Image Courtesy: First Post

SabrangIndia’s Teesta Setalvad noted,

The documents that the court ordered to be presented include call data records (CDR), witness statements and other documents mentioned in the closure report. Earlier, after closing the case, the CBI had denied presenting these documents to Fatima Nafees, the petitioner in this case.

On March 28, CBI had argued that “there is no provision in law” to present the documents.

The Delhi High Court had allowed the CBI to file a closure report in his case and had “declined” Fatima Nafees’s plea to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to monitor the probe. The CBI took over his case in May 16, 2017 and after more than an year of investigation said that it had looked into all the aspects of the case and was of the opinion that no offence was committed against the missing student.

Najeeb’s brother Haseeb Ahmed said that this was the first hopeful news they heard since Najeeb went missing. He added, “Now we are hopeful that my brother will be back soon and the ones behind his disappearance will be behind bars.”

Najeeb Ahmed, a first year MSc Biotechnology student in the JNU went missing on October 15, 2016 after the alleged attacks on him by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the ruling party. This had sparked students’ movements across the country. His mother Fatima Nafees has been tirelessly following up his case. On multiple occasions she has faced extreme police brutality despite peacefully demanding for her son to be found.

His case was initially investigated by the Vasant Kunj Police, and was subsequently passed on to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Delhi Police, the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police and then the CBI. But all these institutions failed to find his traces.
 

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The brazen and brutal violence unleashed on our sons has rid us of any fear, dared Shahira and Fatima Nafees mothers of two sons, one dead and the other missing, both victims of the hate-letting unleashed under the current regime. Speaking at a meeting at Haj House in Mumbai on Saturday, both women dared the prime minister with his claim of a 56-inch chest! Why does he not have the moral courage to look us in the eye, meet our demands. ensure that the guilty are brought to book, they demanded?

Nafees’ son , 27 year old Najeeb has been missing since October 2016 after an alleged assault by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) at the Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) in Delhi. JNU is a university under attack for its radical and liberal values by the Modi regime since Feburary 2016. The ABVP is a wing of the far right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological fountainhead of the NDA II regime. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) finally closed the case in October 2018. Nafees is planning to challenge the closure in a protest petition soon. It is believed that top level functionaries of the Modi have been protecting the nine accused in the case. These nine have not ven been questioned by the CBI. The CBI itself is under a cloud after brazen interference in its functioning by the prime minister’s office (PMO).

“I dare the primine minister to meet us, look me in the eye and say no wrong was done to my son. This regime that is fuelled on hate and violence will not come back to power. The 56 inch chest will deflate,” Fatima said. Hailing from Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, Fatima spoke of the hardships involved in the struggle for justice, the delays, the callous attitudes of the law enforcement agencies amd even the courts.

Junaid, a 16 year old from Faridabad was literally beaten or lynched to death in June 2017 when on a Delhi Mathura train returning home with his two brothers after Eid shopping. While Junaid tragically died his brothers were seriously injured in the assault that was clearly communal, with vile abuse being flung at the boys and their beards being pulled. Junaid’s tragic death had resulted in a nationwide outrage of anger and protest. Sabrangindia had been the most prompt to report on this tragic death after the CPIM in a rare and prompt move had moved on the issue.   The #NotInMyName Protests after Junaid’s killing had showed some resistance to the repeated violence against minorities that has been a hallmark of this regime.

The dimunitive Shahira, mother of Junaid who also spoke in Mumbai yesterday was scathing of the state of affairs related to the case in her son’s mother. ” The FIR itself has not included the crucial sections of section 302 and 307 (murder and attempt to murder), she said. Six of the accused have been let off by the courts on bail. There is talk of the main accused standing for the coming elections. We need to speak out. There should be no question of feeling afraid. My son’s death has killed the fear in me,” she said.

A Noida based businessman, Amit Jani has floated an outfit called the Uttar Pradesh Navnirmal Sena and has announced that Naresh Kumar, the main accused in the killing of Junaid will contest the elections. He has also reportedly stated that all those accused of killing Muslims should fight the elections.

Both Shahira and Fatima stressed the need of educating Muslim, Dalit and Bahujan youth so that young persons make it to top positions and ensure both representation and justice for the marginalised. “I was not educated and my husband is a carpenter. But apart from Najeeb my other sons too are post graduates and my daughter, too is studying,” she said.

