has reaped rich dividends for mr narendra modi, where he has pitted the hindu majority against the muslim minority, where the muslim minority has been projected as the evil that has been appeased over the years by the congress party and by secular leaders, and that secularism is such a bad word that we need to do away with it. so in a way, yes, i m disillusioned. having said that, if a leading newspaper in india, any publication says, rana, write the front page, or, rana, write the middle page, i m happy to write. having said that, there are publications, there are independent publications like the scroll wire, article 1a, caravan that are doing stunning journalism but, again, with a very niche audience. by and large, the majority of the mainstream media is still publishing newspapers that is palatable for an audience that is riding high on hate the hate wave in india that is all pervasive.
profoundly successful and popular as an electoral politician. does that leave you disillusioned with your own country? i myself see mr modi as a very strong contender for 2024 as being re elected as the prime minister of the country because i see hate on the ground, stephen, and hate has reaped very well, has reaped rich dividends for mr narendra modi, where he has pitted the hindu majority against the muslim minority, where the muslim minority has been projected as the evil that has been appeased over the years by the congress party and by secular leaders, and that secularism is such a bad word that we need to do away with it. so in a way, yes, i m disillusioned. having said that, if a leading newspaper in india, any publication says, rana, right the front page, or, rana, write the middle
about the importance of bearing witness and truth telling. ijust wonder why it is that so manyjournalists and media outlets in india do not appear to share your interest in digging deep into the past of mr modi in gujarat, and indeed digging deep into the. ..the way the government has handled certain challenges in the.in the present day, including the covid challenge. if you look at the indian media, manyjournalists are pursuing a very, very different path from yours. why? well, i d.| would point your attention to the fact that many in the regional media, the hindi newspapers in india, on their front page had images of the ganga, the ganges river, with dead bodies floating on it. so, if i could.. ..i could say that there was a bit of a change with covid in india, that i could see journalists
which called out narendra modi s complicity, one of his spokespersons went on a television channel saying that i was funded by the cia. so, as bizarre as it may be, that s the unfortunate truth. there is, of course, i will not deny that, there is a section of indian journalists independent journalists, i must say who want to do theirjournalism but are being censored by their publication. i can do that because i m not writing for an indian publication. i haven t written for an indian publication in a long time. i write for the washington post, i write for new york times and other publications. i now have my substack, but. well. yes, you still have a high profile. ..that i wrote in time magazine in an indian newspaper, i don t think that would have been possible. you still have a high profile in india, and ijust wonder what impact all of the threats and intimidation you ve talked about with me, what impact they have upon you personally. i m just looking at a quote here from rebecca v
of gujarat, where.where he was the chief minister when a thousand muslims were killed under his watch, to the.to hisjourney as the prime minister of india in 2014. the violent. . .the violent threats that are issued to me, i ll give you an example. just about two months ago, somebody posted on twitter that my father was in germany, soliciting prostitutes and abusing women on the street, and the national spokesperson of mr narendra modi s party, the bjp, says, look at rana ayyub s father, a man of questionable character. the person who tweeted that deleted the tweet because it was mischief. but by then a meme was made and circulated all over on social media. i have a copy of your book, the gujarat files: anatomy of a cover up, in front of me. and it took you an awful long time to get it published because the magazine you were working for at the time of the commission