Bihar’s silenced voters, India’s gagged press: The twin threats to Indian democracy

 Broken News

Published in Newslaundry on August 28, 2025

Link: https://www.newslaundry.com/2025/08/28/bihars-silenced-voters-indias-gagged-press-the-twin-threats-to-indian-democracy

The Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, probably expected that his August 18 press conference would settle the controversy surrounding the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and Rahul Gandhi’s “vote chori” charge. He was wrong. This is a story that has refused to die, notwithstanding Trump’s tariffs, or even the tragic floods in parts of India.  

In fact, it should not die as it is, by a long measure, one of the most important stories that any self-respecting media organisation needs to investigate. For it is more than evident now that the state of our electoral rolls, as exposed by the SIR in Bihar and subsequent media exposes, raises many important questions about our electoral system and our democracy.  

So far, only one mainstream newspaper, The Indian Express, has put its heft behind investigating the many lacunae in the SIR process in Bihar. More granular details have emerged from the stories done by independent platforms and journalists. 

Here are links to several important investigations carried by independent platforms, with several of them collaborating and pooling their resources. 

Journalist Ajit Anjum has assiduously followed up on people declared as dead in the list of 65 lakh people who have been struck off the electoral rolls. So has Saurabh Shukla of The Red Mike. 

The women and men declared dead are very much alive, as you will see in these reports. The common thread that runs through them is that these are poor people who are not even aware that the one right they have, to vote, has been denied to them because some official has decided they are dead. 

Others who have pursued this story include independent news platforms like Reporters’ Collective.   

While Reporters’ Collective found that an incredible 80,000 voters had been clustered together at addresses where 20 or more of them were supposed to be living in just three constituencies that they investigated, the latest report in Newslaundry goes further to show that even in places where people live separately according to their caste or religion, over 100 voters belonging to different castes and religions are shown as living in the same house.

For readers who would have missed much of the action because of the neglect of this story by mainstream media, it is worth taking the time to read these detailed reports and watch the videos. They tell us not only about the way this particular exercise is being conducted in Bihar but the reality of India, where despite boasts of “digital India” and elimination of poverty, millions of poor people do not have the proof that is demanded of them to establish that they exist.  

Interestingly, the latest story in the series in The Indian Express on SIR in Bihar tells us that out of 36 assembly constituencies in three districts, in 25 of them, the number of voters whose names have been deleted exceeds the margin by which the candidate elected won. Of these 25 seats, the governing alliance of the BJP and JD(U) won 18 seats. The story also shows through its data that women have been particularly disadvantaged. 

These stories graphically illustrate a very real problem we are facing, one that cannot be obfuscated the way the CEC attempted to do in his press conference. And as I have argued earlier, it is a legitimate story that the media, in a democracy, must pursue. 

Another development that has drawn attention to the importance of independent media is the series of cases filed against three prominent independent journalists, Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire, Karan Thapar, whose weekly interview programme is widely watched, and Abhisar Sarma, a former mainstream TV anchor who now runs his own YouTube news channel. 

All three have had cases filed against them in Assam, a state governed by the BJP. And at least two of the people filing these cases are affiliated to the BJP or ABVP (read here).

This development tells us two things. One, that even if the government might dismiss these independent news platforms as being limited in their reach, it apparently is concerned about their reporting. Otherwise why bother to charge them. 

The second point this development illustrates is the strategy this government is following with impunity: label journalists who question as “anti-national”, or “urban Naxals” or “terrorists sympathiser” and then file cases against them, or even jail them as in Kashmir. 

Incidentally, Israel follows a part of the same strategy. It also labels Palestinian journalists as Hamas operatives. It’s another thing that it even proceeds to eliminate them in targeted attacks. Most recently, five Palestinian journalists were killed even as they were reporting. 

There will be long-term consequences for freedom of speech, and the media, in India if this strategy being used by the government is not challenged and checked. The most persuasive argument on this has been made by retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Madan Lokur in an op-ed in The Hindu.

Justice Lokur points out that this government has weaponised a provision in the law that was supposed to have replaced the previous colonial sedition law. He suggests that Section 152 in the BNS is nothing more than sedition in “sheep’s clothing”, and that while the earlier law had a chilling effect on freedom of speech, the new provision has a “freezing effect”. 

Going further, he spells out what the deliberate misuse of this provision means for the future of freedom of speech in India: 

“Try and imagine any journalist or anybody in a panel discussion on television or otherwise having the courage to be critical of anything to do with any policy of the Government of India. Somebody can misinterpret it and bring national security into play, and the police can take cognisance and summon the alleged offender. Freedom of speech can be bulldozed or demolished because one individual out of a billion anywhere in the country believes (without evidence) that national security is in danger or that the armed forces are demoralised or that dissent is ‘strategic subversion’ undermining the sovereignty and the integrity of India.” (Emphasis added)

This then is the future we are looking at in India as far as freedom of the press is concerned. 

What happens when a journalist’s press card becomes a tool to target them?

 Broken News

Published in Newslaundry on April 14, 2022

Link: https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/04/14/what-happens-when-a-journalists-press-card-becomes-a-tool-to-target-them

In the “new India” being manufactured, where men with swords dance menacingly in front of mosques during a religious festival, being a journalist has become increasingly hazardous.

