New Delhi, March 10, 2023 (PPI-OT): Service An opinion piece published by The New York Times on curbs on the freedom of press in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir has unnerved a minister in the Modi-led Indian govt so much so that he has termed the America’s highly rated newspaper having worldwide influence and readership as an agenda-driven media outlet. In the opinion piece titled “Modi’s Final Assault on India’s Press Freedom Has Begun” and written by Anuradha Bhasin, a highly reputed IIOJK-based journalist and the executive editor of The Kashmir Times, the author has described in detail how Modi’s repressive media policies are destroying Kashmiri journalism, intimidating media outlets into serving as government mouthpieces and creating an information vacuum in the disputed region of about 13 million people.
Bhasin further writes, “Modi is taking steps that could replicate this disturbing model on a national [India-wide] scale. His Hindu-chauvinist movement, which has normalized intolerance and violence against Indian Muslims, has already put severe pressure on India’s once-rambunctious press, with journalists surveilled and jailed, and the government using strong-arm tactics against media outlets to ensure favourable coverage”.
Citing the draft amendments to digital media guidelines introduced in January this year by the Modi regime, the author says that the same would essentially allow the Indian government to block any content it doesn’t like. In other words, she added, the rest of India may end up looking a lot like Kashmir. Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur reacting to the NYT op-ed on Friday claimed on Twitter, “New York Times’ so-called opinion piece on freedom of press in Kashmir is mischievous and fictitious, published with a sole motive to spread a propaganda about India”.
“We don’t need to learn grammar of democracy from such agenda driven media,” he said, adding, “Indians will not allow such mind-sets to run their decisive agenda on India soil”. Pertinently, after failing to crush the freedom sentiments of the people of IIOJK through strong-arm tactics and seeing the Kashmir dispute getting more attention on the world stage, the BJP-led Hindutva government and its ministers are, now and then, resorting to lies, false narratives and even threats and offensive language to hide its failures and divert public attention from real issues in India.
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