‘A Dog With a Bone in Its Mouth Can’t Bark’: Arun Shourie on Mainstream Media
New Delhi: Speaking at The Wire Dialogues on September 2, Arun Shourie came down hard on mainstream media. “It is the fourth estate of democracy. It is the institution designed to hold the government to account. But, sadly we have not seen that happen,” he said.
Shourie elaborated on how the media – barring a few publications – has not followed up on important stories. “In the story about Jay Shah, The Wire only documented what is on the department of company affairs website. And you say that nobody should talk about it,” Shourie said. “The media is not following up. Its duty would be, if there is a stay order against The Wire then everybody else should print it.”
Shourie cited the example of the Pentagon papers where the The New York Times was served a restraining order barring the newspaper from publishing further after it had broken the story. As the Times could no longer publish, The Washington Post, a competitor, followed up on the story and published several articles. Both the Post and the Times were taken to court by the government, where the newspapers eventually won in a landmark decision for press freedom.
“In any country with a free press, if one paper publishes one aspect of a story, twenty others will start digging and publish other things. Here the twenty ran away. Only The Caravan followed up on The Wire’s story,” Shourie said highlighting The Caravan’s investigation into the business fortunes of Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah.
Karan Thapar, the interviewer, asked Shourie if he thought that the media was deliberately not following up. Shourie responded by recalling a Zulu proverb, “A dog with a bone in its mouth can’t bark.”
Shourie explained that he did not believe that the media is not speaking truth to power out of fear. “I feel they are not following up out of greed. The accounts of fear are an excuse that the media is using.”
Responding to Thapar’s question on whether he was disappointed or disgusted with the media, Shourie said, “I have sort of passed all that. There is such a great change in the media, you are wasting your emotions being either disgusted or disappointed.”
The former minister in Atal Bihar Vajpayee’s government, however, stated fear and intimidation also played a role in muzzling the media. “There is no doubt that there is also an attempt to intimidate the media. ABP news sacked some of its journalists. You [Karan Thapar] are not on the main channels as you should be. NDTV is also facing pressures. The strategy is to kill the chickens to frighten the monkeys. You don’t have to do it to everybody,” Shourie said.
Shourie also had a few words of advice for readers. “My advice to readers is that you should support The Wire. There are only a few publications like Scroll, Altnews, The Wire and one newspaper, The Indian Express, which are telling the truth.”
“Mahatma Gandhi used to say that the hands of copyists are our printing machines. Today you have the internet. If some story is blocked by a court order, let us all circulate it. A hundred thousand people circulate it and it will reach all across India,” Shourie said.
courtesy : thewire.in
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Assam to lift all cases against Koch Rajbongshis in Foreigners' Tribunals: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
Guwahati, Apr 4 (PTI): The Assam cabinet has decided to lift all cases pending against people from the Koch Rajbongshi community in the Foreigners' Tribunals, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday.
They will also no longer carry the tag of 'D' or doubtful voters, he said.
''There are 28,000 cases pending in different Foreigners' Tribunals in the state against people of the community. The cabinet has taken a historic decision of lifting the cases with immediate effect,'' Sarma said at a press conference here after the cabinet meeting.
The government believes that the Koch Rajbongshis are an indigenous community of the state and they are an inextricable part of ''our social and cultural fabric'', he asserted.
The people of this community are poor and have suffered a lot over the years, he said.
''They will no longer carry the tag of foreigners or ‘D’ voters,'' the CM said.
Foreigners Tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies, particularly in Assam, established to determine if a person residing in India is a "foreigner" as defined by the Foreigners Act of 1946, based on the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order of 1964.
These tribunals are designed to address matters related to citizenship and the presence of “foreigners” in India, specifically focusing on cases where someone is suspected of being an illegal immigrant.
There are 100 Foreigners’ Tribunals across Assam.
The Koch Rajbongshis have a sizeable presence in Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya, and parts of Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan, and they demand Scheduled Tribe status.