Not for all journalists, of course. If you choose to stay in your offices or studios, or remain strictly within the boundaries of “acceptable journalism” set out by the owners of your media organisation or the current dispensation, there is no danger. You are safe. You might even prosper.

But if you, as a journalist, believe you are tasked to step out, record and report what is going on in this country, then you have to watch your back. Your press card – once considered adequate to give you access and keep you safe – does not add up to much in certain situations. In fact, it is that very press card that can make you a target. Your name, the marker of your identity, is on that card.

This is what seven journalists, who had set out to cover a Hindu Mahapanchayat in Delhi’s Burari on April 3, realised. The mob that attacked them selectively targeted the Muslims amongst them.

Given all else happening in the country right now – with daily reports of poor Muslim vendors being attacked in different states, and of the bulldozer replacing any notion of justice in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh – this particular incident might be relegated to a footnote in history. But it should not be forgotten. And it should be recognised for what it represents – a serious denting of the already beleaguered state of a free and independent media in India.

This particular incident might be relegated to a footnote in history. But it should not be forgotten. And it should be recognised for what it represents.

To recount briefly, Meer Faisal from Hindustan Gazette, freelancer Mohammad Meherbaan,Arbab Ali reporting for Article14, Meghnad Bose from Quint, Shivangi Saxena and Rounak Bhat from Newslaundry, and a journalist who did not want to be identified, went to report on the Mahapanchayat. Instead of being allowed to do their jobs, the crowd at the meeting turned on them and assaulted some of them. For more details, read this, this and this. In this last report, Arbab Ali from Article14 says that despite the police finally intervening, “the mob started hitting us in front of them. They were saying that ‘don’t give these two to the policemen, just kill them. These are jihadis, they are mullahs’.”

Shivangi Saxena, the only woman journalist present, had also reported on a hate speech incident at Jantar Mantar last August that led to some arrests. In a series of tweets, she writes about how one of the Mahapanchayat organisers mentioned her name from the stage, while the prime accused in the Jantar Mantar incident recognised her and came up to her.

More worryingly, she states in this tweet:

As Saxena emphasises, the police did nothing to stop the attack and intervened only much later. While some of these journalists filed FIRs, the police have ironically also filed complaints, including one against Meer Faisal who shared his experiences on social media and in a report for Article14.

So, why should this worry us, not just journalists, but anyone who believes that integral to press freedom is the ability of journalists to step out and report without fearing for their lives?

It should be noted that the attack on April 3 was unprovoked. It was aimed at sending a message. Given the events of the last two weeks in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP, it is evident that Muslim journalists are going to be as much of a target as the ordinary Muslims who have been attacked in these states by fanatical mobs. A press card will not be enough to spare them.

This is not the first time journalists have been attacked by right-wing mobs. Some might remember the way those covering the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, including some women journalists, were attacked by the frenzied mob of kar sevaks.

This article in Mint, which reminds us of that day, states: “Reporters and cameramen with experience of covering riots say it was the first time that the media was at the receiving end of the right-wing frenzy. Upendra Pandey who was covering Ayodhya for Dainik Jagran newspaper, remembers that the photographer for Hindi daily Rashtriya Sahara was so badly hurt that he had to undergo multiple surgeries and was bedridden for eight months.”

Even at that time, Muslim journalists were especially afraid. Sajeda Momin was the UP correspondent for the Telegraph. In this report in Newslaundry, she recounts how she had to hide her Muslim identity by asking her colleagues to refer to her as Sujata Menon. To quote from the article:

“Momin says reporting on the demolition was tremendously difficult. In a bid to avoid documentation, journalists’ cameras were taken away. ‘Our cameras and reels were taken away. We were not allowed to take out our pens and papers to even take notes. They didn’t want any documentation. In fact, they searched through our bags.’”

Remember that this was a time when there were no 24x7 news channels or mobile phones. The principal coverage was by photographers and reporters working with the print media and journalists from two video magazines, Newstrack and Eyewitness. Mritunjay Kumar Jha, who was a reporter with Newstrack, told Mint: “In Ayodhya, I am confident that they wanted to be sure that no one had any photographic evidence.”

In 1992, although Muslim journalists like Momin were afraid, any journalist with a camera, or even a notebook was targeted. This time, it is evident that Muslim journalists are being specifically targeted.

Fortunately, the video footage by Newstrack was successfully hidden and saved from the mob. As a result, today it remains an important and vivid testimony of the frenzy and destruction that took place in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 and those responsible for it.

In 1992, although Muslim journalists like Momin were afraid, any journalist with a camera, or even a notebook was targeted. This time, it is evident that Muslim journalists are being specifically targeted.

Despite April 3, it is commendable that journalists like Meer Faisal and others continue to document and report the atrocities taking place. Although some sections of mainstream media are also reporting these developments, it is not enough. One has to note that the Mahapanchayat of April 3, where these journalists were attacked, was not covered by any prominent news organisation.

If we need a record in future about the slippery slope of sectarian violence down which this country is rapidly sliding, it will be because of the determined reporting by these young reporters, despite the risks they face.

The greater worry is the state's silence and the abdication of its duty to protect journalists and allow them to function. There has been absolutely no word from anyone senior in government condemning what happened on April 3. Would journalists be wrong then to conclude that the message from the mob, to silence independent media, has the implicit support of the governing dispensation?