given the legal constraints upon you right now, has your voice, in effect, been silenced? well, that s the intention, stephen, to silence my voice. unfortunately, the government has not been victorious on that count. neither has it been victorious over the last 15 years of myjournalism, when it has literally tried every tool in the book to silence my voice and myjournalism. at this point of time, four cases, two by uttar pradesh police, one by the income tax department, one by the enforcement directorate, and i m hoping many more to go, because that s the cost of speaking truth to power in india at a time when journalism and mainstream journalists in india are self censoring themselves. but i ve seen some reports suggesting your legal team have said that you better not leave mumbai, because if you do, you might well be detained, arrested. is that the situation you are in right now?
of muslims and accusations of eating beef or other hate crimes would not be reported, because our mainstream media is looking the other way. so, in a way, twitter has democratised that space for us to publish the unadulterated truth of what the government really wants, which is exactly why the government of the day wants to come heavily on social media and especially on platforms like twitter, because it is the only space left where some of us are expressing ourselves without fear of being censored. and if this is taken down, i don t know how many voices will be left. if the government is really concerned about communalisation and polarisation, it should start censoring its own spokespersons and ministers who are at the forefront of spreading fake news in india. and every day you see them spewing hate and venom and fake numbers, talking about, for instance, talking about how the muslim population of india will explode by 2050,
the indian authorities claim that you made no attempt, and i m quoting here, to establish the truth of the case, and this fits into their contention that, increasingly, social media is being used to spread misinformation and, some would say, fake news, which in india s case is inflaming inter communal tensions. are they right? had you done your due research when you tweeted that? well, i would agree with the part where you said that fake news is being used, but by the government of the day to spread communal violence in the country, especially by those in the right wing ecosystem. yeah, but answer my question, if you would, rana. yes. as a journalist in the summer of 2021, i tweeted. in fact, i co tweeted a video which was broadcast by almost every news channel in the country the due diligence. i tweeted the video, which was shared by almost every journalist in the country, every editor in the country. the newspapers of the day had that video and the contents of the video on the front
it was fascinating, but it wasn t journalistically rigorous. well, the home secretary of gujarat when mr narendra modi was the chief minister said that mr modi did not allow forces in gujarat on time and allowed the riots to continue unabated. if you read the book, you will see damning revelations. the reason why indian media did not cover it, and i have. well, you ve got a lot of hearsay in the book, but i m absolutely duty bound to point out that courts have looked at the information, not just from you, but from other sources as well, and they have never, everfound grounds to put mr modi into a courtroom to face charges. never. and he, of course, has always utterly denied the allegations that you and others have made about his involvement in that violence. first things first, stephen, the courts have still not read my book. they have still not asked me to place the records and the transcripts of my.
you say you no longer write for indian publications, you write for publications overseas. ijust wonder if that is one sign of your disillusion, notjust with the government of india but with the people of india, because i look at the approval ratings of mr modi today, they are still high. i think, hovering around the 55 to 60% mark. every political analyst in the country seems to believe he has a very, very strong chance of getting re elected in 202a. this man, india s strong man, is still, in global terms, 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,