N. P. Upadhyaya (Aryal)
Biratnagar: All is not well for India beginning this year 2023.
India deserved this for long.
The BBC Documentary on “India: The Modi Question” if it came as a bombshell to Prime Minister Modi and his entire administration in Delhi causing several sleepless nights to “whom it concerned, then the Hungary born US Billionaire George Soros (92) blasted on India at the Munich security Conference held on February 17, 2023. The conference lasted for two days.
(The BBC’s credibility is clearly greater than the Modi government’s credibility internationally”. Ram, the former editor-in-chief of The Hindu, adds: “I can’t think of a more credible organization (in the world of media) than the BBC.”
The former Editor of the Hindu said this while talking to Karan Thapar of the WIRE, India recently.
For your record, the Munich Security Conference (MSC), is an annual conference on global security issues and was founded by a German national and publisher Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist at the peak of the Cold War (1947-1991).
International media agency sources claim that world leader like US Vice President Kamala Harris, Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron had attended the conference.
The conference also saw the presence of various representatives of influential global organisations such as the United Nations, NATO and the European Union (EU).
The Russian Federation was perhaps not invited due to the so called “Ukrainian invasion” by Russia last February.
However, Russians say it was just a “Military Operation” carried out on Ukraine for some particular political reasons.
However, the NATO members rebuke the Russian version on Ukraine.
India, as usual and as per its chameleon habit, playing double.
It was this Munich security conference wherein George Soros almost uncovered the surreptitious linkages in between the fraudster business tycoon Gautam Adani and Indian Prime Minister Modi.
Look what he says of the two men from India as published by the Indian Express dated 18, 2023. It says “Modi and business mogul Adani are close allies; their fate is intertwined,” Soros said while giving a speech at the Munich Security Conference (MSC). He further added, “Adani Enterprises tried to raise funds in the stock market, but he failed. Adani is accused of stock manipulation and his stock collapsed like a house of cards. Modi is silent on the subject, but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in parliament.”
George Soros summing up his speech in Munich, Germany, even challenged that India was not a democracy and that “a democratic revival in India was a must”.
The Munich Security Conference website reiterates that the Conference “seeks to promote in earnest trust and contribute to the peaceful resolution of conflicts by facilitating ongoing, curated, yet informal dialogue within the international security community”.
So in a way, US Billionaire George Soros stole the Munich Conference-show as he spoke against the much publicized “largest” democracy of the world.
This the beginning months of the New Year, January and February thus witnessed BBC and George schooling tough “tutorials” to the Indian Prime Minister Modi and his administration.
However that was not the end of it all.
Apart from this, KIRAN SHARMA, Nikkei staff writer says, February 17, 2023, that , the Billionaire George Soros has kicked up a storm in India by predicting that the Adani crisis “will significantly weaken” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “stranglehold” on government.
Kiran Sharma adds that “Modi is silent on the subject, but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in parliament,” Soros said.
Adding more insult to Indian injury, “Paranjoy Guha Thakurata, a Kolkata, West Bengal Indian national is scheduled to, unmask Gautam Adani this March 15, 2023, in his hometown.
Media agencies claim that Thakurata is an Indian journalist, writer, publisher, documentary film maker and a teacher who is to deliver a lecture titled “Unmasking Adani” wherein the veteran Indian journalist is to dwell at length on Adani’s Business Empire.
The Unmasking Adani event has been duly organized and moderated by Arka Dev, it is reported in the Social media.
The Organizers believe that what this Indian media man was saying of Adani since several years has come out to be correct.
The event invites all who are willing to attend the lecture of Thakurata.
This means that Thakurata will soon give yet another clear picture of, hopefully the bungling of Gautam Adani and his furtive alliance with Indian Prime Minister Modi plus his henchmen.
To recall, PM Modi pressed the new Sri Lankan set up to award Sri Lankan power projects to his dubious business partner.
This PM Modi did after the recent political upheaval in Colombo.
