New Delhi: The BJP won all of two seats in its maiden Lok Sabha election in 1984 but still proved a better opposition than the Congress is now with 52 seats, ThePrint Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta said Friday.
He was answering questions at this year’s third edition of Democracy Wall, a free-speech campus initiative launched by ThePrint in collaboration with Facebook, at NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad
“Even with two seats, the BJP turned out to be a better opposition than the Congress is right now with 52,” Gupta said, replying to a question about the current state of the opposition in India.
The year 1984 marked a similar watershed in Indian politics as 2014, which saw Narendra Modi and the BJP seize the national stage with an absolute majority at the Centre. Thirty years before, a sympathy wave in the wake of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination had brought the Congress to power with 415 seats.
The BJP, which was formed in 1980, had won two seats.
According to Gupta, misuse of power is the reason behind the opposition’s weak state. “The use that government agencies are being put to right now was never done in a non-Emergency period before, people are afraid. It is a little bit of shock-and-awe for the opposition right now,” he added.
Over recent weeks, opposition leaders P. Chidambaram, D.K. Shivakumar and Sharad Pawar have either been arrested or booked for different cases, some dating years back.
Gupta was also asked what he thought about press freedom in current times, as compared to the curbs imposed during the days of the Emergency under Indira Gandhi.
“The Emergency period was very important for us because it taught us the importance of a free press,” Gupta said. “But we live in much messier times now,” he added, noting how social media is used to pressure the press.
“Social media has been weaponised by some groups better than others, for example, (US President Donald) Trump uses social media to attack anyone who disagrees with him,” he added.
He said “triple weaponisation under this government”, that is, weaponisation of “investigative agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation and the ED, social media and TV channels… has made it much more difficult for the press”.
Newsroom becomes gender-equal
Gupta also weighed in on gender balance in the newsroom, hailing media as the “most gender-equal profession”.
“The gender balance in newsrooms is now skewed in the other direction,” he said.
He also talked about the representation of communities like Dalits and Muslims in the newsroom.
“I think Dalit representation is still inadequate and through our indirect affirmative actions we found that bright Dalit students feel more drawn towards government jobs,” he said.
“Minority representation, Muslims, in particular, has improved a lot,” Gupta added.
Other guests at Friday’s Democracy Wall event included Congress politician Jaiveer Shergill, Masaan actor Shweta Tripathi, and journalist Pamposh Raina.
Also read: Congress backs NRC in Assam, but not the way it is being implemented: Jaiveer Shergill
The very fact that the investigating agencies are sending a shiver down the spine of the opposition members means they are corrupt. People in power don’t need to use the social media to muzzle the press. The ‘shock- and-awe’ treatment is panacea for all.
Never ever was oppostion denigrated as it is being done now..
It’s because never ever opposition took shelter under the fake narratives built around the assumption that Indian voters have little intelligence and can be fooled to win elections through repeated lies, twisting of facts and denigrating India’s image in foreign countries.
SG loves democracy but love to be part of adaniS, ambaniS camp do to say licking oops liking crony capitalists…
It was Nehru and his class of politicians who would appreciate and respect others’ OR opposition’s views….unlike what is being done in todays parliamentary debate.
I am glad the investigative agencies are going after the corrupt. More power to them. Clearly, Mr. Gupta is averse to the law taking its course. I wonder what he has to hide.
Leave alone government even some newspapers have stopped giving space to readers letters to newspaper which are critical of Modi government. I have been contributing letters to newspapers from 1977 and in the past when Congress or some other non BJP party was in power, the critical comments on ruling party got regularly published, now it slowly and steadily getting curtailed even though no one cares to take letter writers seriously
Once again this has nothing to do with the govt. Indeed, major newspapers like Hindu and IE continue to curtail and delay critical comments. These are virulently anti-govt papers. The general problem is that media thinks that their job is to fix the society instead of reporting news – so they censor what they disagree with.
Even after wasting 32 years you learned nothing. Negative criticisms are taken notice by government only if criticisms are done to help improve development and not for pulling legs of the government.
As long as Congress continues to believe that Modi won election by fooling people, it will not be able to create a narrative that attracts peoples imagination. Behaviour of Congress leaders is no different from the behavior of anti India forces in Pakistan. Congress continues to defame India in foreign countries and continue to take Pakistan’s line. For the sake of Islamists’ votes, Congress has lost more Hindu votes. The damage to Congress mind set is so serious that it lost the ability to change.
