What Would Ramnath Goenka Have Said Today?
Manoj K. Jha
June 25th, 1975. A date etched in infamy. A moment when democracy in India was not just threatened, but throttled. In the silence of midnight, the Constitution was shackled, dissent criminalised, the press gagged, and citizens reduced to subjects.
If Ramnath Goenka, the legendary founder of The Indian Express and a fearless opponent of authoritarianism during the Emergency of 1975, were alive today and writing a letter to the owners and editors of newspapers amid what many consider an “undeclared emergency,” his words might be both a moral call to fierce position and a blistering indictment of media complacency.
Let us imagine what the man who senior journalist B.G. Verghese called the 'warrior of the fourth estate' would have to say to the Indian press today.
§
Dear fellow journalists, editors, and media owners,
June 25th is not just a date on the calendar; it is a reminder written in the blood and ink of those who refused to kneel. On this day in 1975, the Emergency was declared, and with it began a dark chapter in the history of our Republic. We, at The Indian Express, resisted not because we were brave by nature, but because cowardice was not an option. Today, I write from beyond memory, to remind you once again that the air is thick with fear. The knock on the door is quieter, the censorship more sophisticated, the intimidation more “legal.” But make no mistake, the fundamental principle remains the same: the silencing of dissent, the blurring of truth, the conversion of the press into a propaganda tool.
There are instances galore of journalists being jailed, raided, and defamed, not by decree but by design. The media, once a pillar of the Republic, now too often bows before power, afraid of losing government ads or facing punitive investigations.
Do you not see how easily truth has become sedition, how questions are branded as conspiracies, how journalists are hounded by agencies, how advertisers are weaponised to punish disobedience? In 1975, we had the excuse of open tyranny. What are we going to say today? Let us never ever forget that a press that waits for permission to be free has chosen to be a life-long prisoner on its own volition. And an editor who flinches from truth has no right to occupy that chair.
This is not merely about one government or one leader. It is about the soul of this Republic. It is about whether we will hand over our conscience for a few government ads? Editorial independence is traded for access. Truth is bartered for proximity.
I ask you and you must ask yourself: Are we stenographers of the state or sentinels of democracy? Will your legacy be that of courage or complicity? The ink we waste in praise of power today shall one day become the pigment we cannot do away with. It will stain us indelibly. Let no one say of our generation of editors that when democracy came under assault, they chose to look away. And thus we have no option but to print the truth. Speak the truth. Stand by the truth, even if it costs everything. Let us put this on a huge placard in your newsrooms that if democracy dies in darkness, the press will be remembered as its gravedigger.
What should worry us all is that a great institution like parliament is sidelined and the debate therein is mocked. The Opposition is demonised, not just politically but morally. Agencies once tasked with safeguarding the law have become instruments of political revenge. All of this happens not with the brute force of 1975, but with a chilling smile – wrapped in legality, justified in the name of nationalism, sold as stability.
The greatest tragedy is not that rulers behave like emperors. Power tempts, always. The tragedy is that we, the people and the press, have forgotten that it is our duty to resist. And hence I would want you to remember the Emergency not to mourn, but to remind. It is not just about Mrs. Gandhi. It is about every era where truth is silenced and fear is rewarded. At the core of your heart all of you know that democracy cannot survive only on regular elections. It survives on courage, especially the courage to speak when silence is safe and brings in rewards and awards.
If we do not remember the Emergency as a warning, we will remember it someday as a prophecy fulfilled. The question before us is not whether we are in an Emergency. The question is whether we have lost the courage to even call it what it is.
Looking at today's Indian press, I am heartbroken. We have fallen to 151 position out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2024, a shameful ranking that would have made our freedom fighters weep. The very profession I devoted my life to has become a subject of ridicule. What gives me hope is seeing young fact-checkers, independent journalists, and YouTubers doing what we once did, speaking truth to power. They have become the mirror showing mainstream media its own cowardice. The Fourth Estate I fought to protect now needs saving from itself.
With enduring hope,
Ramnath Goenka
Manoj Kumar Jha is Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) of the Rashtriya Janta Dal.
The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.