The New Indian Express dated February 19, 2023, news report says that the Independent Indian journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is being sued by tycoon Gautam Adani’s business empire in six different courts- and he is not allowed to speak about the conglomerate or its owner.
But yet this daring Indian media man has taken the risk to continue his talk on Gautam Adani.
Sounds hilarious.
We at this paper hope that some intelligent brains attending the lecture event of Mr. Thakurata will send us some papers of the deliberations through electronic mail.
Thus what could be said that what George Soros has spoken about PM Modi was absolutely true and yet Foreign Minister Jay Shankar claims that his Prime Minister is a ‘demanding prime minister.
Height of flattery it is.
What he ‘demands’ will soon be made public come March 15, 2023.
Yet another jolt to India was awarded by a small chunk of the Swiss population in Geneva wherein early March this month, 2023, they intentionally pasted some eye-catching and meaningful posters against India in a largely open but central thoroughfare indeed.
Authentic media sources say that the placard that were widely shared by social media had printed in it slogans like, “Women in India are treated as slaves”; Child marriages are a “serious violation of child rights in India”; “India no to terror attacks on minorities” and “India stop burning churches”; “Indian Dalits children of a lesser god” and many more.
What was most interesting of it all was that these posters were printed in English and French.
The stunning part of it all was that the posters with such India-devastating catchphrase appeared at a nearby square right in front of the UN office in Geneva wherein the fresh session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) had commenced.
Reports have confirmed that such similar posters against India have been put up in the past during sessions of the UNHRC.
The Swiss ambassador, Ralf Heckner said, upon being summoned by the angered Indian Foreign Ministry recently, said that the posters in Geneva are part of the space provided to all, but in no way endorse the claims, nor reflect the position of the Swiss government.
The Swiss Ambassador ignored the Indian Foreign Ministry’s call and said to the Indian officials that “the posters in Geneva are part of the space provided to all, and that the Swiss government no connections or whatsoever on the posters thus pasted in the open space.
This means by implication that the Swiss government expressed its helplessness on the issue that irked the Indian regime and it concurrently meant that such events at times take place in an around the UN Building in Geneva as it is the “open space”.
But yet, the Swiss diplomat assured the host government that he will convey the anger of the Indian government to Berne on the issue that has caused tension to India.
A diplomatic answer indeed.
As if the Geneva poster “exposition of India” early March this month were not enough, the New York Times in its March 10, 2023, Op-ed article by Anuradha Bhasin had added more strain to the already strained Prime Minister Modi and his Hindutva controlled administration.
Ms. Bhasin is the Executive Editor of the Jammu based Kashmir Times and she has in her fresh article titled “Modi’s assault on Press freedom has begun” wherein the veteran lady editor talks about PM Modi’s stance taken against the Indian media and its freedom of expression”.
Wikipedia says Bhasin is an Indian left-wing journalist based in the city of Jammu. She is the executive editor of the newspaper Kashmir Times a publication founded by her father, Ved Bhasin, with patronage received from the Congress party”.
In the article published by the NYT, she says that the Modi controlled Indian regime had imposed “repressive media policies in the country and was deliberately targeting the media organizations who chose to voice opinion against the government headed by the Prime Minister, report International media agencies.
The Telegraph Online (India) dated March 11, 2023, Ms. Bhasin has said in her NYT article that “His (Modi’s) Hindu-chauvinist movement, which has normalized intolerance and violence against Indian Muslims, has already put severe pressure on India’s once-rambunctious press, with journalists surveilled and jailed, and the government using strong-arm tactics against media outlets to ensure favorable coverage”.
The champions of media freedom in Nepal the so-called 12 brothers who have controlled and captured the Nepali media domain after the India imposed Republican Order in Nepal are silent.
It were these “infamous media veterans” who seemingly created Himalayan hurdles to the one US returned media man, Rabi Lamichaney, that he have had to quit the Home Minister portfolio in the recent months which is fresh in our memory.
