NEW DELHI, Dec 21
Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Youth and Sports, Anurag Thakur on Thursday took on the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal over the continuous attacks on journalists in the state. Speaking in Rajya Sabha, Thakur said, “There are frequent reports of deadly attacks on journalists and violent incidents from West Bengal. The state government should work to provide a safe environment to journalists.” He also remarked how the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is going on across the country, but West Bengal is the only state where the IEC vans were vandalised. “This is a conspiracy to deprive the poor and needy of Bengal from development. When journalists go to show this, they also face danger to their lives and property.”
Reading out a series of attacks on journalists in the state under Banerjee’s watch, Thakur said, “On the day of civic elections in October 2015, 20 journalists were beaten up; in February 2022, four journalists were beaten up in civic polls in North Dumdum and East Midnapore; 10 journalists were beaten up in during the process of filing nominations for the 2023 Panchayat elections. In June 2013, during coverage of the feud between AITC, three photojournalists were beaten so badly in Barrackpore, North 24 Parganas, that they had to be admitted to the hospital.” Responding to a starred question by Trinamool MP Dola Sen on “policy framework for protection of journalists”, Thakur added that he has a complete list of attacks in which many big journalists are named but he does not want to present all this in the House. Sen was not present in the House at the time of reply. The minister said, “Jis MP ne question poochha woh to hai nahi.”
Before answering the question on journalists’ safety, Thakur said, “The Centre is committed to protecting every citizen of India.
As far as the safety of journalists is concerned, law and order comes under the jurisdiction of the state government. In 2017 itself, the Home Ministry issued an advisory and directed the states to make comprehensive arrangements for the safety of journalists.”
In case of violence against journalists anywhere in the country, the Press Council of India (PCI) has the right to take suo moto case and they take that too.
, he said, adding that PCI is an autonomous institution whose members are elected through a fixed process but the Central government can take positive action if required.
He also mentioned the incident of TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee mimicking Vice-President and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar a couple of days ago. On this, he said, “This misdeed is shameful for the entire country. The entire Opposition should have apologised for this.” Describing the making of the video by Rahul Gandhi as shameful, Thakur said that even taking the name of “that big leader is meaningless because his name is big but his philosophy is small”.
The I&B Minister also took a dig at press freedom indexes and reports. “To date, no one from any such organisation has come to me. I also asked newspapers and TV media persons but no one has ever approached them either. I don’t know how these reports are made.”