Fahad Ahmad from TISS also spoke on the occasion. Teesta Setalvad, co editor of Sabrangindia and secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace, spoke of the emergent opposition to this repressive regime. ” It is the youth like Rohith Vemula, Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumat and survivors like Shahira and Fatima Nafees who have emerged as the strong voice of resistance and opposition to this regime,” she said.

Related Articles:

1. How India Unleashes Violence Against Mothers The unending struggles of Fatima Nafees and Radhika Vemula

The post Modi Regime has Rid us of Fear: Mothers Shahira & Fatima Nafees dare Govt appeared first on SabrangIndia.

#JusticeForNajeeb

Protest at Jantar Mantar, Where is Najeeb? October 15, 2018, Two Years After his Disappearance

Monday October 15, was a sombre day in New Delhi as three mothers got  together to demand justice for their sons. While Fatima Nafees was demanding answers about the whereabouts of her son who went missing exactly two years ago from his hostel room in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Radhika Vemula and Shahira knew for a fact that their sons would never come back to them. 
 
Radhika’s son Rohith was a PhD student at the University of Hyderabad and committed suicide in January 2016, an action called ‘institutional murder’ by the burgeoning student movement that emerged after his death. Rohith was a student activist and a member of the Ambedkar Student’s Association. Following his vocal outpouring at a protest against the hanging of Yakub Memon, prime accused in the 1993 bomb blast case, members of a right wing student’s association labeled him as ‘anti-national’. In fact, members of the same group also allegedly physically assaulted him so badly that he required surgery.
 
Rohith was also suspended and barred from the hostel. The University also reportedly stopped paying his monthly fellowship. For 13 days before he took this step, the students barred from their hostel rooms were sleeping within the University premises in a makeshift Dalit Veliwada (the segregated space for Dalits in Indian villages). Rohith’s suicide was his last recourse after suffering months of bullying, harassment, physical violence and mental torture at the hands of University authorities as well as the said student’s union. A month before he died an eloquent letter to the VC sarcastically said that every Dalit student should be given a bottle of poison and a hangman’s noose when he or she is admitted. This document is a scathing indictment of the racial, caste bias that is still a reality of Indian campus life, 70 years after Independence.
 
Meanwhile, Shahira’s son Junaid was murdered in full public view because of a dispute about train seats. He was just 16, and was on his way back from a shopping trip for Eid. While there were many witnesses, and the prime accused Naresh had even confessed, the case appears to be in limbo with all accused being granted bail in the case. Shahira was seen addressing the protesters at Jantar Mantar.
 
On Monday, nearly 500 people including students, activists and civil society members joined the mothers in Delhi demanding justice for Najeeb, Rohith and Junaid. They marched from Mandi House to Parliament Street. 

Grief and Loss, Najeeb’s Parents

Support Through protestors

Fatima Nafees, Najeeb’s Mother

Mother of Junaid, lynched in 2017 (June) speaks at the protest against two years of                    
Najeeb’s Disappearance

Protestor

JNUTA STATEMENT IN SOLIDARITY WITH MOTHER OF NAJEEB AHMAD

Two years have passed since the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmad from JNU camps. He was last seen on 15 October 2016 after he had been assaulted the previous night in the Mahi-Mandvi hostel. In these two years the investigative agencies have failed to find a single clue as to his whereabouts and CBI has now moved to file a closure report on its investigation.

As Najeeb’s mother Fatima Nafees lurches between hope and grief, she has also found the strength and energy to lend support to the struggles of the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Junaid Khan. JNUTA salutes her spirit and we note with dismay that the central and state governments, and university administrations, who ought to have acted more efficiently and empathetically to ensure the young persons’ security and well-being have failed to respond to concerns of the mothers.

In Najeeb’s case, instead of taking responsibility JNU administration has adopted a callous approach, resulting in the failure to pin responsibility for the fateful events of 14th and 15th October 2016. JNUTA condemns the cold treatment meted out to Najeeb’s mother by Vice-Chancellor, and would like to remind him of care that is expected of him in his role as the guardian of students on campus. The disappearance of a student from the campus will remain a grim reminder of the many dark failures of the current JNU administration and its devastating treatment of the university students and teachers.

JNUTA expresses concern for Fatima Nafees’s health and deep dismay over the lackadaisical and facile efforts of the university administration to find Najeeb. We demand a conscientious response from the competent authority that they write to the Ministry of Home Affairs to urgently institute a credible investigation to ascertain Najeeb Ahmad’s whereabouts and to ensure that justice is served.

