The BBC raids and India today: Questions even a child could ask

Is it really that difficult, in today’s India, to speak out? Is it that tough, even in private conversation, just to utter the simple truth that our current government refuses, in Parliament or outside, to answer the most obvious of questions? Questions like, “Was it merely a ‘survey’ (to employ the official word) when, in the course of continuous raids, scores if not hundreds of the BBC’s journalists in India (most of them Indian in origin) were asked to hand over their phones and computers for copying?”

Is it too risky to say that the government seems to be turning off the switches of India’s democratic institutions? Being a student of history, I am reminded of earlier incidents by today’s happenings. On June 9, 1942, for example (more than 80 years ago, that is), by when Gandhi had begun voicing his intention to launch the Quit India movement, Louis Fischer, an American journalist visiting India, marvelled at what he thought was Gandhi’s audacity. For, by then, the mighty US had entered the Second World War as England’s ally.