Barring honourable exceptions like The Telegraph, Calcutta, mainstream English media has happily abdicated its principal duty in a democracy: to stand up and speak truth to power; to reveal the worts; to expose the hypocrises; to oppose the brutalities.

To paraphrase L.K. Advani‘s oft-quoted comment from the Emergency era: “When asked to bend, the media crawled under the carpet.”

The language media, usually looking up to their anglicised “superiors” for direction and inspiration, is, of course, in far worse shape.

Vast swathes of “Bharat” are now serviced by newspapers and TV channels which are cheers leaders of the marauding Hindutva army, which uses a deadly concoction of delegitimisation, whataboutery, trolling, threats, intimidation and mob power to silence those who do not play along.

Rajasthan Patrika is a rare exception.

Whether out of editorial choice or commercial compulsions, the Jaipur-based group, which has been at the receiving end of arbitary ad freezes by the Narendra Modi and Vasundhara Raje governments, has put its money where its mouth is by announcing a “boycott” of news of the chief minister.

On November 16, the so-called “National Press Day”, the paper printed a blank editorial (see image, above) to oppose the BJP government’s move to gag the media. Below is editor Gulab Kothari‘s and the paper’s stand on the ‘black ordinance’.

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It is ‘lock’ until the black law remains

By GULAB KOTHARI

The Rajasthan government has surpassed even the Emergency with its black law. There were expressions of extreme disapproval across the whole country, but the government did not withdraw the law. This is some audacity prompted by the brute majority in the government!

Though it is referred to the Select (Pravar Samiti) committee, practically the law is still applicable. If desired, a journalist can test it. If he publishes the name of a corrupt officer, he will be put in prison for two years.

When that is the case, isn’t this decision of the government hoodwinking the public?

The session of the Assembly began on October 23. In the Business Advisory Committee (BAC), held after the passage of condolence messages, it was decided that both Bills, the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, 2017 and Cr.P.C (Rajasthan Amendment), 2017 would be tabled in the Assembly for consideration on October 26.

The next day, on October 24, at the beginning of the session, the procedure should have been Question Hour, followed by Zero Hour, and then the legislative procedures.

Prior to that, the report of BAC was to be tabled in the House but during the Question Hour itself Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria started making a statement.

The rule prescribes that there should be first the introduction of the Bill, then it should be tabled for consideration and then there should be a debate on it. Only then it should be handed over to a committee. But during the Question Hour itself, amidst the furore, a proposal was passed by voice vote and the Bill was handed over to the Select Committee.

Here, according to the rules, any member of the House can make a deemed resolution to abrogate the bill, which was placed by BJP legislator Ghanshyam Tiwari and had also been approved by the Chair. This was also overlooked. On October 24, instead of October 26, it was given to the Select Committee.

All traditions were demolished.

See how they made a mockery of the law!

Both the ordinances were tabled together in the Assembly. The rule is that if the state revises the same central law, two ordinances cannot be taken up together. One can come up for consideration only when the other is passed; such is the procedure approved by the former Assembly Speakers.

When the first bill becomes law, the discussion on the other takes place. Here the two Bills were put together on the table. Then again, in his over enthusiasm, Hon’ble Kataria ji first announced the second bill, Cr.P.C (Rajasthan Amendment), 2017, which went to the Select Committee. Now how the second Bill would be referred to the committee

Thereafter the House had to be adjourned for two hours. Again, the already announced Bill was handed over to the committee on October 25, instead of October 26– without a discussion, without a debate.

Look at it! The law itself was black and it was moved in the House by ignoring the rules and procedures. It was made to appear to the public that the law had been placed forever in the cold storage. That was not the case. It was just put on the sedatives. After waking up, it would start kicking. And the freedom of expression in a democracy would be murdered.

What path the law would take is in the womb of time.

Today, we are left with many questions. When a state government makes laws to protect its corrupt sons by keeping the judgment of the Supreme Court in the pocket, then should the debate first be on the law or on the contempt? As the dates fall, the ordinance will throttle free speech and expression.

How to get out of this?

Rajasthan Patrika is the newspaper of Rajasthan. The government did not spare any effort to paint our face dark.

Should the public accept this black law unwillingly? Should we allow the Hitler regime to prevail over democracy? The elections are away. There is a whole year ahead. It is a long time span. A lot of damage can be done in the meantime.

Rajasthan Patrika is such a seed whose fruits are dedicated to the people. Therefore, accepting the advice of our Editorial Board, the Board of Directors has decided that till the Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, does not take back this black law, Rajasthan Patrika will not publish any news of hers or those related to her.

This is a matter of democracy, of free expression and of the pride of people’s mandate. Hope the blessings of the public will be with us as it has been the case always. Victory to India! Victory to democracy!!

Filed under: For the record, Newspapers, Uncategorized Tagged: Churumuri, Gulab Kothari, Narendra Modi, Rajasthan Patrika, Sans Serif, The Telegraph, Vasundhara Raje Scindia