NEW DELHI: The Delhi police and the central government has been severely criticised for the raids at residences of several prominent journalists by Delhi police during the early hours of Tuesday (October 03).
Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera has slammed the central government over the raids at the homes of the Newsclick journalists, terming it as a ‘DISTRACTION’ from the sensational data revealed in the Bihar caste census.
“The early morning raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick comes as fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country,” said senior Congress leader Pawan Khera.
Khera added: “When he (assumed to be reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi) faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus – DISTRACTION.”
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said that the raids at the residences of journalists is “Modi government’s attempt to silence media and civil society”.
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He claimed that the raids were “totally illegal”.
Shiv Sena-UBT leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said: “Unfortunate to see how media questioning the government is being muzzled through excessive use of power.”
“The early morning raids on journalists by Delhi police should be condemned by all. We are now a democracy where only lapdog journalism is allowed the rest silenced,” Chaturvedi said.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari told ANI that he feels “dictatorship has arrived in India”.
“These raids are a message from the BJP to journalists across the country. We are in support of free and independent journalism. We strongly condemn these raids,” Tiwari said.
On the other hand, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Abbas Haider said that the raids on journalists’ homes is an attempt to ‘demolish’ free and independent journalism in India.
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“I believe BJP is trying to demolish the fourth pillar of democracy, which is the media. It is unfortunate and dangerous for our democracy. We are standing with the journalists,” Haider said.
It may be mentioned here that the Delhi police raided at least 35 locations, including houses of seven journalists, a satirist and places associated with the news portal NewsClick under a case registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Slamming the raids of Delhi police on homes of journalist, netizens called it a ‘vendetta’ for questioning the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.
“Anyone who raises voice against Modi and BJP will be facing such vendetta,” an X user wrote.
Another X user called the police raids as an “ambush on press freedom”.
It may be mentioned here that there have been allegations that Newsclick had received funding from China.
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Journalists Abhisar Sharma, Bhasha Singh, Urmilesh, Newsclick editor Prabir Purkayastha and writer Githa Hariharan, renowned journalist and commentator on the political economy Aunindyo Chakravarty, activist and historian Sohail Hashmi, and satirist and stand-up comic Sanjay Rajaura were ‘raided’ early this morning.
Sources say that scientist and writer associated with the Delhi Science Forum, D Raghunandan, has been “taken away by the police”.