Though the US returnee too is reportedly not a sincere media man in that his ambitions became too high which facilitated the 12 brothers to cut Lamichane’s wings.
Mr. Lamichaney is at the moment fighting to regain his lost status through politics as he is comparatively popular among the youths in nepal more so in an around Chitwan district.
Informed sources say that Lamichaney became the victim of those political animals and the media men who reportedly have thrived over these decades with Indian blessings.
I would say that majority of the mainstream media in Nepal is controlled by the Indian regime. The 12 brothers have formed a sort of “syndicate or cartel” that has silenced rest of the media and their voices. Needless to say, they have thrived with the Indian and European Union blessings, reportedly.
Some even draw their strength from the Norwegian mission based in Nepal. Only in the recent years, the Norwegian mission awarded millions and millions of Nepali Rupees to one special media in Kathmandu.
The purpose? Let’s guess.
However, not all media men are corrupt.
The sum total is that the Nepali media one way or the other is associated with either the European Union or Indian mission in Kathmandu.
Some even enjoy the combined benefits and so the strength too has doubled, let’s presume so.
Back to the point:
We can imagine the fear mixed courage with which Ms. Anuradha Bhasin could have dared to publish this article in one of the world’s most popular newspaper.
She pointedly mentions that, (stress added) “ We work under a cloud of fear”; “Journalism has always been hazardous in Kashmir”; “Some have fled into exile overseas””; at least 19 journalists were killed between 1990-2018”; and that “Journalists are routinely summoned by the police, interrogated and threatened with charges such as income tax violations or terrorism or separatism. Several prominent journalists have been detained or sentenced to jail terms”.
In addition to her piercing article on gagged Indian media, talking to Karan Thapar of the WIRE says Ms. Bhasin described in detail the way journalists are treated in Kashmir. She said: “government policies have virtually silenced the media”. She said journalists “work under surveillance”. She said they face “oral summons” and “interrogation” as well as “raids”. She said they are frequently being asked for “police verification”.
The Interview is dated 14 March , 2023.
Needless to say, if the media men-considered to be the fourth estate-in Kashmir have to undergo through such fear and intimidations then let’s guess as to what could the laymen, the Kashmiri population, may have been living inside the “open air jail”-Kashmir that it has already been termed.
And here too the self proclaimed defender(s) or say the “official contractors” of Nepali media sector have taken a studied silence and it is only obvious in that these media veterans fear the “Indian mugging” on the Nepali press which may come to them in the form of “shorten or even halting the media advertisements” that flood from the Indian mission in Kathmandu.
Purely, it is the Indian factor that the “bought” the fickle minded nationalists get lured towards the Indian “envelope funding” in Kathmandu from their preferred diplomatic mission.
Isn’t the whole affair contributing to the early Sikkimisation of Nepal? Perhaps yes as it is these Lendhup Dorje(s) inside the Nepali media sector that have encouraged the Indian regime to Sikkimise Nepal.
Anuradha Bhasin feels pained looking at the state of Journalism in India more so in and around Kashmir and says succinctly that,” An information vacuum hangs over Kashmir, with the public under-informed-or misinformed-about what’s going on in the region. Important news is suppressed, downplayed or twisted to suit government ends”.
And here too India bend media veterans in Nepal rarely cover news on or about Kashmir as it is this issue wherein the Indian instructions to them says in part, “ No Kashmir issue or else the envelope funding will be halted”.
With such alarming threat, , let’s believe they do so as the poor and stamina less India trained Nepali media (?) feels somewhat threatened to pen the stories on India for multiple politico-financial reasons.
India has the right to poke its nose on each and every political events in Nepal. But why Nepali media men remain scared in writing stories on Khalistan movement, Kashmiri pains and PM Modi’s clandestine connections with Gautam Adani as several media organization around the world write. Why Nepali media is scared of India? Good question indeed.
That’s all.