In a concerted effort to regain lost ground in the background of farmer agitation and discontent, the Centre has decided to color-code the journalists by taking the advice and assistance of “right-wing parties” from other countries to secure its constituents from eroding. The journalists will be marked as per their proximity to the members of the ruling dispensation thus improving the government’s communication strategy.
The 97-page document which was accessed by Caravan highlights that most of the ministers who were part of the empowered group of ministers came together in flagging the negative coverage of the government on online and international news platforms asking for journalists to share the government’s line of thought while reporting on issues by discounting facts from fiction.
The past few months have been demoralizing for Narendra Modi’s right-wing Hindu Nationalist government right from dealing with the Corona pandemic or tackling the farmers sitting on the borders of Delhi. This government has been high-handed on criticism and dissent cracking upon those it sees as adversary and opponent.
The arrest of a twenty-one-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi is a case in point reflecting on how this government has selectively hounded academicians and activists from speaking truth to power targeting all those contesting its autocracy, authority, and legitimacy.
Accommodation with diversity and differences inviting wrath by the state one has to brave and bold enough to withstand the ruthlessness of the Machiavellian state in guarding their rights and duties. Around a time when all our institutions are being intimidated, threatened, seized, and silenced- ED, CBI, Judiciary, and Media is gradually dying down.