Against the backdrop of the recent Aadhar details leak case and subsequent police action, the Congress on Monday attacked the Centre saying during the last three years an atmosphere of fear, terror and that of intimidation has been systematically created by the Modi-led NDA Government.
Talking about the recent Aadhar details leak case, where case has been registered against the journalist and news organization that exposed it, the Congress demanded that the Centre need to withdraw the FIR unilaterally.
To a question that the Centre said the FIR is against unknown people, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said the Minister does not seem to have read the FIR or may be his reading of the FIR is extremely selective and he chooses to skip over the names.
“To the best of our understanding not only journalists are named, but the news organization has also been named in the FIR. So, not only is that an attack on individual journalists, it is an attack on the Institution per se and so, therefore, if the Minister is not shedding crocodile tears because he has waxed eloquent about motherhood and apple pie that this Government believes in the freedom of speech and expression believes in the freedom of the press then the true test of that is that the FIR must be unilaterally withdrawn by the UIDAI,” Tewari said.
The main opposition party also reminded as how the creative community of India like artists, writers and authors had launched a movement which was colloquially labeled by the media as ‘Award Wapsi Movement’.
The former union minister said there have been systematic assaults on journalists and an atmosphere of fear has been created or such an atmosphere of violence has been created that dissenting journalists have even been put to death.
“Media organization which dared to speak truth to power have been systematically hounded and targeted. A prestigious English news channel was raided, a news website has been subjected to systematic coercion and intimidation,” Tewari said.