Stop Attacking The Media To Distract Attention From Its Failures: INDIA Bloc On Delhi Media Raids

Calling it “Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) government’s fresh attack on the media” the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties condemned the Delhi Police raids on journalists and NewsClick news portal today. The alliance asked BJP Government to focus on genuine issues of concern to the nation and the people, and stop attacking the media to distract attention from its failures.

Central government while responding to the media queries on the raids supported the police action and said “The probe agencies are independent and they are doing their jobs by following rules.”

Union Information and Broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur, according to an Indian Express report said, “If someone has done something wrong, the probe agencies do their job. It’s nowhere written that probe agencies can’t take action if money has come to you from wrong sources or something objectionable has been done”. He was speaking to reporters in Bhubaneswar.

“We steadfastly stand with the media and for the constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and expression,” the INDIA bloc said in a statement.

“In the last nine years”, the statement added that “the BJP government has deliberately persecuted and suppressed the media by deploying investigative agencies to suppress the British Broadcasting Corporation, Newslaundry, Dainik Bhaskar, Bharat Samachar, the Kashmir Walla, the Wire etc., and most recently the journalists of NewsClick”.

The alliance also claimed that “the BJP government has tried to convert the media into a mouthpiece for its partisan and ideological interests by facilitating the takeover of media organisations by crony capitalists”.