This too is an Emergency

On Tuesday Kantilal Bhuria, a Congress member of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh, sought permission in Lok Sabha to discuss a ban by the central and some state governments on giving government advertisements to the Rajasthan Patrika Group of publications.

When Speaker Sumitra Mahajan denied permission, documents regarding the matter were submitted.

According to Bhuria, controlling the media is dangerous in a democracy. Once the issue was raised, the government should explain what did the group do to merit such extreme measure; when did the governments send letters of warning to Patrika Publications; the specific reasons cited and the specific time when the Information and Broadcasting department send out notification regarding the ban.

Letters written by Patrika should also have been tabled in the House, he said. Without these, the governments will have to concede they have no faith in democracy.

After the previous general election, everyone hoped and believed that 'Achche Din' - better prospects -were to come. The chronology of events after government formation created a grim atmosphere in which, it seemed, Sushma Swaraj, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Vasundhara Raje would be sacked.

Everyone in politics stand on slippery ground. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached some kind of agreement with them, but it seems he also left some sword hanging over their heads.

Today, it is clear to Raje that the BJP wouldn't repeat her as CM. So she is busy ensuring a smooth future for her family for generations to come. She is saving the skin of every corrupt bureaucrat.

In the past two-and-a-half years, many dubious middlemen have sprung up in the state. Some of them are behind the bars. This government is busy with them and has forgotten its people.

Today orders by Supreme Court and the high courts are treated like a source of entertainment. The way anti-corruption agencies of the state itself are nabbing people every day, it seems there is nothing but rampant looting and plundering and total anarchy and corruption.

When Rajasthan Patrika brings out such news, it hurts the ego of this government. But such news is never fabricated, nor do we ever blackmail.

They just don't want us to publish anything against the government. It seems the totalitarian rule of monarchies is back. Freedom of the Press and Right to Expression are not available to Rajasthan Patrika today.

The government, though, has the liberty to misuse the power bestowed upon it by people. The only hurdle: Rajasthan Patrika, which exposes its misdeeds.

Which has made gagging the newspaper a necessity. And the government thinks it has a weapon - holding government advertisements back form the paper. As if, it will change destiny.

People have actually started saying that there has never been a more corrupt government in the state since independence. Today the whole of Rajasthan is crying.

They may not be speaking out, but today BJP's ministers, MPs, MLAs are all miserable as not a single project has trickled down to the grassroots in the past two and half years. Everyone is worried about their political future.

Even the CM's constituency is shedding tears, but that has no effect. Nor is Delhi putting a stop to it.

They are unable to buy Patrika, and Patrika never sought any favour.

This is sheer arrogance of power. Those from whom help was sought at times of crisis are now being fired upon due to greed.

Patrika always upholds its principles and and works according to them. There is no black spot.

This doesn't go down well with the government ego. It wants to keep every media institution under its thumb. Even at the Centre there is a BJP government of the same creed. One phone call has stopped all central government DAVP advertisements.

Our readers may remember the dark days of the Emergency, when Patrika was percieved anti-Congress. The then Information and Broadcasting Minister Vidya Charan Shukla made threatening calls to Patrika. The collectorate office did everything to censor us.

But even in those days, government advertisements to Patrika were not stopped.

Surprisingly, they have stopped in the Good Days - Achchhe Din - today, without prior information.

Doesn't this point to a bigger dictatorship than the Emergency?

Our esteemed CM keeps reiterating that she follows the footsteps of her late mother Vijaya Raje Scindia. Well, she must be grieving from the heaven at seeing her daughter take all sorts of wrong decisions under various pressure.

The CM's blind love for her son is the hot topic in the BJP. She wanted to see Dushyant Singh as a central minister, but PM Modi has turned that down outright. Now she dreams of seeing him as the next CM of Rajasthan.

But she has to first check she will be able to even win the next elections from her constituency. There is a lack of positive environment for the BJP today. If governance continues like this, the party's days are numbered.

Whether the people would be kind to her son is a point to ponder.

Angered by our news, various BJP governments have stopped government advertisements to us one after the other in a rather planned, systematic way.

The Chhattisgarh government targeted Patrika at the very beginning. We experienced 'Good Days' in Madhya Pradesh. Though advertisements resumed there, our files never moved. And Rajasthan has gone absolutely ballistic. It's been almost eight months since the state government stopped advertisements to Rajasthan Patrika.

One Mumbai-based advertisement agency told us that we got a call from the CM's office to stop the advertisements.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore is also from the state. What can't be achieved through him!

We don't hope for 'Achchhe Din' while this government continues. We shall continue our fight with the support and patronage of our loyal readers and survive the next two and half years even by selling something or the other.

But, in this atmosphere, will the BJP be able to return to power in the next elections? Will Dushyant be the new CM?

The CM shouldn't turn Dhritrashtra in her love for her son. As long as she has a chance, she should let go of her ego and start caring for the people. Perhaps, God may listen to her then.