Public Comment

A major critic of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is Indian journalist and Washington Post contributor, Rana Ayub. Ayub takes aim at Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government which has rejected its secular democratic roots in favor of promoting a fanatical Hindu State. She recently won the highest award for press freedom from the National Press Club. She is now headed back to India to face trial for money laundering, a favorite ploy of Modi’s government to silence influential journalists. 

Ayyub has long been a target of trumped-up investigations. The court accused Ayub of mishandling funds that she raised for victims of COVID-19. Ayyub was defiant. “It’s the Indian government who has leveled charges against me.” She has also been accused of tax evasion; a common threat aimed at other journalists. 

Another prominent, journalist, Siddique, has been in prison for two years on trumped up charges. And just when he was about to be freed, the government enforcement agency, leveled five new charges against him. The conviction rate for such charges is less than 1 percent! 

The “Committee to Protect Journalists”, and a United Nations body has called these charges” judicial harassment”. Responding to questions why the government has set its sights against her, Ayub responded, “I have been critical off the Modi government rule since 2014, following his last press conference.” 

In the last eight years, I have been calling out his Hindu nationalism, the attack on the 220 million Muslim minorities. In the world press freedom index rating, India has plummeted to 150. Journalists in Kashmir are being arrested under “the public safety act”. They're not even allowed to leave the country to collect their awards. 

Ayub, “My image has been mocked on a porn video and circulated all over the country. My phone number has been circulated on social media. My address has been put out there. Burned copies of my book have been sent to my residence”. Another one of India's leading journalists, Gauri Lankesh, was shot dead in 2017. It is tragic that the Modi government has been relegated to a “Gunda raj. Jagjit Singh