NDTV ban: It isn't Emergency because PM Modi hasn't said so
India has two prime ministers, one is the highly misunderstood BJP leader and assumed face of Hindutva politics, Shri Narendra Modiji, and the other is the "tweet" Prime Minister @narendramodi.
While one keeps quiet not knowing what to say in difficult moments, the other speaks volumes in 140 characters. While the first one goes around the country and the world belligerently speaking his heart out, the other clandestinely speaks his mind.
It is devious how the country has been led to believe that the two prime ministers of India are one and the same. They are not - because while the former, more visible prime minister, can be seen and heard but never questioned, the "tweet" prime minister can remain silent, whether questioned or not.
Now there has been a recent occurrence on which both the prime ministers are silent. The former cannot be questioned because the matter is too far below his gaze of benevolence and the latter will tweet if and when the moment or mood is of relevance.
I speak of the impending day ban on NDTV India.
The news broke, significantly, a day after the prime minister was seen at a journalism award ceremony explaining to the fourth estate the good and bad of Emergency - the stupid decision by a former prime minister to promulgate a declaration signed by the President of the country telling the people of India that their liberties stand curtailed and that individual freedom as free speech stands suspended.
From the current prime minister's speech, it became abundantly clear that he is of the firm belief that no such stupid state of Emergency is in force in India at the moment.
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| If media needs to be gagged, it must be because Narendra Modi wants it to be so. (Photo: NDTV/Screengrab) |
Everyone knows that post the massive mandate of 2014, all good that happens in India happens in the name of the prime minister himself. So it should be safe to believe, without being aggressively trolled, that the few hiccups of bad must also be attributed to the honourable gentleman. For instance, if media needs to be gagged, it must be because Narendra Modi wants it to be so.
If we take our minds back to the gory days, or glory days depending on the views of the readership, post Godhra – Star News run by NDTV had been blacked out in the state of Gujarat. Chief minister Narendra Modi justified the ban saying: "I blacked out one channel because of the provocative reporting methods used. Traditionally, the print media has used its own methods of self-censorship not to mention the names of communities while reporting riots. If every half an hour names of communities are going to be mentioned, without any substantiation or any attribution, it inflames the situation instead of allaying it. It is not difficult to see what impact it will have."
Did anyone doubt the chief minister's noble action then?
Some did, but they are who we now call the pseudo-intellectual leftist liberalist and we know these dodgy people are all anti-nationals, disruptive to the process of nation building. Anyway, so why should anyone doubt the intentions of the responsible Modi government, now that he is in the Centre.
If it was otherwise, I am sure the "tweet" prime minister would have let us know in his 140 eloquent characters.
If it was otherwise, I think the free media of India would have responded that if NDTV India goes silent for 24 hours, so will every other TV and print media in the country.
If people and journalists and big-shot media house editors felt that this ban is inherently wrong, then they would certainly ensure that for 24 hours in the history of journalism, every TV news station in India would stop broadcast from 00:01 hours November 9 to 00:01 hours November 10, and no newspaper would hit the stands on November 10.
If the ban on NDTV India is unjust, then for one whole day India should be devoid of news because the government dared impose a ban.
But we all know that that will not happen because media in India is free and the government in the land is fair and people everywhere are happy and peace reigns across the country.
News will not intentionally black out, in support of one of its own, because at the end of the day, it is business.
It will not happen because every Indian knows that the President has not signed a decree stating a state of Emergency exists in the country.
If it were otherwise, we can be rest assured, that one of the prime minister's of India would have told us so.... either through his loveable hand-wielding theatrics with dramatic pauses or else tweetly.
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