Shah Scandal: Modi Government Breaks The Wire
Now it is being observed that India has become a kakistocracy where the government is under the control of the worst, least qualified, and most unscrupulous people. ~ Rakesh Raman
By Rakesh Raman
Less said about the Indian courts, the better. An Ahmedabad court order has prohibited the news site The Wire from publishing any further report on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah’s business dealings “so that the right to live with dignity of the plaintiff (Jay) may be protected”.
According to a report in The Indian Express, an Additional Senior Civil Judge of Ahmedabad rural court observed last week that the “injunction should be granted to applicant / plaintiff (Jay)” even though notice was not served upon the opposite parties (The Wire, its editor, the writer of the article, and others).
The court passed the injunction without hearing the arguments of The Wire that had published a report in which it had revealed numerous irregularities in the business of Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah.
In a press statement issued Monday, The Wire said that it is an attempt by Jay Amit Shah to gag The Wire.
The opposition leaders as well as those in the BJP assert that PM Narendra Modi’s BJP is using court as a weapon to attack the press freedom – which actually must be protected as per Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution of India.
[ Media Enjoys Freedom in Pakistan, Faces Suppression in India ]
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi – who has offered support to the journalists facing threats from the Modi government – said Friday that the court order against The Wire is an attempt by PM Modi to silence the press.
मित्रों, शाह-जादे के बारे में ना बोलूंगा, ना बोलने दूंगाhttps://t.co/y9QlHFHFHS
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 20, 2017
Earlier, a former Indian minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said that his party has “lost the moral high ground” in the alleged corruption scandal involving Jay Shah.
In an interview with a local TV channel NDTV, Sinha also said the defamation case that Shah has filed against the news site is an attempt by the BJP to “suppress the voice of the media.”
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has said it is concerned over the filing of a Rs. 100-crore criminal defamation case against seven persons including the reporter and editors of The Wire.
[ Also Read: Trump Threatens to Cancel Licenses of News Networks ]
Jay Shah has filed the defamation case in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, against reporter Rohini Singh and Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, and MK Venu, editors of the news portal for a report that highlighted a dramatic increase in some of Shah’s businesses since BJP’s Narendra Modi became prime minister of India.
The story, based on annual filings of Shah’s companies with the Registrar of the Companies, was published by The Wire news website.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a government’s National award-winning journalist and social activist. He has formed an environment-protection group called Green Group in Delhi. Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development. He also runs a free school for deserving children under his NGO – RMN Foundation.
Photo courtesy: BJP
