Weekend Reads Hartosh Singh Bal writes about the Group of Ministers report on government communication in which ministers speak of wantin...

Weekend Reads
- Hartosh Singh Bal writes about the Group of Ministers report on government communication in which ministers speak of wanting to “neutralise” independent media. Read also Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprastha’s report on how pro-government analysts allegedly recommended colour-coding journalists based on whether they are supportive of propaganda.
- “This week, a Muslim journalist in India will complete 150 days in jail after he was arrested on his way to report on the death of a Dalit teenager days after she was gang-raped,” writes Furquan Ameen. “Siddique Kappan, 41, was arrested in October while attempting to reach Hathras, a small town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, about 200km (124 miles) from the capital New Delhi.”
- “In January, as the New Delhi winter set in, the Chief Justice of India asked lawyers to persuade elderly people and women to leave the protests,” reports Nilanjana Bhomwick, in a cover story for Time magazine. “In response, women farmers – mostly from the rural states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh – scrambled onto stages, took hold of microphones and roared back a unanimous “No!”
- “India, the world’s most populous democracy, dropped from Free to Partly Free status in Freedom in the World 2021,” write Sarah Repucci and Amy Slipowitz. “Rather than serving as a champion of...