A dangerous trend to restrict free speech

BJP upping the ante against Rahul Gandhi will send a message to those within India who are critical of the Union government’s actions

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s hysterics over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi speaking about India outside the country could be a precedent for clamping down others who do so, be it academics, public intellectuals, or even journalists.

Each day this issue is being taken to a new pitch with no less than Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on March 16 declaring that there is an “anti-India gang” of some retired judges that is trying to turn the judiciary against the government like the Opposition parties. In what sounded vaguely threatening, he also said that those that are against the nation will have to pay a price. Rijiju’s remarks come at a time when he has voiced concerns about the Supreme Court collegium system.

Also Read — Focus on Rahul Gandhi could backfire on BJP

Meanwhile, the BJP has paralysed Parliament for the past week over Gandhi’s alleged “insult to the nation”, even as a party MP has written to the Lok Sabha Speaker seeking to expel Gandhi from the House on the ground that his comments breach parliamentary privileges. Privileges are rights and immunities given to MPs and MLAs.

Should Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla set up a committee to investigate the matter, given its numerical strength the BJP would have a majority in it. Therefore, the possibility of Gandhi’s expulsion cannot be ruled out, and should that happen, we would have a perfect storm in the making.

Meanwhile, the BJP has been able to avoid a debate on the Adani-Hindenburg report in this session of Parliament. In a year leading up to the general elections, it is strategic for the BJP to posit Gandhi as the main face of the Opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and deflect attention from regional opposition parties that are stronger against the BJP in their respective states.

Gandhi is well within his rights to speak outside India, but he could have predicted that it would be seized upon by the BJP, especially shortly after the government imposed restrictions on a BBC documentary. After all, in this election year, Modi is positing himself as a world figure who has given India greater respect. It is part of the BJP’s domestic politics to present Brand Modi with Western endorsement, and hence the grand show at the cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. That Modi is placing India on the world map (as if it were not there earlier) is part of the 2024 election messaging that has been internalised by the BJP’s constituency and a section of the electorate.

With such a template unfolding, there needs to be tactical caution about not walking into traps that suit the BJP, at a time when sections of the broadcast media routinely attack the government’s critics/opponents as ‘enemies of the nation’. The question has also been asked whether other Opposition figures would be travelling to foreign platforms to elaborate on enforcement agencies raining down on their parties, and the subsequent democratic deficit that creates? Or would they be spending their time trying to stabilise their parties, prepare for elections and govern within India.

Meanwhile, using the opportunity to critique his cousin Rahul Gandhi, BJP MP Varun Gandhi said that he declined an invitation for a debate at the Oxford Union because “subjecting India’s choices and challenges to international scrutiny for me, is a dishonourable act.” In January, Rahul Gandhi had also put down his cousin when he said that Varun Gandhi’s entry into the Congress was “impossible because he had imbibed the RSS ideology.”

Rahul Gandhi’s rights to speak up anywhere, in and outside India, must be defended. But inadvertently, his choices have also given the BJP a handle to increase its offensive against academics, activists, journalists, and commentators who speak about India in foreign platforms. As it is, many India scholars who have done seminal work and collected data here, find it difficult to continue their work, like getting visas, among others.

All critiques in the West are apparently being catalogued and acted upon. In 2019, journalist and novelist Aatish Taseer found his OCI (overseas citizenship of India) card revoked shortly after an article of his in Time--the article was critical of Modi and was headlined ‘India’s Divider in Chief’. Last year, Chair, Amnesty International India, Aakar Patel was stopped from flying to the United States for a lecture tour. Likewise, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, a Kashmiri photo-journalist, was stopped from leaving India to accept her Pulitzer prize. Foreign journalists posted in New Delhi are also denied permission to travel to Kashmir, and have reported a climate of visa uncertainty following news reports that highlight issues such as Muslim persecution.

Meanwhile, many Indian journalists, who earlier did not hesitate to speak to the foreign press, now avoid it, fearing that it is likely to be monitored by the Union government.

(Saba Naqvi is a journalist and author)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.