An assessment of the anti-Modi media
By Justice Katju
I would like to begin this article by hailing, applauding, saluting, honoring, and acclaiming the brave, courageous, valiant, heroic, lionhearted, fearless, defiant, fight put up against the autocratic Narendra Modi dictatorship, undaunted by all odds, and undismayed by the fulll might of the whole state machinery pitted against them, by many of our social media journalists.
Among those whom I would specially like to name are Ravish Kumar, Ajit Anjum, Abhisar Sharma, Rajdeep Sardesai, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Neelu Vyas, Karan Thapar, Dhruv Rathee, Disha Ravi, Siddique Kappan, PP Bajpai, Rana Ayyub, and many more.
Throughout Modi’s tenure as Prime Minister a variety of tactics were used to target and silence his critics, including using Israeli Pegasus spyware to snoop on journalists, opposition politicians, and activists. Some were even jailed. Yet, despite these dirty tricks and harassment these brave journalists did not give up the fight for democracy and the truth.
However, having said this, I am constrained to say something which may sound unpleasant and unpalatable to them, but must be said : there is no depth in their thinking, and they are superficial. This I say not to disparage, denigrate or belittle them, but to help them to do deeper thinking and analysis.
These journalists only look at the twists and turns Indian politics is presently taking, e.g. what will Naidu and Nitish Kumar do next,
who will get the Speaker’s post, what will Shinde, Praful Patel and Ajit Pawar do ? What will Mamata Banerji do ? Will Andhra
Pradesh and Bihar get special status, etc etc.
But they never go into the question I highlighted in this article, namely how does all this affect the common man ?
https://justicekatju.com/the-post-indian-parliamentary-elections-scenario-446702b1d3cb
Will the massive problems of poverty, unemployment, child malnourishment ( every second child in India is malnourished, acording to Global Hunger Index ), skyrocketing prices of essential commodities like food, fuel, etc and the almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education, be solved if the opposition INDIA alliance comes to power ? What specific solution does Rahul Gandhi have to these problems, or does he only utter platitudes and homilies like ‘nafrat ke bazaar mein mohabbat ki dukaan’ ?
And finally, can our massive socio-economic problems be solved within the framework of parliamentary democracy, or does it require a historical people’s struggle and revolution, as I have contended
https://indicanews.com/the-mighty-historical-struggle-ahead-for-the-indian-subcontinent/
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-a-call-to-indian-patriots/
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-the-coming-great-revolution-in-india/
https://justicekatju.com/on-the-ideological-revolution-india-is-undergoing-a11ee2652efe
These are questions the journalists I have named do not even ask, far less answering them. It is high time they start doing so.
Markandey Katju is an Indian jurist and former judge of Supreme Court of India who served as chairman for the Press Council of India from 2011 to 2014.
He regularly writes blog at https://justicekatju.blogspot.com/
