Boris Johnson tells Indian journalists: Speak truth to power
LONDON: Noting the “staggering” size of the Indian news media, foreign secretary Boris Johnson on Tuesday called on Indian journalists to “speak truth to power”.
A former journalist who continues a popular column, Johnson was speaking at an event marking the 70th anniversary of the Indian Journalists Association, founded on May 29, 1947. He regaled the audience that included former tennis player Vijay Amritraj, Labour MP Stephen Pound, members of the House of Lords Swraj Paul and Gopichand Hinduja.
“There are 822, 000 separate newspaper titles in India. That is more separate individual titles than there are separate individual copies of The Times, the Guardian and... the FT sold every day in this country,” he said.
“For the sake of our democracy in both countries I hope you will... speak truth to power and let sunlight disinfect the darkest places in our countries.”
A leading Brexiteer who faced much ridicule for harping on the phrase “take back control” during the EU referendum, Johnson noted that “swaraj” was the Hindi word for “take back control”, but hastened to add that he “won’t push that narrative any further”.
According to him, India will become the world’s second richest country in less than 30 years.
He added that the India-UK relationship was much more than trade, whiskey and interchange of goods and services: “An incredible synchresis of ideas, people, goods and services, an ecstasy of cross-pollination and cross-fertilisation that is represented at so many levels, including cricket, tea, the bhangra beat, chicken tikka masala, but also the glorious and ever changing language of English.”