The brutal murder of journalist Vikram Joshi, In Ghaziabad, part of NCR speaks voluminous for " poor law and order" in India's biggest state- Uttar Pradesh, currently governed by saffron party and its saffron chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
Criminals in UP can shoot down anyone including police , can kidnap girls, harass and rape them at will.The corrupt and highly inefficient and politicized police is always hand-in-glove with criminals. And murder of journalist Joshi highlights the warped and in- efficacious working of UP police.
The only fault of the journalist was that he dared to protest against the harassing of his niece by criminals. They were harassing her for the last 2-3 years. According to the reports, a fight had started between the criminals and the Vikram’s family after the accused started harassing Joshi’s niece. A probe was initiated after the complaint filed by Vikram on 16th July on the fact that no action was taken on the previous complaint. Worst,the station-in-charge tried to twist the facts.
The first complaint was filed around one and a half years ago. The police never took any action against the miscreants. Vikram had filed the second complaint on 16th July. Despite this no action was taken.
As such, the criminals were goaded and they fired at him indiscriminately in presence of his two daughters. corrupt police is solely responsible for the murder of a journalist. And Yogi govt's silence over the murder has added salt to victim's family deep wounds. Vikram’s sister has made serious allegations against the local police station in charge alleging he was involved in the planning of his brother’s murder.
Journalists in India are highly prone not only to criminals' revenge but also to ruling class 'hate and renegadation'. Since 1992, 48 journalists in India have been killed and 34 were targeted for murder. Of the 34 murders, 32 were murdered with “complete impunity,” according to the CPJ database. In 23 years, only that of Midday’s Jyotirmoy Dey, has been prosecuted and the murderers sentenced, according to reports.
India, ranked 14th on the list with 18 murders of journalists, has been listed on the Index 11 times among worst press freedom countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Iraq, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria, who vilify journalist and even threaten them physical reprisal. It is listed 138th on its World Press Freedom Index in 2018,
Earlier in March when Kearla Media One was blocked by GOI Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.New York Times commented," Press freedom in India is under threat under Modi regime".
Earlier, In July 2018, ABP news channel had to off air its popular news program after it was threatened by IB minister to block the channel. In fact, it was blocked for sometime to pressurize it.
Later, the veteran news anchor Punya Prasun Bajpai wrote on July 14, 2018, "the proprietor-cum-editor-in-chief of the national news channel ABP, owned by the Ananda Bazaar Patrika Group, had a conversation with me along these lines:
Proprietor: “Can you refrain from mentioning the name of Prime Minister Modi [in your programme]? Mention the names of his ministers by all means; point out anything amiss in a government policy if you want to, even name the minister of the concerned ministry. Just don’t refer to Prime Minister Modi anywhere.”
I replied: But when Prime Minister Modi himself announces every government scheme, involves himself in the work of every ministry; and when every minister utters the name of Prime Minister Modi every time s/he mentions any scheme or government policy, how is it possible for us to not take Modi’s name?
To put it another way, what is the predicament due to which the proprietors of ABP News were being pressured to keep the name and image of the prime minister off the screen? In fact, for the last four years under the Modi government, the way everything revolved solely around Modi; and, in a country like India, the way news channels projected him to the exclusion of all others, what happened was that increasingly, the image of the prime minister and his speeches and utterances, as absorbed by viewers, became a sort of an addiction. Its impact was such that Prime Minister Modi became a necessity for the TRP ratings of news channels.
India’s free press has played a crucial role in protecting this country’s democracy since its independence from Britain in 1947. But Since Mr. Modi came to power in 2014, his government has tried to control the country’s news media, especially the airwaves, like no other prime minister in decades. Mr. Modi has shrewdly cultivated the media to build a cult of personality that portrays him as the nation’s selfless savior.
At the same time, senior government officials have been berating editors, cutting off advertising, ordering tax investigations — ostensibly to transform India from a tolerant, religiously diverse country into an assertively Hindu one.
The murder of journalist Joshi may not be a part of this game plan but it will certainly work as deterrent to free press.
(Chander Sharma)