Backstory | The Assam Model: First They Come for Truth-Tellers, Then They Go for the Voiceless

A great deal is happening in the BJP-ruled state of Assam, presided over by a chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has publicly declared that he is above the constitution. On the basis of petitions filed by three “complainants”, at least two of whom are members of the BJP, the Assam police filed FIRs against The Wire’s Siddharth Varadarajan and Karan Thapar in early May for “provoking unrest, undermining national security, and spreading narratives aligned with hostile interests” – or, in other words, for just doing their job of analysing, commenting and publishing documentation of the communally slanted ways in which the state of Assam is being run. 

Coincidentally or, more likely intentionally, the FIRs were filed at a time when the chief minister was in the process of launching a campaign in multiple border districts of his state to dispossess and evict a category of people now given the nomenclature of ‘Miya’. 

The term has come to be a useful place holder for Muslims who may have been living in these parts for decades but who are now viewed through a miasma of suspicion by the ruling party. They can then easily be termed as “foreigners” or even “ghuspaithiya” (infiltrators), and removed from the land where they had settled, sometimes for over generations. The methods used to do this are both barbaric and lawless in the extreme. Public announcements are made and bulldozers arrive without notice, reducing their abodes to dust within a few hours. Topography has also not been kind to them, with the swiftly shifting river waters crisscrossing the state often carrying away the soil on which they once had homes, hanging on to family documents in these circumstances also becomes near impossible. 

Forced to move to higher reaches for the survival of their families, they sometimes have no recourse but to settle on government land, leaving them particularly vulnerable to state action. Despite the multiple challenges facing an already vulnerable community, no opportunity has been provided by the state of Assam for terror-striken people to represent their cases before being pushed across the border with Bangladesh, which often results in their being pushed back by Bangladeshi forces to the patch of no-man’s land that lies between the two countries.

Intriguingly, the FIRs against Varadarajan and Thapar were filed in May but served to them only on August 12, with the name of yet another senior journalist and YouTuber, Abhisar Sharma, added to the list. It is disturbing that while the Supreme Court has given relief to Varadarajan and Thapar, Abhisar Sharma – while given interim protection from arrest for four weeks – will have to approach the Assam high court for similar respite. 

This amounts to viewing journalism, which bears the hallmark of credibility and public engagement, through a patina of distrust. 

The distinguished retired Supreme Court judge, Madan B. Lokur, described it as “the dangerous wiring together of a ‘conspiracy’” in an article he wrote for The Hindu recently: “The attitude of the Assam police is quite obvious – harass the journalists and make the process the punishment for a non-existent offence,” he said.  

By the time the FIRs were served, at least two major eviction drives had taken place in the state with more than 3,300 families removed during the months of June and July alone.  First they come for the truth-tellers and then they go after the voiceless -- that in essence is the Assam model.

We need to take a step back and consider the corporate media’s treatment of this unconstitutional, brutal Assam model. At a time when the very web of life of hundreds of thousands of Assam’s most marginalised are being torn asunder, the Assamese media have chosen to amplify the irrational cry, unfounded by data, that the state is being swamped by thousands of Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh. For politicians like Sarma, who have built their careers by feeding off this communal polarisation and cultural anxiety over the imminent destruction of the Asomiya language and culture, nothing could be more welcome, especially with state elections looming large.

 But he is also hard at work parceling out land, some of it belonging to the local tribal population, to corporates and friendly interests: a thermal power plant here, a township there; a food park here, an oil seed plantation there: nice chunks to Adani, with even Patanjali getting slices. The corporate media is extremely reticent about reporting on these birthday cake ceremonies.

Himanta Sarma’s great friend and mentor is editor-in-chief of Republic Media Network, who has made it his mission to glorify the chief minister on his channel. Sarma has consequently emerged as something of a mascot for Republic Television, constantly quoted (“in 12 to 13 districts in Assam, according to the CM, Hindus have become minorities”) and interviewed.

Earlier this week, word went around amongst the Godi media faithful that their next task was to attack former Planning Commission member, Syeda Hameed, for daring to state in Assam, where she had gone as part of fact-finding delegation, that every human being in India, regardless of being a citizen, enjoys the right to life – this incidentally is a principle inherent in Article 21 of the constitution. 