Sonajharia Minz, President, Sudhir K Suthar, Secretary

The post Tale of Three Mothers: Fatima, Radhika and Shahira demand justice for Najeeb, Rohith, Junaid appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
New Delhi: With no signs or hope for her son’s return, Fatima Nafees is dejected. Not only has her son been missing for two years from JNU, the Delhi HC allowed CBI to file a closure report of the case she had filed against RSS affiliated ABVP students. The 34 page judgement that may read here however allows her the legal option of challenging the closure report through filing a protest petition in the trial court. Were that to happen, in law, Fatima Nafees is entitled to the entire set of the investigation papers.
 
Najeeb Ahmed had gone missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi on October 15, 2016, following a scuffle with some students allegedly affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) the previous night.
 
His mother, Nafees, had moved the high court after a month and sought the polices help in finding him. She had requested a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe which was rejected. Her counsel, Colin Gonsalves, had also asked at various points during the hearings, that the High Court seek the assistance of technical experts to ensure that the reports being filed by the CBI in fact, followed established procedure.
 
It has been two years and the HC order for closure has come as a shock to many. Nafees accused the CBI of colluding with the BJP government and not doing enough to trace her son or investigate and punish the people who assaulted him after which he disappeared.
 
“Najeeb’s assaulters, who are all ABVP members, have been represented at various points by the most expensive and high-profile lawyers. Our case against the media groups and ABVP members for defaming my son, filed at the Patiala [House] Courts went missing from the court premises,” alleged Nafees speaking to Sabrangindia. Counsel for Nafees also argued that there no interrorgation, leave alone custodial interrogation was ever conducted of these ABVP members who are today extremely powerful, politically.
 
“The way CBI was probing the case; its closure report will hardly have any effect on us. They were already not doing anything. More than one year has passed since the case was handed to CBI, it has not gone a single step forward. We are in 2018 where we were in 2016. They did nothing for us. Whatever they did they did only to save nine criminals of ABVP, to destroy evidence and to intimidate witnesses,” Fatima alleged.
 
Counselfor Nafees had earlier said nine students were named in a complaint filed by 18 students, who were eyewitnesses to the alleged assault on Ahmed, yet they were not interrogated. The nine students named in the complaint have denied all the allegations against them.
 
She wanted the CBI chief to resign for showing incompetence in finding her son. She added that she was misguided by the police when she went to file a complaint. “The policemen at Vasant Kunj station told me not to write the names of the attackers because if I did that, there would be no guarantee of his return, but if I filed a missing report, he will be back in 24 hours,” she said in a report by Times of India.
 
“The way he was beaten and disappeared, they want to tell that poor will not be allowed to study but they are wrong. Like after killing of one Rohit Vemula, 1000 Rohit Vemulas were born. Similarly, in place of one Najeeb, now one lakh Najeeb’s would come to study at JNU and they won’t be able to stop them. I am asking people to send more and more children to JNU to study because we will no more live like labourers. Our children will ask the government about their rights. Like a mother is seeking her rights, her children will seek their rights,” she further said in the report.
 
She will be moving the appropriate court to challenge the closure report.
 
“The investigation, in this case, has shown the blatant political interference at the highest levels and the extent to which institutions such as the Delhi Police and the CBI has been severely compromised under the Modi Government. Despite repeated appeals and protests and strongest arguments made in the court, both the CBI and the Delhi Police has stubbornly refused to investigate into the assault against Najeeb the night before he disappeared. Najeeb’s assaulters who are all ABVP members have been represented at various points by the most expensive and high-profile lawyers,” JNUSU said in a press statement.
 
JNUSU president N. Sai Balaji said in a report by The Hindu, “While we are deeply dejected with the verdict of the High Court, we are determined to carry this struggle forward. The CBI and the Delhi Police have become puppets under the Modi regime and it has been apparent in the way in which the investigation over the last two years has been severely compromised.”
 

The post I will challenge CBI’s closure report: Najeeb Ahmed’s mother appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Speaking to reporters here after the court’s hearing, Nafees strongly criticised the “shoddy” investigation by, first the Delhi Police and then by the country’s premier Central Bureau of Investigation, which failed to find her son even after two years of his disappearance.
“I am disappointed but have not lost hope. I would advise those who may be gloating over this (court’s) decision because I will not relent,” Nafees said.

