Why Modi’s Government Is Targeting Booker Prize Winner Arundhati Roy
As in his previous two terms, suppression of free speech continues in Modi’s third term, now expanded to YouTube channels
(Photo: Arundhati Roy, Creative Commons.)
June 23, 2024
Some political pundits were expecting Narendra Modi to be a moderate in his third five-year term as Prime Minister since his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is dependent on allied parties. Instead, within five days of taking office, Modi’s government signaled a warning to media critics in India as well in the West.
On June 14, judicial authorities in Delhi were asked to prosecute Arundhati Roy under a stringent anti-terrorism law, for a speech she made on Kashmir 14 years ago. Under the law, Roy, 62, an author, can be imprisoned for years without charges.
The case against Roy “is the latest in a series of similar actions taken against writers, poets, journalists, academics, and activists by Indian authorities…with some individuals spending years in jail,” Karin Karlekar, an official of PEN America, said in a statement. PEN is a New York based organization which champions the freedom to write and seeks to defend the liberties that make it possible.
At a conference in 2010, Roy said “Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact. Even the Indian government has accepted this.”
Roy was criticized in India for being disloyal to the country and there were protests outside her home in New Delhi. In defense, Roy wrote, “what I say comes from love and pride…it comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians... Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds."
Roy is best known for her novel The God of Small Things (1997) which won the Man Booker Prize. In 2017 she published another novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. She is the author of several politically oriented non-fiction books. Roy is also active in environmental and human rights causes.
By launching a case against a globally renowned author like Roy, Modi’s government is apparently sending a clear message to journalists, academics, civil rights activists and others in India that, as in his previous two terms, they risk being imprisoned for criticizing actions of the government and the BJP and its leaders.
(This Dhruv Rathee video in Hindi on YouTube has gotten more than 31 million views)
Last month, prosecutors began investigations against three journalists from Caravan, a magazine. In 2020, while covering a story in Delhi, the journalists were subjected to communal slurs and threatened with murder by a mob led by a local BJP leader, according to Caravan.
The Caravan journalists filed a complaint with the police. But now, four years later, while their complaint has not been investigated, the journalists themselves face an investigation. “The allegations in the (investigation)are absolutely false and fabricated,” Caravan says in a statement on its site.
Modi’s government also continues to make it difficult for foreign journalists to operate in India. In April, for instance, Avani Dias, South Asia bureau chief of Australia’s ABC News, was told a routine visa extension would be denied by the Indian government, days after it blocked her reporting on YouTube in the country.
A day before she was to leave India, Dias was given the visa, following lobbying by Australian government officials. "It felt too difficult to do my job in India…the government wouldn't even give me the passes I need to cover the election," Dias said in an episode of her podcast, Looking for Modi. "It's by design. The Narendra Modi government has made me feel so uncomfortable that we decided to leave," Dias added.
Though labelled invincible by the major media outlets in India and many in the West, in this year’s national parliamentary elections, as in 2014 and 2019, Modi was elected Prime Minister even though his BJP secured only about a third of the total votes; including less than half of the Hindu votes. In this year’s election, the BJP was reduced to a minority, forcing Modi to depend on the support of two regional parties to form a government. The BJP lost its majority due to a united opposition, led by the Congress Party, which was supported by Hindus from some of the farmer and low castes as well as Muslims.
The BJP is apparently planning to use the case against Roy for political ends. The case was launched by the Congress Party led government, which ruled India in 2010. Modi’s government may thus say that it is merely following through on a legal action initiated by the Congress Party.
More important, Kashmir’s population is divided among Hindus and Muslims. Both India and Pakistan, neighbors and nuclear armed-rivals, claim Kashmir and fought two wars over it. Modi’s BJP will likely use Roy’s case to try to inflame Hindu Muslim tensions to appeal to Hindu voters.
The Congress Party, while demanding restoration of media freedom and civil liberties, will likely remain silent on the case against Roy. This is because if it supports Roy, it risks losing alienating some Hindus, including from among its coalition of opposition parties.
(This Ravish Kumar Hindi video on YouTube has gotten more than 5.5 million views.)
The big families who own major media outlets in India are aligned with the BJP, notes Reporters Without Borders, a Paris based media watchdog. Seeking unbiased news during this year’s national election campaign, millions of voters switched to viewing independent channels in Hindi and other Indian languages on YouTube.
But in April, as the national election campaign got underway, several independent channels were blocked or demonetized, barred from collecting ad revenues, by YouTube under pressure from Modi’s government, according to a Reuters Institute report. However, channels run by the BJP and its supporters remain on YouTube despite propagating religious hatred and other bigotry.
Among those blocked was National Dastak, a Hindi channel with roughly 10 million subscribers. YouTube sent an email saying India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had directed a blocking of the channel. No explanations were offered. “The notice itself is confidential so we are unable to share it with you at this time,” the email read, Reuters reported.
it is likely that the Modi government will continue to try to block and de-monetize independent news channels on YouTube as well as launch legal cases against their creators. Many such channels are in Hindi and other Indian languages and reach millions of Indian voters, unlike the English language media. Ravesh Kumar, for instance, has more than 11 million subscribers for his news channel on YouTube in Bhojpuri, a Hindi dialect. Dhruv Rathee has nearly 11 million subscribers for his Hindi channel. His video, Reality of Narendra Modi How Indians Were Fooled, posted last month, has gotten 37 million views so far.
https://globalindiantimes.substack.com/p/india-media
Karin Karlekar, an official of PEN America, said in a statement, “Given her significant international stature, the case against Roy highlights our deep concern for free speech in India, especially as Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins his third term.”
In a post on X, which has gotten over one million views, Canadian writer and activist Naomi Klein stated that Modi has no idea what he “will unleash by pursuing this political prosecution to silence your most eloquent critic. (Roy) is a hero to millions and we see you."