New Delhi, Avani Dias, the South Asia correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), has been forced to leave India due to what she describes as growing intimidation and bureaucratic interference under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Dias, who had been based in Delhi since January 2022, left the country abruptly after the Indian government denied her visa extension.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Dias returned to Australia after the Modi government imposed numerous obstacles, including blocking her access to events, issuing takedown notices for her news stories on YouTube, and ultimately refusing her standard visa renewal. “Last week, I had to leave India abruptly,” Dias wrote on X, noting that the Modi government told her that her visa extension would be denied due to her reporting crossing a line.
In her podcast “Looking for Modi,” Dias revealed that her visa renewal was blocked after the Indian government issued a takedown notice to YouTube for an episode of “Foreign Correspondent,” ABC’s flagship international news program, which she reported. The episode explored the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh Khalistani leader in Canada last year, an incident attributed by Canadian authorities to Indian state operatives.
A ministry official informed Dias that her visa extension would be denied because of the Nijjar story, claiming it “had gone too far.” Dias expressed her frustration in her podcast, stating that it was becoming increasingly difficult to do her job in India due to the lack of access to public events organized by Modi’s party. “The Narendra Modi government has made me feel so uncomfortable that we decided to leave,” she said.
Dias mentioned that she and her colleagues from other publications faced similar challenges throughout their tenure in India, experiencing an “unease” over potential backlash from the government. Since Modi took office in 2014, foreign correspondents in India have faced escalating pressures, including shorter visas after publishing stories critical of the government, and reprimands from government figures for negative coverage.
The case of Avani Dias underscores the broader issue of press freedom in India and the growing constraints on foreign journalists attempting to report on sensitive issues. The incident raises concerns about India’s commitment to freedom of the press and the challenges faced by journalists working under restrictive conditions.