NEW YORK - Indian journalist and Washington Post contributor Rana Ayyub is one of the main critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government, writes PBS.
She recently won the highest award for press freedom from the National Press Club but is now headed back to India to face trial for sham charges of money laundering. Ayyub joined Amna Nawaz to discuss the government's latest attempt to silence her.
Modi's government have levelled money laundering charges against Rana Ayyub. They have levelled tax evasion charges against me. They have accused me of misusing funds, which they have not been able to prove. And I'm not the only one. Money laundering has become like the latest tool for the Indian government, the latest charge that the Indian government has been levelling against all journalists, critics and activists in India.
Indian journalist Siddique Kappan has been behind bars for the last two years for a story he did not report. And just when he was about to be freed by the court, the enforcement, they create five money laundering charges against him.
The conviction rate of this charge against people is less than 1 percent. And that speaks volumes of what this case means.
Rana Ayyub:
I have been critical of the government. I have written cover stories on the Modi government and his rule since 2014, the fact that he has not taken a single press conference.
In the last eight years, I have been calling out his Hindu nationalism, the attack on the 220 million Muslim minorities. In the world press freedom index rating, India has gone from 142 to 150th position. And, Amna, I'm not the only one. I'm still — like, I consider myself a privileged one, because I'm able to speak to you and point out the illegalities in my case.
Journalists in Kashmir are being arrested under public safety act for their journalism. They're not even allowed to leave the country to collect their awards, even for that matter, their Pulitzer awards. So that's where we are. The journalists in this country have become the enemies of the street right now.
My image has been mocked on a porn video and circulated all over the country. My phone number has been circulated on social media. My address has been put out there. Burned copies of my book have been sent to my residence.
One of India's leading journalists, Gauri Lankesh, was shot dead in 2017, because she was — allegedly by Hindu nationalists. Still today, we don't know who killed her. And I do remember that, two days before she was shot dead, I remember she called me and she was telling me about the online — online hate against me, saying, these are paper tigers. They don't attack.
And yet, two days later, she was shot dead. So, there is — I mean, whether it's online, whether it's offline, I feel like it's relentless. And only target is to basically silence us into submission and silence us from speaking the truth.
There are so many sham charges against you in India today. However, I believe this is my truth. And I'm heading back to India because that's my country and those are the stories that I want to report and I will report. The people who are doing this do not want me to return to India and do not want me to do the stories that I do.
But it is my moral obligation and moral responsibility that I continue doing this and talking about what's happening in India to the rest of the world, so which is why I'm going.
What happens is, again, I have — I'm completely out of depth at this point of time. So, I will leave that to probably the judiciary and see what happens from here. But I can say this, that my truth will not stop. My journalism will not stop. My quest for justice will not stop.
