UP Orders Officials To Probe ‘Negative” News

The Uttar Pradesh government has issued written orders directing officials to probe all negative reports in the media.

A letter written by the Principal Secretary Government of Uttar Pradesh, dated August 16, 2023, is addressed to all the divisional commissioners and district magistrates. They have been instructed to urgently investigate all “nakaratmak” (negative) newspaper articles and media reports uploaded on the state’s Integrated Grievance Redressal System (IGRS) as it harms the state government’s image.

The letter states that urgent action is expected from the divisional commissioners and district magistrates on the negative media reports uploaded on the IGRS portal. The letter clearly states: “No interim reports would be accepted”.

According to the letter the communication between the district magistrates and the relevant departments on the complaints would also have to be uploaded on the IGRS portal.

“If it comes to notice that any daily newspaper/media is distorting or using wrong information to produce negative news damaging the image of the state or district government then the concerned district magistrate has to write to the management of the concerned newspaper/media house for an explanation and send a copy of this letter to the state’s Department of Information as well”.

“Reproducing state government’s press releases is the most standard form of journalism. If anything is to be done beyond that it has to be in support of the state government. Any analysis or critique of government policies is construed as negative reporting and can be liable for legal action”, said a senior journalist.

A carrot-and-stick policy has been in force for some time. The ‘stick’ which till now was invisible has become discernible in black and white through this letter.

The carrot is the whooping government advertisements restricted to a handful of significant newspapers and selected channels.

A Right to Information application filed by Lucknow resident Umashankey Dubey revealed that the UP government had spent Rs 160.31 Crores on advertisements on TV news channels between April 2020 and March 2021.

The biggest beneficiary of this largess was the Network 18 group which cornered Rs 23.48 crores. It runs channels such as ‘CNN News 18, News 18 India’, and ‘News 18 UP Uttarakhand’.

The Zee Media group was just a little behind, cornering Rs 23.48 crores, followed by ABP, India Today, Republic Media Network, ITV Network, and the Times Group.

From full pagers in top dailies to prime time slots on news television to digital space brand CM Adityanath as a larger-than-life leader. He is projected as a firm administrator and upholder of law and order at any cost, be it through his ‘thoko’ policy of police encounters or the use of bulldozers to demolish buildings.

According to a senior editor-journalist, the present UP government releases advertisements on a regular basis to a handful of so-called ‘national’ newspapers and has left out a large number of independent, medium, and small publications high and dry.

The Press Council of India issued an advisory in March 2023 which among other things makes it mandatory for these newspapers to label government paid news as “advertorial’.

Last year at a public meeting Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had asserted there were merely 106 hoardings of the AAP government in Delhi compared to 850 hoardings of the Adityanath government in Delhi. “At times I wonder if CM Yogi is contesting the UP elections or an election in Delhi”, Kejriwal had reportedly said.

The present UP government order restraining “nakaratmak” press coverage can prove to be a trendsetter for other states as in recent times it has been witnessed that the Adityanath government is framing the template for many such measures across the country.

For example, the Uttar Pradesh Compensation for Damaging to Public and Private Property Act, 2020, is a law under which demolitions take place and huge sums of money have been recovered from the alleged rioters/protestors on the basis of police reports and CCTV footage, much before the matter is conclusively settled in the court of law.

It has earned CM Adityanath the nickname of ‘ Bulldozer Baba’, and has also inspired a hugely popular Hindutva pop song of the same name, by Prabhakar Maurya.

Clearly inspired by the UP model, the Haryana government passed the Haryana Recovery of Damages to Property During Disturbance to Public Order Bill 2021. After the recent Nuh violence, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said bulldozers are part of the “ilaj” or remedial action against those involved in the violence.

Within a few days, the Nuh district officials removed all the stalls, kiosks, and carts apart from demolishing 30 permanent shops and a four-storey hotel across a distance of 1.5 kilometres. The demolition drive stopped only when a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo moto cognizance of the demolition drive and halted it.

The court questioned if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government through the use of bulldozers was conducting “an exercise of ethnic cleansing” of Nuh’s Muslims. It has led many BJP-governed states to use demolition drives as a common tactic to quash Muslim dissent.

Bulldozers have since evolved as a Hindu-nationalist symbol, especially in northern India.

Another example of the Adityanath government leading the way is the Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act popularly known as the ‘love jihad law’. Love Jihad is an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that Muslim men are attempting to surreptitiously shift India’s demographic balance by converting Hindu women to Islam through marriage.

The law prohibits Muslim men from marrying Hindu girls and seeks the written permission of the district magistrate to do so. It prohibits conversion of religion by force, misrepresentation, undue influence allurement, fraud, etc.

The burden of proof of the lawfulness of religious conversion is with the person causing or facilitating such conversion. However, a person reconverting to his or her immediate previous religion is allowed.

After UP two then BJP-ruled states, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, passed similar laws. Maharashtra is said to be studying a similar law to ban the “social evil” of love jihad in complete disregard of the right of two consenting adults to get married.