The NewsClick Affair: Government benefits from an anti-Chinese pantomime

The news website was already under investigation by ED for allegedly receiving Chinese funds for pro-Chinese propaganda. The recent and hurried ramp-up by the police may very likely come to nothing

The China bogey has been revived with raids on NewsClick and others associated with the news platform. Yet the government is defensive, militarily and publicly on China's egregious actions in Eastern Ladakh, where military tensions continue on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). So, what does this very public rant against China over NewsClick amount to?

NewsClick was already under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate for allegedly receiving Chinese funds for pro-Chinese propaganda. The recent and hurried ramp-up by the police may very likely come to nothing. Its FIR appears full of holes and may not stand legal scrutiny. Yet the theatrical operation, where over 400 policemen took in several journalists and public intellectuals for questioning and two arrests, offered a clear political message to both international and domestic observers. It was a victory of sorts without firing a single shot across the LAC!

In a media interview, Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar may have alluded to India's reluctance to take on China militarily: "Look, they (China) are the bigger economy. What am I going to do? As a smaller economy, I am going to pick up a fight with the bigger economy? It is not a question of being reactionary, it's a question of common sense… ." Perhaps common sense dictated the face-saving charade against Chinese influence in the media. The government's actions appear to be of a piece with the earlier banning of Chinese apps (August 2022), discouraging Chinese investments in India (BYD, July 2023 and Great Wall Motor, July 2022) and freezing the assets of Chinese companies for financial irregularities (Xiaomi, April 2022).

Currently, the global competition for hegemony between the US and China is playing out not only in trade forums like BRICS, APEC, G-20 and in infrastructure and connectivity projects like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the proposed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor but also in controlling the public sphere. The police action against journalists and public intellectuals clarifies where India stands. It also warns smaller countries in South Asia and Africa, being wooed by China, to hedge their bets.

The editors of the New York Times (NYT) should ask themselves whether their report, which triggered the current spate of NewsClick's troubles, was balanced. At least two individuals their reporters approached have questioned its fairness. Jason Pfetcher, a manager of Worldwide Media Holdings (owned by Public Service Foundation or PSF), which invested in NewsClick, wrote in The Hindu that he gave NYT reporters a "categorical denial" that money invested in NewsClick was sourced from China. The NYT report did not carry his statement.

Another person approached by NYT reporters was Kavita Krishnan, an Indian social activist. In The Scroll, Krishnan says she refused to give them any quotes and warned them that their report "would inevitably be fodder for the far-right campaign in India to accuse all its critics of being "Urban Maoists" and to criminalise human rights work, democratic protest, journalism, and even social media communications among members of civil society as "terrorism"." Her apprehensions were correct.

The charges are serious but what do they add up situated against the government's own pronouncements? Whereas the police complaint or FIR interprets "intent to show Kashmir and Arunachal as not part of India" on a cartographic map, as a terrorist act, the government gets a free pass for saying that there has been no intrusion by China in Ladakh. If there is no illegal occupation of territory claimed by India, then what are the military-level talks with China on disengagement, de-escalation and de-induction -- at Depsang, Galwan, Gogra, Kakjung, the north bank of Pangong lake, Kailash Range and Demchok in Ladakh – all about?

Similarly, while no terrorism charges were made against the farmers actually blockading supply routes, writing about their protest qualifies as 'terrorism', for allegedly seeking "to disrupt supplies and services essential to the life of the community in India and abet damage and destruction of property by protraction of farmers' protest." No less than the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) confirmed in Parliament that no cases under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) cases were filed against the protesting farmers.

Moreover, if NewsClick promoted a "false narrative about domestic pharmaceutical industry" during the Covid-19 pandemic, why did domestic pharma companies not file a complaint themselves? Nor were the medical experts who questioned the efficacy and clinical test data of the India-made Covaxin, on TV, day in and day out, charged with 'terrorism'.

On the issue of receiving Chinese funds, the government and the police have yet to prove their case. Any illegality will no doubt be punished. But if China's growing public influence in India is a genuine concern, why has the government not proceeded against the Ministry of External Affairs' favourite private think-tank, which has received Chinese funding worth Rs 1.25 crore in three grants between 2016 and 2017? By contrast, China's grant to the Rajeev Gandhi Foundation was castigated as influence-peddling. The government must answer these questions to not appear partisan.

These contradictions suggest that the farce we are witnessing nevertheless sends out two strong domestic signals. It is meant to send a chill down the spine of journalists critical of the government in the run-up to the 2024 general election -- all freelancers and consultants questioned in the NewsClick case are known critics of the government.

The second message is to the Opposition, especially Rahul Gandhi, who has been a particularly trenchant critic of the government's China policy. During a recent visit to Ladakh, he accused the prime minister of "lying" to Indian citizens and hiding the "incompetence" of his government on the India-China border row. More recently, Rahul Gandhi commented on the prime minister's silence over a map issued by China that incorporated Arunachal Pradesh into its territory.  

The theatrical muscle flexing against alleged Chinese influence peddlers will also please India's allies abroad. For such rich political payoffs, inconveniencing or even imprisoning a few journalists and intellectuals may be a small price to pay.