When Hameed was slated to speak on August 26 at the ‘People’s Tribunal on Assam Evictions, Detentions & the Right to Belong’, hosted by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights and Karwaan-e-Mohabbat at Delhi’s Constitution Club, she had to face screaming hordes of young reporters wanting to know why she was supporting “ghuspaithiyas”. She shared with the audience how she felt when this lot held their microphones like daggers to her face, demanding that she explain herself forthwith. 

Later that evening, as the prime time chat shows unspooled, it became clearer that these young men and women were mere puppets in the hands of their channels and anchors. The supreme puppet master of the evening was, you guessed it, Arnab Goswami, who took it upon himself to flay the “lobby” – whatever that was, presumably anyone not on his side and that of his buddy in Guwahati. The ticker tape said it all: ‘Why is the lobby desperate to defend infiltrators?’, ‘Woke Lobby Exposed’, ‘Is there a conspiracy to ignite chaos?’, ‘Syeda Hameed seeks to realise Jinnah’s dream’, the screaming crawlers literally crawled up one’s skin. 

“There are people in this country who want it to be run over by Bangladeshis …for their votebank politics,” pronounced the puppet-master, amidst ads that sold shiny cars like the Grand Vitara and the Hyundai Creta.

 This, ultimately, was all about consumption – the audience was urged to consume material goods even as they were made to swallow large amounts of communal bilge. 

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Good journalism always pays

The Supreme Court has taken cognisance of the private zoo called Vantara, run by Mukesh Ambani’s son, Anant, and housed close to the Reliance oil refinery in Jamnagar. This would never have happened if journalist M. Rajshekhar had not done an incisive cover story on Vantara and if the equally outstanding magazine, Himal, had not chosen to publish it. But Rajshekhar has just put out on X an intriguing query regarding this sudden flurry of activism: “Hard to understand this. After too many complaints, a team from CITES (Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species) is expected to visit Vantara soon. Is this hurriedly-set-up SIT a pre-emptive response? Or, after ORF/Dream11/Anil Ambani, is Modi gunning for Vantara?”

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Killing journalists in Gaza, wave upon wave

The number of journalists who have been targeted and killed by the IDF in Gaza has now crossed 270, according to Al Jazeera, and there is no sign of a cessation of this murderous tide. Over the last two weeks there have been two mass killings of media personnel: on August 26, in what was a double strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, six journalists associated with some of the best known organisations working in the region – Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, Associated Press and Reuters -- were assassinated. On August 10, a targeted strike on a tent housing journalists in Gaza City, killed four Al Jazeera media personnel, including its videographer and correspondent, Anas al-Sharif.

These martyrs should never be mere names. Anas al-Sharif, for instance, was the very embodiment of courage, and would sign off each piece of work he put out in the world that carefully documented the capture and flattening of Gaza, with the ringing line: “The coverage continues.” One of his friends, fellow reporter Mohammed Abu Salama, eulogised him thus: “Anas was a mountain of a man. One of the mountains of Jabalia. A mountain from Jabalia camp.”

Each of these men and women were rendered lifeless by a heartless, soul-less genocidal machine while doing their journalistic work. This must be remembered by their compeers across the world, people like us who are far less courageous, far less challenged, far, far more secure. Their struggle to survive and report on one of history’s gravest crimes perpetrated against humanity should forever remain etched in the world’s consciousness. 

It is to achieve this that Newsguild-CWA and National Writers Union sent out a solidarity statement following the killings of Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues, which called on media workers  across the world to ensure that their condemnation of these attacks on journalists in Gaza, “gain the force of action, of determination, of willingness to make sacrifices and take career risks…”: “As media workers, our labor turns the wheels of the Western press: We are responsible for the narratives our publications spin and their consequences, spelled out in blood. It is our duty to tell the truth and to protect the journalists who have continued to bring that truth to the world over the last 675 days. One of the most effective ways to show solidarity with journalists in Gaza is to confront Zionism in their own newsroom. Rally their colleagues and demand that their bosses stop publishing unverified Israeli claims about Palestinian journalists and their factional affiliations, which are intended both to demonise the resistance in Gaza…and to legitimise the targeting of journalists.” 

Also journalists are urged to change headlines and issue corrections to stories where these claims have been repeated, and publish editorials condemning the Israeli Occupation Forces’ serial murders of media workers, which have made this the deadliest war for journalists in history. “This alone should prove to any observer, let alone editors tasked with discerning the truth of the situation in Gaza, which ‘side’ is committing the war crimes,” the statement concludes.

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Readers write in…

Protests for dogs, not humans?

Apologies for the delay in responding to mail received. More space, therefore, will be devoted to letters in this column. 

