Govt using power to muffle dissent, says Rahul Gandhi
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was using power to silence dissent.
“The power of truth is being replaced by the truth of power. Anyone who attempts to speak the truth is being pushed aside,” he said. Gandhi was addressing an event organised to launch a commemorative edition of the National Herald.
The newspaper was founded in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru. It ceased operations in 2008. Efforts are on to revive the paper, which once had offices in Delhi and Lucknow, and was also published in Hindi and Urdu. Its website was launched eight months ago.
In his speech on Monday, Rahul Gandhi recalled he was disallowed from joining farmers’ protests in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. “This is the India we are living it,” he said, “where power manufactures truth.”
A weekly English edition of National Herald is also likely to be launched soon. The paper has run into trouble in recent times, with Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy accusing Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds through it.
Vice-President Hamid Ansari also attended the event. He said a free media is not only beneficial but necessary in a free society.
“If press freedom is attacked it will result in the jeopardising citizens’ rights. When faced with unjust restrictions and the threat of attack, self-censorship in the media can have the opposite effect, aiding the covering up of abuses and fostering frustration in marginalised communities,” he said.