Manipur: Wangkhem Kishorchandra’s Arrest Points Towards a Larger Issue

Support for Wangkhem Kishorchandra, a journalist for Information Service Television Network (ISTV) in Manipur who was arrested under the National Security Act (NSA) has poured in from several quarters. Kishorchandra was arrested on November 27, following a video he posted on social media in which he was critical of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state. Following his arrest, as reported by the Imphal Free Press, the Congress, which is the opposition party in the state has slammed the arrest. A Congress member of the legislative assembly and party spokesperson, Kh. Joykishan called the government tyrannical and challenged the government to arrest him. Kishorchandra’s wife and neighbours staged a protest at Keishamthong yesterday condemning the arrest. On August 9, Kishorchandra had been arrested – under similar circumstances but not under the NSA or for sedition – for comments on social media that were critical of the BJP government.

In the present case, he criticised Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren for his speech on Rani of Jhansi. He had questioned the Rani’s role in Manipur’s freedom struggle. The initial First Information Report (FIR) lodged against him had listed sedition among the other offences he was being accused of. His first arrest was on November 21. However, the Magistrate had found that there was no element of seditious speech and thus, he was enlarged on bail on November 26. Later, the same day he was called to the police station after which it was only on November 29 his family became aware that he had been booked under the NSA. Apart from the obvious departure from procedure – as per the Code of Criminal Procedure, the relatives or close friends of the accused have to be informed of the arrest – Wangkhem’s arrest is a part of a larger problem where those critical of the ruling government face arrest.

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World Press Freedom Index 2017

Replying to an unstarred question in the Lok Sabha on March 8, 2018, the Minister of State for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Colonel (Retired) Rajyavardhan Rathore dodged questions pertaining to India’s rank in the World Press Freedom Index, 2017, published by Reporters Without Borders. The questions posed were;

1. whether India has been placed at 136th position out of 180 countries as per the World Press Freedom Index, 2017, compiled by the body “Reporters Without Borders”;
2. if so, the details thereof;
3. whether India’s position in the World Press Freedom Index has not improved during the last three years;
4. if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
5. the methodology adopted by “Reporters without Borders” for arriving at this index; and
6. the reaction of the Government to the World Press Freedom Index along with the measures taken by the Government to ensure the freedom of press in the country and to improve the performance on the criteria underlying in the ranking?

In his response to questions (a) to (e) the Minister of State answered;

“The Government has come across media reports carrying the results of survey by “Reporters Without Borders” and World Press Freedom Index 2017 compiled by the body. A number of reports are available on the internet covering aspects like freedom of speech, transparency and censorship on internet. Different methodology, data and techniques for data collection are followed for preparing the reports. The sources of data collection are not disclosed.”

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Whereas, for the last question he mentioned that the Government is “committed to ensure the right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined under the Article 19 of the Constitution of India. However, the Press Council of India (PCI), a statutory autonomous body, has been set up under the Press Council Act, 1978, mainly to preserve the freedom of the Press and improve the standards of newspapers and news agencies in the country and also to inculcate the principles of self-regulation among the press.” He also mentioned that the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued a “comprehensive advisory on safety of journalists on 20th October, 2017”.

Press Freedom Index 2018

However, the 2018 World Press Freedom Index released on April 25 this year, placed India’s rank at 138, two points below last year. Irrespective of the methodology employed in determining ‘press freedom’, Raju Gopalakrishnan in an article published on April 27 in Reuters reported that Swapan Dasgupta – who is a nominated Rajya Sabha member of Parliament and close to the BJP – denied that there was any shrinkage in press freedoms. Within the same article, contrary opinions were expressed by Prannoy Roy, co-founder of New Delhi Television (NDTV) as well as Sagarika Ghose from the Times of India, Ravish Kumar from NDTV Hindi and Harish Khare who retired as editor-in-chief of The Tribune.

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Journalists’ Intimidation through Arrests Not a First

On October 27, 2017, Vinod Verma a former journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was arrested from his residence in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, for allegedly trying to extort a Chhattisgarh BJP leader, Prakash Bajaj. Verma had been a member of the Editors Guild of India and had travelled to Chhattisgarh to examine cases of journalists being intimidated. On June 22, 2018, BJP leader Choudhary Lal Singh warned Kashmiri journalists that if they did not ‘toe-the-line’ they would face the same fate as Shujaat Bukhari. Bukhari had been killed on June 14 this year by unknown motorcycle borne assailants.

On August 19, 2018, Durga Singh Rajpurohit was booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for allegedly beating a Dalit man. According to reports, the complainant in the FIR claimed to have no knowledge of the incident, and Rajpurohit’s alibi was that he was not even present at the location on the day of the alleged offence. On September 22, 2018, Tamil Journalist Ananthakumar was arrested for his remarks against Transport Minister MR Vijaybhaskar on WhatsApp. Then on August 28 this year, there were the serial arrests of five writers and activists – Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalvez, Gautam Navlakha and Varavara Rao – for their alleged role in the Elgar Parishad which has been blamed for the Bhima-Koregaon violence.

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There are several angles to what appears to be a clampdown on freedom of speech and expression. On one hand, there seems to be a shake-down of owners and editors of news publications. On the other hand, comments on social media seem to be the basis of registering FIRs against people for expressing opinions critical of the ruling government. In this regard, NewsClick has published a five-part series that exposes how social media has become the government’s chosen tool for social control. Which way the winds will blow is anybody’s guess.