Modi’s crackdown on media: Controversy over Lankan-born entrepreneur

The ongoing crackdown on media in India this week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is having a chilling effect not only within India after the 1975-1977 emergency period but within the region as well.

But many are unaware that the man at the centre of the controversy of funding a news website called NewsClick and accused of receiving Chinese funds through a billionaire-software entrepreneur Neville Roy Singham has Sri Lankan roots.

His father was Archibald Singham (A.W. Singham) born to Sri Lankan parents, a well-known political scientist and an influential figure in the Non-Aligned Movement in the 1960s.

The Indian police said Mr Singham was a conduit for Chinese funds and took into custody two journalists, including the Editor in Chief, after investigating more than 40 journalists who either worked or contributed to the platform. The arrest came after an investigation piece published by

The New York Times (NYT) in August which shed some insight into Roy Singham’s philanthropy work and political ideas, but failed to provide substantial proof that Chinese funds were channelled through to the platform.

Alleging weaponisation of the NYT article and ‘ irresponsible reporting’, ‘The Hindu’ newspaper's former editor N. Ram, who knew Roy Singham, set the facts straight in an interview with veteran Indian journalist Karan Thapar.

He said: “I have known Roy Singham for quite a long time. Roy Singham is somebody who worked on the Left. He and others in his family gave a lot--his father is a Socialist from Sri Lanka and his mother is an American and he is an American citizen.”

The veteran editor said Thoughtworks, a technology company founded by Roy Singham was sold for USD$ 870 million according the NYT article and the Indian website received funds from the philanthropy foundations set up by Roy Singham under US laws.

"There was no Chinese money involved in this."