by JAWED NAQVI
(from left to right) Arun Shourie, Fali Nariman, Prannoy Roy (NDTV founder), and H K Dua at Press Club of India Friday PHOTO/Oinam Anand/The Indian Express
THERE are not too many media houses left in India that will stand up to Prime Minister Modi’s insidious dismantling of freedoms. Universities are being destroyed by pseudo nationalist bigots, the judiciary is being subverted — how else would a high court judge feel emboldened to pontificate that peacocks are India’s national birds because they live a celibate life and have asexual reproduction? Parliament is being undermined and ordinary people are getting pitted against each other in the name of religion and caste, where Dalits are being torn away from each other to be co-opted as Hindutva’s useful fodder against their own.
It is not surprising, therefore, that raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have been launched against NDTV founder Prannoy Roy and cases have been filed for alleged defaulting on loans his company took from a private bank. NDTV is one of a handful of channels that has the potential to help stall a Hindutva victory in 2019, not unlike the mobile phone-wielding journalist who helped Turkey’s Erdogan avert a military coup.
There is no reason to disbelieve Roy’s claim that the raids are politically motivated. CBI — which was conceived as a neutral investigating body like the FBI — is being unleashed on Modi’s most potent political adversaries, not least being Lalu Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, several southern parties and, of course, Arvind Kejriwal.
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