Shinde gives away Congress plan to crush media
Given Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde's record of putting his foot in the mouth, his political gaffes now neither come as a surprise nor do they deserve any attention in the usual course. Yet, even by the low standards set by the Union Minister for Home Affairs himself, his recent remarks against the media cannot be brushed under the carpet. On Sunday, Mr Shinde alleged that “certain section of the electronic media has opened a front against us (the Congress-led UPA regime)” and then threatened to “crush these elements”. In doing so, he not only pitted the country's free Press against the Government — ideally, on the same page in their service to the nation — but also made clear that in the ensuing battle, the might of the state will conquer the media. It is hard to imagine a clearer threat to Press freedom. On Tuesday, Mr Shinde sought to blunt his threat by claiming that he was not referring to “journalism” but targeting social media. Apart from the fact that this exposed his utter lack of understanding of how the dynamics of traditional and new media have evolved in this age of communication technology, it also does nothing in terms of damage control. Mr Shinde merely replaced his gag order on the Press with a wider threat against free speech.
But this is not all. Mr Shinde's initial comment that his media conspiracy theories were based on inputs from the “intelligence wing” is equally disturbing. It indicates that the Government may be using intelligence agencies to spy on the media, in particular, and the public, in general. This fuels suspicions of large-scale state surveillance of the kind that is characteristic of an Orwellian society but has no place in a democratic republic which guarantees individual rights and freedoms. Moreover, Mr Shinde's efforts to justify this by raising the ‘national security' flag are not just deceitful but devious. He claims that his statements referred to mischievous content on social media that led to attacks on North-easterners. First, these attacks happened in 2012 whereas Mr Shinde was referring to events in the “last three or four months”. Second, illegal mass surveillance can never be the state's response to a law and order problem. While there is no denying that anti-social elements have used social media to further vested interests — be it during the 2012 exodus or the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots — and that these must be contained, the Government cannot resort to fear-mongering and muzzle free speech in the name of safeguarding public interest.
Unfortunately, the Congress has a long history of doing this. In the recent past, Mr Shinde's Cabinet colleague Kapil Sibal sought to censor the Internet (to purge jokes about his party leaders) while the UPA Government issued a stern media directive after Independence Day last year regarding coverage of the Prime Minister's speech. The year before that, a close aide of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi sought to introduce the draconian Print and Electronic Media Standards and Regulation Bill. Previously, it was the Congress Government of Indira Gandhi that imposed Emergency and brought upon the darkest phase of Indian democracy. Finally, it was Jawaharlal Nehru who took the first step to censorship with his First Amendment that put restrictions on free speech.