Notice how loosely he tosses the word “govt”. The weaponization of social media hasn’t been done by the govt. It is hard to control and governments all over the world are struggling with it. If he want to blame the govt, please tell us which departments are producing false tweets, fake news and fake videos.
He also blames the govt for weaponization of TV channels. By this he means channels like the Republic TV. Can he show us, how the govt promotes this channel or otherwise gives it money. For decades, the left has monopolized media but nobody ever complained. His complaint isn’t about the government but about certain private channels that he doesn’t approve of. To me this complaint sounds like a desire to censor!
Finally he says that ED and CBI have been weaponized. Now this has some merit. But the solution is not about not prosecuting. It is about presenting the facts . He and the entire media isn’t doing any investigative work. They are not even telling us the details of the charges and the evidence. They don’t even point out the failure of the courts that take decades to resolve anything.
The media’s willingness to simply blame the govt for every ill is a fundamental part of India’s problems. We need to look into the details and come up with institutional solutions. Our (lazy) media has no interest in doing that.
Totally disagree with shekhar. If punishing ppl who hav done any wrong in past is wrong than be it. V want politics free of nepotisim, elitism nd also corruption free. And i think modi is doing the same
Sir,
Why don’t they arrest some BJP leaders?
Do you think all BJP leaders are from top to bottom, GANGA MEIN DHULE HUWE?
Such arrests as of opposition leaders arrests look biased and partial.
If your foolish arguments are extrapolated, you can even ask why the PM, the President and Chief Justice of India are not arrested. There is no limited of dump heads to churn stupid defensive argument in support of continuity of old, outdated and rejected systems.
These journalists also argue that Govt does not act on corrupts. If Govt acts, they argue that it is vindictive. PC IS IN JAIL AS PER THE DIRECTIVE FROM HIGH COURT. Does it mean Shekhar does not believe in Judiciary, one of the pillars of democracy. These journalists are against present Govt because they lost certain privileges, given by Congress Govt. In Democracy people are above all& they have elected Modi second time with greater mejorty. People opinion is more important than any other agency including so called secular, highly democratic journalistse
Thank God we have Modi and not Sonia or Rahul. The thought sends shivers down to my spine. These people made xongress leaders so spineless that Mr. Vora cannot walk straight. Congress has no fate with Gandhi at helm.
I don’t understand how there is no democracy in this country when the media is freely discussingnegative things about the government & Modi. Come to Tamilinadu & see how the vernacular media is indulging in anti Modi rheoteric. If the government was vindictive these kind of discussion will not be allowed & the problem with the Lutyens media is they r not able to enjoy the patronage of the Government extended during previous non BJP governments. The Lutyens media & pseudo secular intellectual group should understand that Modi won despite Ur negative campaign
During emergency Journalists had character – Indian express got smashed – Today we can not find single honest Journalist – All are biased – Pro or anti BJP
Well said Natrajanji. Indiraji Rajivji were very magnanimous people. Sanghis will say Indiraji brought emergency, Rajiv killed 3000 Sikhs like a broken record. We should not listen to all that and explain the magnanimous nature of them…
This Taklu should also do a seminar on corrupt journalists distorting and hurting the country with taking money and are for sale. Secondly I suggest to this man not to keep scratching his body parts including his bottoms while on TV cleanliness is good Never seem PM scratching anything anytime while being flooded with cameras
Mr Gupta congress with 404 seats was also not so vindictive or frankly as authoritarian as the current BJP government is with 303 seats are. At least pretend to be neutral as you have been doing in print
This regime thousand times better than 80s Congress
Mr.Gupta he himself is not a neutral person which he him self said in video in a journo meet post Modi won for the second time. PC , S and Shivkumar are in jail coz of looting crores and crores of money. When PC was arrested no one was opposing or supporting PC. Even Sonia , Rahul and Manmohan ji was shocked by PC’s accumulated wealth more than Gandhi’s . No honest Indian christian Muslim and other religious ppl are not aganist Mr.Modi…
Well said Natrajanji. Indiraji Rajivji were very magnanimous people. Sanghis will say Indiraji brought emergency, Rajiv killed 3000 Sikhs like a broken record. We should not listen to all that and explain the magnanimous nature of them…