Trouble on the foreign beat isn’t new – but bringing home the news from the world’s most populous country is getting much harder.
As India goes to the polls to consider re-electing the Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country’s reputation as the world’s largest democracy is looking increasingly shaky.
Australian journalist Avani Dias, the India correspondent for the ABC since January 2022, has revealed she is the latest foreign correspondent to fall foul of the government. Dias says she was forced to abruptly leave the country, after a government official told her she’d crossed a line with reporting a Sikh separatist story, which aired on the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent, and her podcast, Looking for Modi.
The Indian government has denied the claims that it had made it difficult for her to cover the general elections and delayed her visa. The ABC will replace Dias shortly, with ABC South Asia Correspondent Meghna Bali already in Delhi.
But the furore over Dias is just another in a long list of actions taken by the Indian government against journalists, particularly those who provide anything less than coverage supportive of Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The media is polarised with a clear divide between Indian nationalist media and those who are characterised as anti-national media.
Although the election results won’t be declared until June, Modi is expected to be re-elected, continuing a prime ministership that has been marked by an escalation of nationalist fervour, not only within the country but extending abroad. Hindus represent about 80 per cent of India’s population, and while the values of secularism and religious tolerance are enshrined in the country’s constitution, the rise of nationalism under Modi has increased tensions between Hindus and religious minorities. India’s large Muslim community suffered most from a resurgence in communal violence.
This story was originally published in lowyinstitute.org. Read the full story here.