Torturous times for journalists

Demonstrators costumed as Saudi Crown Prince Mohd bin Salman and US President Donald Trump protest outside the White House in Washington, DC, on Friday. Pic/AFP

The whole world has joined in condemning the execution by the Saudi Arabian government's 15-man death squad of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this month. The pressure on them was so intense that the Saudis this weekend finally admitted to killing him at their consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. One of the few governments that seemed to have no opinion on the matter (other than weak nations like Pakistan) was India.

You might think this was because Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who ever since he came to power in 2014 has made a free press into his strawman, to be attacked freely by his government and his legion of cheerleaders - has a lot in common with impulsive and ruthless (if myopic) strongmen leaders such as the Saudi Crown Prince Mohd bin Salman, also known as MBS, which in the Arab world now stands for "Mr Bone Saw" after the gruesome way that Khashoggi's corpse was disposed of and secreted out of the consulate in Istanbul.

However, India's lack of reaction probably has to do Modi having hosted the Saudi oil minister and other oil producers in Delhi last week. Modi is in such a panic over the rising international price of crude oil (over USD 75) and the plunging rupee (looking at a three-figure exchange rate with the dollar) that he begged the ministers to give India reasonable rates and a review of payment terms, so that the rupee might get relief. His reasoning? That high prices would hurt global economic growth.

Tough luck the Saudi oil minister said: things could have been worse. So our 'strategic' silence on Khashoggi's assassination got us nowhere. It further underlined that after four-and-a-half years on the job, Modi has no idea what he is doing. He is trapped within his bubble of conceit and cannot calibrate the government's responses or requirements with the outside world.

With or without India's opinion, Saudi Arabia admitted to the audacious execution of Khashoggi. The hit squad, which included members of MBS's security detail, first chopped Khashoggi's fingers as symbolic punishment for his writings. They then killed him and disposed of his body in parts. Turkey's intelligence agencies likely had the consulate under surveillance. They likely saw the murder (though it can't be revealed, since such surveillance would be secret and also undiplomatic).

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has his reasons to expose the Saudis: he wants leadership of the Muslim world. He likely wants to resurrect the Ottoman Empire, much like other strongmen want to revive their nation's glorious past: Russian President Vladimir Putin resurrecting the glorious days of the Soviet Union, or US President Donald Trump making America great again, or China's Xi Jinping recreating the Middle Kingdom, or our own Modi wanting to go back to the Vedic period, for our "self-esteem".

The Saudi assassination was as bone-headed as their detention of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri last year. They apparently slapped him around and made him resign on TV - it backfired when Hariri returned to Beirut a hero to his people. The Saudis have arrested 18 officials, including their deputy intelligence chief, but you get the feeling that the culprits will be freed eventually.

It is tough being a journalist these days. In India, we've been abused ever since Modi came to power. Last year, one of the journalists who uncovered the Panama papers, the secreting of wealth that led to the downfall of former Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif, was killed in her native Malta. A legislator aligned with Trump physically attacked a reporter for the UK's Guardian. Journalists covering the opening of Lord Ayyappa's temple to women, at Sabarimala in Kerala, were attacked by right-wing devotees oblivious of the Supreme Court judgment. Journalists are routinely picked up in Kashmir. Turkey's government, which exposed Khashoggi's murder, has itself incarcerated over 200 journalists since the 2017 coup. Authoritarian leaders believe the pen is far mightier than the sword, and it scares them.

Not that journalists are cowed down. In India, they have been at the forefront of the #MeToo movement, cleaning up their own house before they preach to others. We've heard of sexual harassers in other professions, but the only high-profile justice that has been meted came with the departure of MJ Akbar from Modi's ministerial council, due solely to the efforts of journalists he had once victimised with impunity. Obviously regressive forces like Modi and company can't stand journalists for their insistence on the truth, but it is these progressives who have course-corrected society in sync with the long arc of the moral universe, which, as US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr once said, bends towards justice. Journalists may be unpopular nowadays, but it is they who keep for us our self-esteem, without having to build a temple.

Aditya Sinha's latest book, The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace, co-written with AS Dulat and Asad Durrani, is available now. He tweets@autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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