Bangladesh 21 percent do. And Pakistan has a rate of just 13 percent, though it also has a low rate of account ownership compared with other economies in the region.” It adds, “In high-income economies only 4 percent of account owners have an inactive account.”
The World Bank’s triennial Global Findex report, as the study is identified alternatively, it is based on a survey of more than 150,000 representative individuals, claiming to provide a bird’s-eye view of patterns and regularities in data pertaining to finance and financial inclusion – such as saving behavior, use of mobile money, and preferred modes of sending and receiving remittances – in 140 economies.
Pointing towards the existence of gender gap in inactive accounts, the report says, “In developing economies female account owners are on average 5 percentage points more likely than male account owners to have an inactive account. In India, however, this gender gap is about twice as large: while 54 percent of women with an account reported having made no deposit or withdrawal in the past year, only 43 percent of men with an account did so.”
The report also points out that in developing economies “76 percent of adults with an inactive account have a mobile phone, including 66 percent in India”, though adding, “This represents an opportunity for expanding the use of accounts through digital technology.”
According to the report, “Indeed, having an account does not necessarily imply that people save at all. Globally, 42 percent of account owners reported not having saved any money in the past year. In high-income economies 26 percent of account owners reported not having saved any money. And in Brazil, India, Russia, and Turkey — all economies where about 70 percent or more of adults have an account — about 60 percent reported not saving at all.”
News from Saudi Arabia about the arrests of ten or more rights activists has been viewed with a mixture of shock and surprise in western media. Just a few years ago, though, no one would have been surprised: it was simply the way the Saudi regime behaved.
But that was before Mohammed bin Salman became crown prince and de facto ruler. It looks surprising now because the prince has been glowingly portrayed as a reformer who makes bold decisions like allowing cinemas to open for the first time in decades, allowing women to drive and – er – bombing Yemen to smithereens.
Women drivers will officially take to the roads a month from now, so at first sight it does seem a bit odd that the people arrested include several women who have been prominent in the campaign to let to let them drive.
Alongside that, there’s another puzzle. For the last month or so, Bin Salman himself has been keeping an unusually low profile and rumours have been circulating (with encouragement from Iranian sources) that he was killed or wounded in an attempted coup. On April 21 several volleys of gunfire were heard in Riyadh, in a district where royal palaces are located. The official explanation was that security forces had shot down a drone – said to be a “toy” or “recreational” drone – flying near the palaces.
This led to speculation about a coup attempt. There have been repeated claims that Bin Salman has not been seen in public since then – though they appear to be untrue. A week after the Riyadh shooting official photographs showed Bin Salman attending the launch of the Qiddiya project, seemingly in good health.
Launch of the Qiddiya project, with Bin Salman on the far right
Last week Badr al-Asaker, head of the prince’s private office, posted a photo on Twitter, said to have been taken “a few days ago” which showed Bin Salman with “brother” Arab leaders, apparently standing at the edge of a swimming pool. One noticeable feature of the photo, though not necessarily a significant one, is that most of the background had been blacked out (see below).
Aside from Asaker’s tweet, however, the Saudis have not made much effort to quash speculation but it’s possible they are content to let the rumours circulate for a while. It’s worth recalling the recent case of Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan strongman who was wrongly reported to be dead or incapacitated. Haftar’s supporters allowed the story to run because it gave them an opportunity to see who was celebrating.
Assuming Bin Salman is alive and well, his uncharacteristic quietness over the last few weeks coupled with the crackdown on activists does raise a question about whether the arrests were his personal decision.
Since his father came to the throne, Bin Salman seems to have been given more or less a free hand but the arrests might conceivably be a sign that someone is now trying to rein him in, or that he has come under pressure to make a placatory gesture towards the religious reactionaries. If so, though, there would probably be more signs of the same thing happening in other areas.
But perhaps a more likely explanation is that the arrest of activists is entirely consistent with Bin Salman’s policies, and that any surprise about that is misplaced. It’s important to remember that political reform is not part of the prince’s vision for Saudi Arabia and reforms, when they happen, must be seen to come from the top. When women drivers finally take to the roads Bin Salman will claim the credit and the Saudis who campaigned for it over many years will be silent behind bars.
