The misuse of India’s security agencies for political gain is today so commonplace that no one bats an eyelid when hearing of an Income Tax...
The misuse of India’s security agencies for political gain is today so commonplace that no one bats an eyelid when hearing of an Income Tax “survey” on a news organisation or an Enforcement Directorate raid against a political opponent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Yet even for those familiar with the depressingly routine extra-judicial killings by Indian police departments or the everyday brutality unleashed on marginalised communities, Josy Joseph’s new book – The Silent Coup: A History of India’s Deep State – still has the capacity to shock.
Over the course of the book, Joseph recounts the remarkable lengths to which India’s police-intelligence complex goes to do the bidding of political masters, including knowingly arresting and torturing ordinary Muslims to cover up their failure to prevent terror attacks, the seeding of fake narratives and involvement in terror conspiracies to advance communal agendas and the stubborn refusal to hold anyone in the security world accountable.
After his first book, A Feast of Vultures, Joseph spoke to Scroll.in about receiving legal suits and why he would rather set an example for his then 13-year-old daughter than bow down to threats. I spoke to Joseph about the complexity of investigative journalism today, how he sees the world that his college-going daughter is entering, and...
