After Smriti Irani’s directive calling for the cancellation of government accreditation for journalists “propagating fake news” drew flak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew it.
ThePrint asks: Does Smriti Irani episode show Modi losing control over his ministers, or is it a tactical retreat?
The fake-news guidelines were issued with the sole intent of firing a warning shot at media owners
Manish Tewari
Former information and broadcasting minister
If anyone believes that the guidelines were only the handiwork of the information and broadcasting minister, then, perhaps, they don’t understand the BJP or its governance model. Over the past four years, this country has been ruled by two and a half people. These are the Prime Minister, the BJP president and the half I leave to your imagination.
The guidelines, which now stand withdrawn, were issued with the sole intent of firing a warning shot across the rows of media owners. Journalists were being used for target practice. The message is very clear — if we can go after journalists for something as little and inconsequential as their accreditation (which counts for nothing in the digitised world), imagine what we would do to you if we decide to set the coercive instrumentalities of the state, like the CBI, Enforcement Directorate, and Income Tax, into motion.
After making media owners crawl on all fours, these guidelines were intended to squelch any green shoots of assertion. They were meant to pre-empt any new-found manifestations of a growing spine among the owners of big media in India. This was not a case of looking London and shooting Tokyo. Anybody with even a nodding acquaintance of the functioning of the I&B ministry knows that in the absence of a definition of what constitutes news, one cannot define fake news.
So, therefore, if anybody is still under any illusions that the PM or his cohorts are losing their grip over the administration, that is certainly not the case. The Prime Minister has very successfully emasculated both, the governance processes and his own party.
Smriti Irani may be checked, snubbed in public, but on most occasions she will be given a free hand.
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay
Biographer of Narendra Modi
Because of its opacity, it is very difficult to say what goes on behind the screens in this government. That said, there is always a written understanding between different bodies. So while it is quite possible that the I&B ministry may have overshot its brief and the situation had to be rectified, it indisputably acted to further Modi’s belief that media must be kept on a tight leash.
Yet, the guidelines were indefensible even for Modi’s most ardent supporters. Modi will not overnight become a champion of press freedom and advocate of free press.
For Modi, free media remains an unnecessary intrusion into his work space, and he will continue to demonise it like in the past.
No effort will also be made to control people who bolster support for him through fake news and scurrilous viewpoints.
The ministry was possibly guided by belief that the growing anti-media sentiment among large sections of the middle class can be used to secure support for the government and the party. In any case, the credibility of the media is lower than in the 1980s, when Rajiv Gandhi attempted to enact the anti-defamation law. This is not the last attack on mainstream media, and surely not the last time social media hate-mongers will be allowed to go scot-free.
Smriti Irani has displayed a capacity to be guided by the dictum ‘more loyal than the king’. This is unlikely to be the last controversy involving her. In the HRD ministry too, she went beyond her brief. If anyone thought removal from that ministry was punishment, they were wrong. Evidently, she enjoys Modi’s confidence because she has a certain utility in his scheme of things. I see Irani remaining a part of Modi’s bandwagon. Sometimes she would be checked, even snubbed in public, but on most occasions she has been — and will be — given a free hand.
Smriti Irani understands Modi’s mind better than most
Sandip Ghose
Columnist
Smriti Irani is no ordinary minister. While it cannot be said that she takes instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office or consults it at every step, she is certainly one of the few ministers who understand the PM’s mind better than most. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that she would have acted on her own whim. Also, from whatever little one has seen of her from a distance, she is too proud a person to set herself for a loss of face.
That the phenomenon of “fake news” has been bothering all right-thinking people, not just journalists, is well-known. Though social media and WhatsApp journalism are the usual suspects, mainstream media too has often been caught with their guard down. However, in the latter case, it is usually a genuine mistake that is set right by a self-correcting mechanism. But, undeniably, there are more diabolical forces at play on either side of the fence.
Recent revelations about outfits like Cambridge Analytica, who have taken fake news to the level of WMDs in election warfare, having spread their tentacles into India might have raised genuine concerns in the BJP. Fake news is like a virus that can be contained but not cured. So, it is conceivable that the I&B ministry may have been asked to find a solution to counter fake news lest it acquires Trumpesque proportions, by design or default.
A senior journalist has reported that Smriti Irani has been in dialogue with the chairmen of the Press Council of India and the News Broadcasters Association for over a month about how to deal with the phenomenon. But the industry bodies may not have been amenable to let the government fire from their shoulder. Hence, the ministry may have decided to float a balloon that, even if shot down, would serve the purpose of sending out warning signals.
If that was, indeed, the intention, it may have served its purpose well, judging by the process of introspection it seems to have triggered among the more mature and responsible set of media elders.
Projecting Modi as the saviour of press freedom brings political benefits
Kumar Anshuman
Associate editor
Two recent gaffes by two ministers, and Prime Minister Modi intervened in both cases. Or at least it looked like he did. The first involved General V.K. Singh (Retd), the minister of state for foreign affairs. Asked whether the government was considering jobs and compensation for the family members of the 39 Indians killed in Mosul, he said, “It’s not like distributing biscuits.”
He was criticised heavily for his remarks, especially as the government was trying to get good PR over the episode. Later, the PMO announced an ex-gratia amount of Rs 10 lakh for each family. Similarly, when I&B minister Smriti Irani tried to muzzle the press, the PM played saviour again.
This was not the first time ministers said or did something that invited widespread criticism. In fact, in the past, people whose statements have created controversies have been rewarded by Modi. Giriraj Singh, Yogi Adityanath and Ananth Hegde are fine examples. It had political benefits and the BJP used it to its advantage.
It is only now, when the narrative is slipping out of Modi’s hand, that he doesn’t want ministers or other leaders to add to the BJP’s troubles.
After the Gujarat elections and the recent bypolls, it is quite clear the only thing that works is brand Modi. The BJP and PM Modi would like to keep brand Modi intact, and not allow anyone to derail the PM’s development agenda. Through the recent interventions, the PM has given two messages. First, it is an attempt to further strengthen Modi’s image as the people’s saviour. Second, it is a message for ministers and other leaders that there is only one person who matters in the government, and that is the Prime Minister himself. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and Modi doesn’t want to take any chance before the crucial elections this year. How much of this resonates with people is something that can be answered only after the results of some of the upcoming polls.
Compiled by Deeksha Bhardwaj, Journalist at ThePrint.
Parsee Rajiv Gandhi had showered his many gifts on this nation, the Iranis seem to not want to be left behind. And Jain Amit Shah and Vijay Rupani plan to make this a race to the bottom..
She needs to get back to Iran. They aren’t killing em and she seems to be in far greater alignment with the degree of Iranian freedoms than Indian ones.
She’ll feel at home, there.
One who goes blind in spring, sees only greenery all around. Why was it necessary to use religion and caste here? Truly people like Iyre deserves dirty politicians who do only caste based politics which only believes in dividing the people.