Where Big Private Media Becomes a Lacky of a Purported Democratic Government

  Former NDTV Anchor Ravish Kumar

India’s PM Modi with Billionaire Gautam Adani

Where Big Private Media Becomes a Lacky of a Purported Democratic Government

Or Adding Insult to India: A de facto propaganda ministry

The United States has Aussie-billionaire-turned-US-citizen, Rupert Murdoch, and his media holdings, whose Fox News became Donald Trump’s de facto ministry of propaganda… until Murdoch recently turned on him. India is about to have its own media billionaire on steroids, with vastly more control of mass media there than Murdoch does here. Gautam Adani, the third-richest man in the world. When you factor in Adani’s more concentrated media power in the Subcontinent, it’s even more than the population differential: the 327 million in the United States, 1.35 billion in India. It’s about free speech itself. It is all about India’s mega-huge 24-hour-a-day telecaster, New Delhi Television (NDTV), founded in 1998, and today India’s last large independent television network.

Adani is on the verge of implementing a hostile takeover of NDTV, which some claim will be the end of meaningful independent television news in India. I might mention that Adani is also a fierce supporter of and friend to Hindu nationalist party (Bharatiya Janata Party – BJP) Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, a man who has been focused on silencing his media critics any way he can. Some say skirting the law very effectively. With this takeover of NDTV, Modi’s control over national media is all but total. Dissent has been repressed, journalists beaten and otherwise intimidated, even jailed. Many papers have been shut down. Until now NDTV, was viewed as such a powerful bastion of independence that it could not be reined in by Modi. With the NDTV takeover all but closed, longtime network anchor Ravish Kumar decided he had had enough and resigned.

Writing for the December 6th Los Angeles special correspondent Parth M.N. adds: “NDTV, they say, has been the only remaining Indian broadcast network that continues to question Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda. The other nearly 20 English or Hindi news channels across India, they assert, have taken to brazenly touting the party line… ‘Today, I see the race to the bottom on some TV channels and find myself completely unable to come to terms with it,’ said former NDTV anchor Rajdeep Sardesai, who called the network, where he worked until 2005, a ‘pioneering institution’ in ‘an era that was not driven by ratings ... [when] quality mattered.’

“About eight years ago, not long after Modi came to power, billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani, then the richest man in India, acquired Network 18 — a credible news outlet at the time, where Sardesai was editor in chief. Soon after the takeover, Sardesai resigned, along with other senior editors. [It’s happening again.]

“According to Reporters Without Borders, India stood at 132 out of 180 countries in its press freedom index in 2012. A decade later, it has slipped further to 150. The group’s 2022 report specifically mentions Modi, who became prime minister in 2014. ‘The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in ‘the world’s largest democracy,’ ’ it read.

"The future of NDTV, founded by Prannoy Roy and his wife, Radhika Roy, came into play in August when Adani covertly acquired a third-party company that had the largest stake in the network… The Roys tried to fight him off, but apparently in vain. As of Monday, Adani owned a 37% stake in the company — making him the single largest shareholder — and was trying to acquire more. As a result, the Roys have resigned as directors… ‘It is the end of news on news channels,’ said Abhisar Sharma, an independent journalist who left a mainstream TV job four years ago and currently has 1.4 million YouTube channel subscribers.

“Adani and Modi both hail from the western state of Gujarat and have had a lengthy relationship. When Modi became prime minister in 2014, Adani’s net worth was $7 billion. Today, it is $147 billion, making him India’s richest man.

“In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Adani addressed concerns that his taking over NDTV could end its independence. ‘Independence means if the government has done something wrong, you say it’s wrong,’ Adani said. ‘But at the same time, you should have the courage when the government is doing the right thing every day. You have to also say that.’… Modi and his office have not spoken publicly about the Kumar resignation or the impending takeover of NDTV.” For a government that tells us that it never really does anything seriously wrong, Adani’s quote says it all. Illicit killings, anti-Muslim campaigns (even involving murder and rape), and other acts of violence and repression from the Modi regime were once reported. No so much anymore.

Donald Trump enjoyed a special relationship with fellow leader, Narendra Modi, often admiring the Indian PM and his way of running his government and controlling the media. Here, in the US, the desire to stifle conflicting mainstream critics that do not support MAGA and GOP policies or their prime movers is a never-ending Trump habit that seems to have carried over to the entire cadre of elected Republicans. India is a good example of what happens when such governmental efforts are successful. Whether the GOP effort is a direct assault on mass media news (calling them the “enemy of the American people”) or recasting that effort under the guise of fighting a culture war, protecting parental rights or preventing mainstream Americans from being “replaced,” make no mistake; the goal is to eliminate the critics and stifle First Amendment dissent.

I’m Peter Dekom, and listen very carefully to the buzzwords of repression – often presented with sugar on top – watch the company such speakers keep, and ask yourself what are they really try to say… and make you believe.