“There is no clue about my son’s whereabouts even after two years. Why has no action been taken against the Station House Officer of the Vasant Kunj North Police Station, who tried to mislead me when I first went there to file the complaint? Why do people become deaf and mute when it comes to Najeeb?

“I have full faith in the Indian Constitution… as our elders used to say that lie runs faster than the truth… however late, I will get justice,” she said.

She also spoke against the government, specifically against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, and accused it of pressuring the CBI, courts and the police for the shoddy work and adverse verdict.

“I am not scared of anyone. BJP will see its rout soon. This won’t last long. I also appeal to all those mothers whose sons are persecuted and killed in encounters to come and stand by me, and I will stand by them,” she said.

She also demanded resignation of CBI Director Alok Verma, criticising him for “bringing disgrace to the country”.

The Delhi High Court had earlier in the day allowed the CBI plea seeking permission to file its closure report into the disappearance of Ahmed, an M.Sc. student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who was reported missing from Delhi in October 2016.

Earlier, on court’s direction the case was transferred from Delhi Police to the CBI on Nafees’ plea.

Nafees had sought a Special Investigation Team (SIT) — comprising non-CBI officers — to further probe her son’s disappearance from a JNU hostel in the intervening night of October 14-15.

But the court declined the plea to form an SIT and monitor its work.

According to witnesses, Ahmed was beaten up by a mob of students on the night of October 15 in Mahi-Mandvi Hostel, where he lived. After the brawl, Ahmed disappeared the same night.

His mother, supported by students’ union of JNU and other universities, will take out a protest march from Mandi House to Parliament Street on October 15 against the authorities’ failure to locate Najeeb.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

The post ‘Disappointed, but have not lost hope,’ says Najeeb’s mother appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
Fatima had, with the help of the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), sued the publications for a whopping Rs 2.2 crores. But just as the case came up for hearing on September 14, the defamation case file went missing from Metropolitan Magistrate Ambika Singh’s registry at the Patiala House Court. This prompted Fatima Nafees to issue the following press release:

****************************************** 
Missing Student, Missing File!
 
September 14, 2018
 
The criminal defamation case file of Fatima Nafees, mother of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, goes missing from Metropolitan Magistrate Ambika Singh’s registry in Patiala House Court! In a most shocking and brazen manner, the file itself has been removed from the court premises.
 
Fatima Nafees has filed this complaint against prominent media houses like Times Group and India Today Group as well as individuals such as ABVP activist Saurabh Sharma for defaming her son by maliciously alleging that he had joined an international terrorist organization despite no evidence and denial issued by the Delhi Police. In the second part of her statement which was to be recorded today, Fatima was to bring on record the role of India Today, Dilli Aaj Tak and of Saurabh Sharma. It is no coincidence that the file has gone “missing”.
 
The Times of India began the most malicious, derogatory, and defamatory campaign against Najeeb Ahmed on 21st March 2017 claiming that Najeeb was “watching inflammatory material on his laptop” and linked him with an international terrorist organisation. This communal and hate-filled propaganda was picked up by other news agencies, and widely circulated on social media.
 
The matter was listed for today after more than 3 months. When Fatima Nafees last recorded a part of her statement on 26th May 2018, she was narrating the background to this case about the disappearance of her son, and by the time she began to name the first accused, that is, Times of India, the judge abruptly asked her to stop. Only one of the 10 accused was named till then.
 
Even as the Delhi police was partisan and shielded the ABVP members who assaulted Najeeb, the CBI has surrendered to their political masters in the central government. To aid their efforts, certain sections of the media have run a malicious and communal propaganda. The only hope was to knock on the doors of the court. Tragically, seeking justice for Najeeb through legal means has also seen the brazen interference from the corridors of power.
 
The right-wing BJP government has interfered in this case from the first day to protect its ABVP members. Now it is in their interest to stop this defamation case from going to trial. It helps to perpetuate their polarising agenda as long as Najeeb and Fatima’s names are tainted with malicious and false suspicions.
 
When Mr Arun Jaitley filed a defamation case, the court wanted to finish the hearing in 3 months and the matter was listed every week. In the case of a marginalised person, somehow courts are not able to find dates to conduct the hearing on an urgent basis. Now even the file goes missing. Why such double standards for justice for the citizens of this country?
 
