The Opposition parties in Punjab have attacked the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab of using arm-twisting tactics to muzzle the press, especially in the wake of the Punjab Kesari newspaper group accusing the Bhagwant Mann government of targeting it with raids by enforcement agencies.
The newspaper group on Thursday wrote to Mann alleging that it was being targeted for its “balanced and fair” news report on opposition allegations against the ruling AAP’s national convenor.
Raids by enforcement agencies were being conducted “with an extraneous motive to intimidate the press”, the group wrote.
The Punjab government issued an official statement late evening and categorically rejected the Punjab Kesari group’s allegations.
Leader of Opposition in the state, Partap Singh Bajwa, hit out at the ruling AAP of misusing state machinery to gag the press. In a post on X, Bajwa said: “From FIRs against journalists to raids and ad blockades, this is a clear pattern. Under @BhagwantMann, the Aam Aadmi Party is using state power to muzzle the press. I stand firmly with @punjabkesari”.
“As Walter Cronkite said, ‘Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy'’. The same democracy that gave @ArvindKejriwal and Bhagwant Mann their opportunity is now being strangled,” he further wrote.
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BJP state president Sunil Jakhar also condemned the “attack on media’s freedom”, and added that a BJP delegation will meet the governor on January 17 in this regard.
With their “action” against the newspaper group, Jakhar, in a post on X, said this has proven that this government has “forgotten all democratic norms”.
“I strongly condemn this attack on media freedom. Aam Aadmi Party should not make Punjab a police state. A delegation of the Bharatiya Janata Party will meet the Governor of Punjab on January 17 in this regard,” Jakhar said.
Meanwhile, SAD president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, said in a post on X that “when governments are rattled, and the writing on the wall is clearly visible to them, the first institutions that come under attack are the free media and opposition parties that stand for the people”.
Badal said that after “targeting” SAD leaders and workers, the CM and the AAP government “have now launched a brazen assault on press freedom”.
“Raids and intimidation tactics are underway against the respected Jalandhar-based Hind Samachar Group, a media house with a proud history of resilience, values, and ethics.
Bhagwant Mann is acting exactly like Indira Gandhi did during the Emergency, but he is forgetting that even she couldn’t break the will of the Hind Samachar Group (@punjabkesari) and the Chopra family,” Badal said in a post on X.
Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring called the press censorship “highly outrageous and condemnable”, and said that a premier news institution of Punjab was being subjected to brazen and blatant victimisation and intimidation by the AAP Government.
“Hope the Hon Punjab Governor and the Hon Chief Minister take note of this matter on urgent priority. We must not let our media institutions be subjected to brazen intimidation. If this can happen with the Punjab Kesari Group @punjabkesari that is the voice of the masses, one can imagine the plight of the common man in Punjab: The Aam Aadmi,” Warring said in a post on X.
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini also hit out at the AAP government. “After pushing Punjab to the brink of ruin, the AAP government, now terrified by the public anger rising against it, has completely lost its composure. The fear of losing power is so profound that the Punjab government has resorted to intimidating and suppressing the media,” Saini said in a post in Hindi on X.
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