Nirbhaya, Pathankot and now Arnab: I&B Ministry believes in condemning but no real action

The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry of India has historically never shied from disappointing Indians. Being a mute spectator to a multiplicity of issues which should have otherwise invited strict action by the ministry has come to be known as the I&B Ministry’s forte. Irrespective of who heads it, the fact that when it comes to taking stern decisions for which there might be expected rhetorical and verbal blowback, but which will be in the nation’s larger interest, the Ministry is seen conveniently side-stepping the issue at hand. The same is happening after yesterday’s arrest of senior journalist Arnab Goswami in a two-year-old abetment to suicide case which was earlier closed and has now been randomly reopened by the police without the court’s approval.

When I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar took to Twitter yesterday condemning the brazen physical assault and subsequent arrest of Arnab Goswami, netizens were not impressed. The I&B Ministry and the person leading it, rightfully so, should not limit their workspace to social media and become the government’s official ‘condemnation’ front for every development and issue that needs to be spoken out against. Instead, the Ministry should step in and take executive decisions to ensure that freedom of press and speech in general in states ruled by authoritarian governments is protected.

The I&B Ministry on innumerable instances has let Indians down. Most prominently, post the Pathankot terror attack, where NDTV India was seen aiding terrorists in gaining sensitive knowledge of the airbase due to the channel’s live and extremely mindless coverage, the Ministry had impressed many with their decision to announce a one-day blackout of the channel. Many were of the opinion that the Ministry had finally grown a spine and discovered that it too could take sovereign decisions. Soon, however, following predictable outrage by India’s liberals and minuscule population of NDTV supporters, the I&B Ministry put their courageous decision on hold.

In fact, while the documentary on the rapists of Nirbhaya was not telecast in India, although many news channels did want to in order to defame the country, all that the I&B Ministry did was issued an ‘advisory’ to news networks to not air the outrageous documentary, in which the rapist was seen justifying his ghastly crimes. It was the intervention of the Home Ministry which ultimately ensured that the documentary is not aired in India.

A mere condemnation tweet by the I&B Minister against the brazen misuse of state authority in Maharashtra irked many on social media, who took to questioning the Ministry’s historical incapacity to take far-reaching decisions.

https://twitter.com/RealYogi_/status/1323835140645167104?s=20

The I&B Ministry will be well advised to begin acting in a sterner manner, and exercising powers it has been conferred upon with. Merely condemning anti-constitutional developments in states like Maharashtra will bear no result and drawing comparisons with the imposition of an Emergency will also fall unto deaf ears. What we are seeing in the case of Arnab’s arrest is a classic vendetta campaign being pursued by those individuals who are shameless to a degree not known before, and for whom condemnations by Union Ministers create no sense of crisis. As such, the I&B Ministry needs to step up its game.