The Big Story: Celebrating the Constitution

India took another small but significant step towards regional cooperation when it invited 10 Association of South East Asian Nations leaders to participate in the Republic Day celebrations on Friday. India’s outreach is crucial as it tries to establish its position as a trusted ally to these countries that have been rigorously wooed by China in the last decade.

Republic Day is the celebration of the adoption of our Constitution. This document, put together by a Constituent Assembly led by Dr BR Ambedkar, has literally held the country together despite dictatorial tendencies and divisive politics rearing their heads now and then in these last 68 years.

This Constitution, inspired heavily by the French Revolution, has given citizens certain fundamental rights. Among the most important of these is the freedom of speech and expression, which encompasses the freedom of press. Therefore, it is ironic that some of the leaders who would take the stage on Friday to watch the Republic Day parade as chief guests have a poor record of upholding such Constitutional values in their own countries.

In Laos, for example, the press is tightly controlled. In 2014, the country passed a cyber law that was termed by the international media as “unwarranted and excessive”. Last year, within weeks of its Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly attacking its coverage, the English newspaper The Cambodia Daily was forced to shut down following a tax notice. Hun Sen has been quite intolerant of media criticism and many NGOs have left its shores over the last 12 months.

In Malaysia and Philippines, independent news websites had to face legal action from corporations and state regulators. Malaysiakini, an independent news website in Malaysia, was ordered to pay a huge sum in a libel case, threatening its survival. Rappler in Philippines was asked to shut down after its business license was revoked by a state regulator. This has come at a time when the country has witnessed spate of extrajudicial killings. Earlier this month, two Reuters journalists were charged by the Aung San Suu Kyi’s regime in Myanmar under an archaic secrecy law, which the international press community has condemned. The two reporters have been critical of the leader’s mishandling of the Rohingya ethnic crisis, a humanitarian disaster the country has desperately tried to hide.

India’s own record on press freedom leaves a lot to be desired when looked at from the high standards the founding fathers set us. This week, journalists in Mumbai successfully fought an unnecessary and blatantly illegal gag order a trial court imposed on the media. The order restricted the press from covering the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, in which one of the earlier accused had been the Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah before he was let off by a Central Bureau of Investigation court.

It is one thing to hold hands on the ramparts of the Red Fort and celebrate what was truly a great achievement of human spirit – the formation of the Indian Republic. But as these leaders stand under the Indian flag, it should not be forgotten that the celebrations are not a mere ritual, which is what it would be if they forget the values that create a vibrant democracy. And freedom of the press is at the top of this list.

Punditry

  1. On the Padmaavat controversy, Aakash Joshi in the Indian Express says an objecting Sena and capitulating governments lead India down a dangerous path 
  2.   When the public sector does not serve the public interest, it becomes a millstone around our necks, Pulapre Balakrishnan writes in The Hindu on the problems hurting Air India.
  3.   It appears that New Delhi is finally ready to move beyond speeches and vision statements to play a role in the greater Indo-Pacific region, argues Aparna Pande in the Mint. 

Giggles

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Gory depiction of female student leader in TOI’s ‘Agent Rana’ comic provokes anger.

“Agent Rana chronicles the adventures of the titular spy who is pressed into service after information about an Indian missile programme threatens to fall into enemy hands (read Pakistan). The character that many have found to be similar to Shora was introduced on January 19 as “firebrand student leader Sameera”, spearheading an agitation against the vice chancellor of the National University in Delhi.”