ON the solemn occasion of the 78th anniversary of the martyrdom of M.K. Gandhi, it is of seminal importance to recall his role as an outstanding communicator and his prescient and yet cautionary statement that if a political party with a mandate to rule exercises a monopoly over organs of information and communication, it would pave the way for dictatorship.In fact, it is illuminating and instructive to note that he said so when the Constitution was being drafted by the Constituent Assembly and dire predictions were being made about the strong possibility of India failing to safeguard her newly acquired independence and bring to fruition its vision to set up a democratic form of government based on adult franchise.It was during those trying times when Partition-related communal carnage was engulfing several parts of the country, many Hindus and Muslims were being killed and their places of worship desecrated due to the spread of hate on account of faith that Gandhi received a complaint that Indian National Congress was using radio for broadcasting information and news about itself and its activities..Tragically, at the global level, India has been rated as an electoral autocracy and its rank among 180 countries in the Press Freedom Index has slipped to 159th position..While addressing a prayer meeting on November 26, 1947, sixty-five days before his martyrdom on January 30, 1948, he referred to that complaint and prophetically said, “If the Congress uses the radio, etc., like this for its own propaganda, it is bound to bring about dictatorship in the end.”Those apprehensions were uttered by Gandhi when there were only newspapers and radio as means of communication reaching out to a small segment of the population.At that time, the Constitution was being framed with the Constituent Assembly pursuing through its activities to constitute India into a democratic republic anchored in the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity to create a new India celebrating the freedom of the people..How Gandhi, Nehru and Ambedkar envisioned our republic, endangered by the current regime.Those apprehensions of Gandhi have been materialised by the Narendra Modi regime in letter and spirit. It is amply evident by the manner in which it has captured media with a firm grip during the last eleven years for its own propaganda and image building of Prime Minister Modi.What was done by Indira Gandhi's regime in censoring the media during the time of the Emergency spanning nineteen months from 1975 to 1977 could be understood because she was exercising powers mandated by the provisions of the Constitution dealing with emergency.After she lifted the Emergency and schedules for conducting general elections were announced, the press was never subjected to the control of her government. In contrast, in today’s India, without a formal declaration of Emergency, a huge segment of media, be it TV channels, newspapers and even social media platforms such as Facebook and X, are relentlessly used for propaganda purposes by the Modi regime.The term Godi media coined by Ravish Kumar refers to the realms of the press which act as the lap dog of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Modi regime to transmit information and audio-visual content for serving the cause of the ruling party at the Union level..By restoring press freedom and the constitutional vision of India, such partisan and divisive use of media can be reversed and press freedom can be defended..No wonder that Rajeev Dhawan, the celebrated legal authority, activist and senior advocate, while sharing his thoughts in a programme organised on the eve of the Republic Day this year at the India International Centre to reflect on the 75th anniversary of the Constitution, poignantly said that India has got the dubious distinction of being an ‘elected dictatorship.Tragically, at the global level, India has been rated as an electoral autocracy and its rank among 180 countries in the Press Freedom Index has slipped to 159th position.Such a pathetically low rank of India indicates the sordid saga of the attack on press freedom. In 1941, Gandhi, seven years before his martyrdom, stated that freedom of pen and freedom of speech constituted the foundation of swaraj and any attack on that foundation should be fought with all might.The use of media for the propaganda of BJP and Modi with all kinds of assaults on journalists and press and digital platforms such as newsclick.in and the Wire persuasively drive home Gandhi’s argument that such measures by the ruling party constituted sure signs of dictatorship.Boycott newspapers that spread hateIn my article “India Must Say No to Hate-Filled News” published in Newsclick on August 5, 2023, I had flagged— apart from recent Supreme Court’s warnings on consequences of hate transmitted by media on India’s unity and integrity— prophetic observations of Gandhi almost a century ago in 1926 appealing people not to read newspapers peddling bitterness and acrimony and dividing people on the basis of faith..Indian National Congress versus the State of India, RSS, BJP and Ors.On December 26, 1926, Gandhi moved a resolution at a Congress session organised in Gauhati (now Guwahati) to pay tribute to Swami Shraddhanand following his assassination by one Abdul Rashid who committed that dastardly act by getting influenced by hate content published in some newspapers of that time.He moved the resolution and said in his speech, “If you hold dear the memory of Swami Shraddhanandji, you will help in purging the atmosphere of mutual hatred and calumny ... by boycotting papers which foment hatred and spread misrepresentation.”He critically said, “I am sure that India would lose nothing if 90 percent of the papers were to cease today.” He also said, “Many Mussalman papers today subsist on hatred of the Hindu, and many Hindu papers subsist on hatred of the Mussalman.”His observations from 1926, especially that “India would lose nothing if 90 percent of the papers were to cease today” are of abiding relevance for India in 2025, when the mainstream TV channels owned by corporate giants are engaged in promoting false news and hate in the name of religion and engage in the propaganda of BJP, Hindutva leaders and Modi.By restoring press freedom and the constitutional vision of India, such partisan and divisive use of media can be reversed and press freedom can be defended. In doing so, we can uphold the enduring legacy of Gandhi and that would constitute a real tribute to him on his martyrdom day.
