A bid to tame the press

Raids happened in the wake of critical Covid reporting

The government’s take on the raids by the Income Tax (I-T) Department on the offices of the leading Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar is unconvincing, and there are circumstances to show that it is a victim of vindictive action. There were raids on the offices of India’s largest circulated newspaper in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan on Thursday and Friday. I-T officials also made searches at the Lucknow offices of TV channel Bharat Samachar and the residences of its owner-editor. The Dainik Bhaskar Group has been accused of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 700 crore and other irregularities. Bharat Samachar has been accused of irregularities to the tune of Rs 200 crore. The department has said that it has got evidence of the irregularities.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur has said that the “agencies were doing their own work and there was no interference’' from the government. Whatever the credibility of these claims, it is well known that not just the CBI but other probe agencies are also “caged parrots,” and the present government has liberally used them as instruments of harassment, coercion and punishment. The timing of the raids, therefore, raises doubts about their intent. Dainik Bhaskar had extensively covered the second wave of Covid in UP and published many stories about the floating corpses on the Ganga and the burial of bodies on its banks. Its editor wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times titled “The Ganges is returning the dead. It does not lie.’’ Bharat Samachar has also been shining the media light on Covid deaths in UP, to the inconvenience of the Yogi Adityanath government. It has claimed that it is being punished for this and for its coverage of the Hathras rape case.

It is often asserted that the victims of such actions have nothing to fear if they have done no wrong and can prove their innocence. This is no argument because the action is itself intended to harass the victims. It is those who oppose the government and are critical of its policies and actions that are generally targeted for such action. That is why such actions become attacks on freedom of speech and of the press. Dainik Bhaskar reaches millions of readers every day, and the raids on it will be seen as a bid to tame its reporting and send out a signal to others, especially with UP elections just months away. The Editors’ Guild has expressed concern over the use of government agencies as tools to suppress the media. The government should stop being vindictive and paranoid and respect the freedom of the press.