— Issued by Fatima Nafees  
******************************

The post Najeeb’s mother sues media houses for defaming son, file disappears from court! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
https://twitter.com/Shehla_Rashid/status/967962278661300224

 
Later she deleted the tweet with the lame excuse that the link she had tweeted was old, for which she was schooled yet again:
 
https://twitter.com/ShefVaidya/status/967972518953869312

 
Najeeb went missing from his room in the Mahi Mandvi Hostel, on the intervening night between Oct 13 and 14, 2016. The police could not explain his disappearance and even though the CBI was tasked with the investigation in 2017 at Najeeb’s mother Fatima’s behest, it has failed to track the missing young man. It was as if he vanished into thin air!
 
But it is not as if there is no starting point for the investigation. Multiple college students say that just the day before his disappearance, Najeeb was involved in a brawl with members of ABVP. After being berated by the Delhi High Court, the police pressed 600 personnel and sniffer dogs into service, but that was clearly too late as by then any trail Najeeb may have left behind, had gone cold. When the CBI took over the matter their lackadaisical attitude towards the investigation, failrue to make any heaadway despite multiple extentions, earned them the wrath of the Delhi High Court who accused the CBI of “complete lack of interest.”

Meanwhile, Najeeb’s mother was manhandled by the police and dragged away into a police vehicle when she was protesting against CBI’s slow progress in investigations on the first anniversary of his disappearance in Delhi.
 
As of today there has been no real progress in investigations and the campaign to malign the reputation of a missing young man, who cannot set the record straight for himself, continues even a fresh protests against the CBI are taking place.

The post Fake News spread to discredit Najeeb just hours before protest against ineffective CBI probe appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: Amir Rizvi

This is the story of Fatima Nafees, whose son Najeeb Ahmed, disappeared mysteriously from his university hostel in October 2016 and was never seen or heard from again. Najeeb was a pursuing a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology from New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was a sharp young man with what his mother hoped was a bright future. But one evening he ended up in a brawl with members of a student union affiliated with a prominent political party with an extreme right wing ideology. The very next day he went missing. His friends suspected foul play and Fatima started demanding an explanation about what happened to her son. But nobody seemed to have any answers. The police couldn’t explain what happened. It was almost as if he vanished into thin air!

The case was then handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), presumably the country’s most trusted investigative authority… and yet today, five months after the CBI took over, Najeeb’s whereabouts remain a mystery. Undeterred, Fatima keeps asking pertinent questions, demanding justice for her son. In fact, Fatima together with a few of Najeeb’s friends and human rights activists organised a peaceful protest against the CBI’s ineffective investigation, on the first anniversary (October 13-14, 2017) of his disappearance. “Kahaan hai mera beta? Kaun batayega mujhe,” (Where is my son? Who can tell me?), she kept asking over and over.

Read the Full Story on cjp.org.in

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Prime Minister Theresa May holds a meeting with her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on the second day of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China. Stefan Rousseau/PA Images.

Britain's recently elected Prime Minister Theresa May, post-Brexit, has chosen to visit India from November 6, her first foray outside Europe after taking office. She ought to have headed to Washington given Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with the United States but presumably thanks to the presidential election due on November 8 that was ruled out. However, why did she choose India as her first port of call outside of Europe even as her country is witness to a rising spate of racist attacks including against people of Indian and other southern Asian as well as Black and Coloured origins?

The former colony which is home to the second largest population – 1.2 billion, behind China's 1.4 billion – has been pursuing pro-big-business policies since the 1990s at least. And under the current government of Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, the country has been moving rapidly rightwards.

While domestic big business is being favoured with gifts of tax concessions and vast tracts of mineral-rich forests, mountains and land (seized from indigenous peoples), foreign domestic investment even in retail commerce is being encouraged by the very same party that previously criticised such moves while it was in the opposition.

Prime Minister May perhaps sees an opening and wants to engage with the Modi government in order to land some lucrative contracts, especially of the defence kind: much warmongering noises have been reverberating around New Delhi since an attack that left 17 soldiers dead at an army base in Uri in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Prime Minister May perhaps wants to engage with the Modi government in order to land some lucrative contracts, especially of the defence kind.

Given May’s track record thus far, especially in the face of increasing anti-immigrant sentiment in post-Brexit Britain, it is unlikely that she will raise thorny issues such as the massive human rights abuses taking place in many parts of India as also in Indian-occupied Kashmir in the north and Manipur to the northeast of India.  

