Opposition leaders slammed the Union government over the early morning raids on the houses of several journalists by Delhi police on Tuesday, October 3, calling it an attempt to silence them before the 2024 general elections. The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties condemned “the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s fresh attack on the media.” In a statement issued on Tuesday, the opposition alliance said the BJP-led Union government had “deliberately persecuted and suppressed the media by deploying investigative agencies”, to suppress various media organisations including BBC, Newslaundry, Dainik Bhaskar, Bharat Samachar, The Kashmir Walla, The Wire etc., and most recently, the journalists of NewsClick.
The remarks from the Opposition leaders came in the wake of Delhi police conducting raids at the houses of journalists and political commentators associated with NewsClick, in connection with a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Police raided the houses of stand-up comic and political satirist Sanjay Rajoura, journalists Bhasha Singh and Prabir Purkayastha, and Abhisar Sharma of NewsClick, oral historian and activist Sohail Hashmi, writer Githa Hariharan, and senior journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Urmilesh and Aunindyo Chakraborty. Police reportedly seized their electronic evidence, laptops, mobile phones and also took data dumps of hard disks.
The INDIA alliance's statement said that the BJP government has also “tried to convert the media into a mouthpiece for its partisan and ideological interests by facilitating the takeover of media organisations by crony capitalists.” It accused the BJP of “compromising India’s global standing as a mature democracy” by repressing press freedom and objective reporting.
“The BJP government’s coercive actions are invariably directed against only those media organisations and journalists that speak truth to power. Ironically, the BJP government is paralysed when it comes to taking action against those journalists inciting hatred and divisiveness in the nation. In the national interest, it would behove the BJP government to focus on genuine issues of concern to the nation and the people, and stop attacking the media to distract attention from its failures,” the statement from INDIA said.
Veteran leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal in a post on X, formerly Twitter, said, "Early morning raids on journalists, satirists and activists in UAPA case. Objective perhaps : Silence them before 2024! Precursor for times to come!"