We start with an intriguing question raised by Urvashi, a Wire reader.  Her mail has been edited for space…

“How come people who won't rent to a Muslim or Dalit person, and ignore the miscarriages of justice with regard to dissent in this country, are willing to brave all to protest on behalf of stray dogs?

“I don't think it has anything at all to do with empathy…People are protesting for animals because animals are easy to imagine as empathetic communicators, easy to love (because they ask for nothing, are grateful for what you give them), to which one is not bound in too close a kinship tie. This lack of empathy with people who have the same needs as you and who you ignore, is to perpetuate inequality, unfairness, injustice.

“If you're privileged, you have to 'fix' the narrative so that other peoples' disenfranchisement is 'deserved' in some way. Not so with animals – because the narrative is already 'fixed'. That's speciesism, and anthropocentricism. Animals who interact with humans actively and of their own volition are 'the voiceless' and 'helpless' and are 'our children' precisely because they are a vessel into which we unproblematically and guiltlessly pour our love…

“Have long been wishing to apologise to all the people who are being dispossessed; who face lynching, get raped and murdered. No voices of protest have been raised for them. It is as if they do not merit such concern.”

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Gauri Lankesh, eternally inspirational

From Bengaluru, J. Jayaram sent an important reminder of an inspiring journalist…

“It's almost eight years since Gauri Lankesh (January 29, 1962 – September 5, 2017), journalist and human rights activist, was gunned down by Hindutva elements outside her house in Bangalore. A recent discussion on a recent book on her, I Am on the Hit List: Murder and Myth-Making in South India by US-based writer Rollo Romig, took place in Bengaluru recently.

“Her assassins -- yet to face trial -- are also implicated in the killings of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi. Incidentally, even renowned writer/actor/director, the late Girish Karnad, had also figured on their 'list' of targets. 

“Gauri Lankesh was posthumously honoured with the Anna Politkovskaya Award named after the Ukrainian-Russian investigative journalist shot dead inside her block of flats in Moscow nearly 19 years ago.

“Eight years after her brutal felling, Gauri Lankesh continues to inspire us.”

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Rasputin and Putin

Veteran journalist Sumanta Banerjee sent in a quirky mail…

“Although I may be accused of name-shaming, I cannot help but notice that the surname of the Russian President Vladimir Putin rhymes with the surname of the notorious Russian religious charlatan, Grigory Rasputin (1869-1916). Rasputin wielded tremendous influence on the last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and continued to indulge in his nefarious activities till the beginning of the 20th century.  

“Rasputin appears to have left behind his tail ‘Putin’, the present tsar of Russia.  That tail is wagging Putin, and egging him to engage in a disastrous and futile war with Ukraine. But with the rising casualties among Russian soldiers, and no sign of any end to the war, there is within Russia a growing resentment among ordinary people. Is Putin now facing the same domestic problems that his predecessor, Tsar Nicholas II, faced? It's time he saved his skin by withdrawing his troops from Ukraine.”

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 Modi Normal?

Wire contributor Santosh Kumar on the state of the nation…

“The other day in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar, who works more as a PRO for PM Modi than as a minister of the country, categorically stated that the 'New Normal' is indeed 'Modi Normal'. But sadly the many facets of this model are not reflected in the 'Modi Media'. How many of them reported the news of the handing over of the Afghan consulate in Hyderabad to a Taliban representative to run the mission? This means our country is legitimising the Taliban on the sly. That will hopefully strengthen our resolve on nari shakti! 

“Our full-throttled support to the 'authoritarian' regime of Netanyahu is complete and 'normal' and Modi's other friend, Adani, has extended a helping hand to Israel by providing drones to straff the innocents in Gaza. The icing of the cake is news about some of our senior 'media' colleagues jostled with each other to shake hands with Netanyahu, the 'Butcher of Israel'.”

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Accessing The Wire

Reader of this news portal, Vidyadhar Gadgil, has this to report…

“I have brought this matter to your attention twice before but have received no reply. For the past few months, I am unable to open the website of The Wire. I tried it with both Firefox and Chrome, but no luck. I switched to using the Tor browser and that worked off and on, but most of the time not. Recently, I switched to a VPN to access the website and it is opening fine.

Please look into this seriously. Many users are likely to be facing this problem. If so, it would be made clear through an analysis of your internet traffic.

My response: Thank you for your concern. I will alert our technical staff to this. 

Write to ombudsperson@thewire.in

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