The media contingent accompanying her ought to look beyond the May-Modi talks and report on what has befallen the country that preens itself as the “world’s largest democracy”.

In Kashmir alone since the anti-India uprising escalated following the killing of a militant named Burhan Wani in early July, more than 100 Kashmiri men, women and children have been killed by the Indian state. The forces’ use of pellet guns has caused massive injuries and left scores of people – including innocent children – blinded. As many as 15,000 people have been injured and 8,000 have been arrested.

In the capital itself, a young Muslim student named Najeeb Ahmed has been missing since October 15 from the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University but its authorities have made little effort, if any, in helping to trace the 27-year-old. Earlier this year, student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on trumped up charges of sedition, sparking protests from beyond India’s shores. Another ‘sedition’ accused is Professor S.A.R. Geelani, who had been teaching in a college under Delhi University. His crime: an address at the Press Club during which he spoke on the anniversary of the 9 February 2013 hanging of fellow-Kashmiri Afzal Guru – almost entirely wrongly convicted in connection with a mysterious attack on the Indian parliament in 2001.

In January, a brilliant Dalit PhD scholar at the Hyderabad Central University (in southern India) named Rohith Vemula committed suicide having faced months of hounding by the university authorities and a student wing linked to Prime Minister Modi’s party. Human rights groups refer to his death as institutional murder. Human rights groups refer to his death as institutional murder.

A little to the east of the capital, in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh state, a Muslim man was murdered in September on the suspicion that he stored beef (the cow being deemed sacred by Hindu fanatics) and when one of his assailants died a natural death in hospital recently, his body was covered with the national flag, Modi’s party members egging on the supporters of the attackers.

Just a few days ago, eight Muslims were killed by police in the central Indian state, Madhya Pradesh which is ruled by Modi’s BJP: extra-judicial executions or “encounters” as they are known in India, are quite rife, the National Human Rights Commission having noted that there were 206 such instances over the past year. In Manipur, to the east of India, there have been more than 1,500 “encounters” since the 1970s.   

Attacks on Dalits (members of oppressed castes) are a daily occurrence. ‘Cow vigilantes’ or Hindu fanatic hoodlums who attack Muslims and Dalits transporting meat – and not only of the cow – have been becoming increasingly brazen in their ways in many parts of India, especially in BJP-ruled states but also in others such as Karnataka, currently ruled by the Congress party.

Vast areas of mineral-rich central and east-central India have been rendered no-go zones for independent lawyers and journalists with police-raj prevailing and local Bar Associations and the media subject to police control.

May is set to end her India visit on November 8. Just the day after, unless wiser counsels prevail, the Modi regime’s bizarre order on a television channel, NDTV, to go off air for a day is to take effect: the government’s grouse is apparently that the outfit put out sensitive information about an alleged Pakistani attack on a military base in Pathankot in Punjab earlier this year. Never mind that other channels too had reported on the attack. But NDTV had earlier blotted its copybook by caving in unasked just a couple of weeks earlier when it interviewed a former Congress party minister named P. Chidambaram and then decided not to air it. Meanwhile, the Kashmir Reader remains banned.

But there certainly is resistance against Modi Raj. In fact, it is occasionally “in your face” even from the usually supine middle class: just a few days ago, when it was reported that The Indian Express, a major newspaper house, had invited Modi to present journalism awards, there were predictable expressions of consternation, which, however gave place to pleasant acknowledgements of the courage of a couple of journalists who used the occasion to signal dissent – senior journalist Akshaya Mukul refused to accept his award from Modi and Raj Kamal Jha, the newspaper’s own editor made pointed references to the need for reporters to question governments. It was similar to scholar Sunkanna Velpula’s refusal to accept his doctorate from Hyderabad Central University Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao Podile a few weeks ago in protest over the Rohith Vemula issue.

The media accompanying the British prime minister will not be able to question Modi as he does not face unscripted, freewheeling interviews or press conferences. His ministers and party leaders are also kept on a tight leash. The British reporters have their work cut out seeking other sources if they want to report on the reality of India under Modi.

(N. Jayaram is a journalist now based in Bangalore after more than 23 years in East Asia (mainly Hong Kong and Beijing) and 11 years in New Delhi. He was with the Press Trust of India news agency for 15 years and Agence France-Presse for 11 years and is currently engaged in editing and translating for NGOs and academic institutions).

(This article was first published on openDemocracyIndia.
 

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