• Prakash Pohare

The news that is told publicly by the government in 'press conferences' is not 'news' but 'advertisements'. But the real news lies hidden in the things that the government tries to hide meticulously! Only a humble journalist understands this.

The words - truth, knowledge, information, reality, facts - have become blunt in the last ten years. Just like the tide that rises in the sea; lies, half-truths and distortions have started ringing loudly in our ears. There is an old saying - ‘Shallow water makes a lot of noise’. When someone starts making noise, people realize that since he/she has nothing to say, that's why he/she is shouting! This is actually true, after seeing the Modi government and its 'Godi Media', people have now become aware of his image. These electronic channels have no other work than showing ‘sycophancy’ to power.

Before the ‘divine’ rule of Shri Narendra Modi, India was extremely backward. There were no roads, no power stations, no coal mines, no mining projects in the country! There was no natural gas, no pipelines for transportation, no telephone towers and, for that matter, no fiber optic networks! No warehouse, no aeroplane, no airport. Nothing! All happened during Modi's tenure and a record breaking 'growth rate' of building one toilet every seven and a half seconds was achieved. We can imagine well how quickly small things like airports, railway stations, power stations etc. would have been built! Today's 'Godi Media' is creating a particular image of the present rulers and is running such news that the 'fate' of the country has changed only after the ‘VikaasPurush’Modiji became the Prime Minister. Basically, 'Active Journalism' is today's reality, which takes care that no kind of power, ruler or system is hurt; where emotions are given importance instead of conscience and thoughts.

It is surprising that today, no English-Hindi channel is talking about a serious issue like 'Electoral Bond'. How would they talk? Without government’s support, their advertisements are stopped; And ‘No Advertisements’ clearly mean the news channel or newspaper goes out of business. That is why there is a competition in the world of journalism as to who should sing the ‘qasida’ for Modi government (in Urdu poetry, poems were written in the praise of kings and emperors, which are called 'qasida').

Now look at the reality. Modi ji finds his businessmen and capitalist friends braver than the soldiers fighting at the border. Therefore, Modiji has decided to hand over the country to these brave people. Modi started 'Sabka Vikas' rapidly and the work of that development also started rapidly. Now, let all of them form the government and why should we waste our time in maintaining it, so instead of selling it, Modi ji decided to transfer ‘development’ to his brave capitalists i.e. businessmen.

In the last nine-ten years, 25 airports, 26,700 km of highways, 6 gigabyte hydroelectric and solar power plants, 160 coal mining projects, 8154 km of natural gas pipeline, 14,917 telecom towers, 210 MT capacity warehouses, 400 railway stations, Government assets like millions of hectares of government land have been sold off or transferred to their powerful businessmen and capitalist friends at throwaway prices. So, this is the reality of 'Godi Media' - it will neither tell nor show anything.

To further develop the country, we will have to retain power. To retain power, we will have to win elections. To win, the Party will have to be strengthened and to strengthen the Party, immense money will be required. There is business 'software' in Modiji's mind! Hence, the plan of ‘Electoral Bonds’. For this, many laws were not only twisted, but actually broken. Of course, since this transaction was done through the State Bank of India, all the details of the donation will be understood only by the dutiful, fatherly government! This megalith of corruption was approved as a 'Money Bill' in the budget session of 2017-18 without taking the Rajya Sabha into confidence. Under this scheme, bonds worth more than Rs. 16 thousand crores were purchased. BJP got bonds worth more than 8 thousand crores. Of course, out of the total donations received by all the parties in the country, the ruling BJP received more than half of the donations.

On February 15, 2024, the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the government's 2018 election ban plan. The court said that the scheme violates the right to information given to voters under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Also, orders were given to stop the sale of bonds immediately. The court had ordered State Bank of India to give detailed information about the bonds purchased so far to the Election Commission. Two days before the expiry of the deadline set by the Supreme Court, State Bank of India requested the court to grant three months' time to submit the details of the electoral bonds under 'falsification'. The reason for this was that the 'corruption' done by the BJP government regarding electoral bonds should not be announced before the Lok Sabha elections. By doing this, State Bank of India made it clear that it is 'Modi's State Bank'. The same 'State Bank of Modi' submitted the details of election bonds to the Election Commission. But the Supreme Court also ordered the Commission to make these details public by March 21.

Based on the information released so far, many things have come to light. That means the Election Bond Scheme is the biggest corruption in the history of independent India. Not only anti-Modi people, but Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's economist husband Parakalla Prabhakar is also saying the same. ‘Give donations, take business’ is one side of this coin, the other side of the coin is to stop investigation by taking extortion or to conduct raids for extortion, to start investigation means ‘extortion’.

The BJP government has taken a lot of 'donations' from the companies which have been raided by ED, CBI, Income Tax Department, because only after the raids, these companies have bought bonds worth crores of rupees. Projects worth thousands of crores were given to those from whom BJP took donations. Loss making companies have also donated crores of rupees to BJP. Undoubtedly, these shell companies are companies that have ‘mushroomed’ overnight. It is a clear fact that the black money that had gone out of India was given to BJP through electoral bonds.

The most notable thing here is that despite the Election Commission getting all this information, they have not taken any action in this regard. This means that the Election Commission has become the pet cat of the ruling party and this is the real threat to democracy. To divert attention from this bond scam, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal were arrested. Intelligent readers should keep this in mind.

Despite all this, the Honourable Prime Minister declares 'This time - beyond four hundred’! This is because of the support of the ‘so-called’ civilized middle class. The real reason behind this is the so-called fear and hatred created in their minds towards the Muslim community and due to this, the middle class of the country seems to have become a supporter of the corruption and atrocities led by Modi. That is why the shop of ‘love’ attracts attention in the market of ‘hatred’.

Politics is inevitable in democracy. There are two types of this politics – constructive and destructive. Constructive politics leads to progress of the people, state and country, but destructive politics leads to the downfall of the people, state and country. Once elected, voters have no control over the elected representatives for the next five years. Once authoritarian politicians come to power, they take control of all centers of power in the administration and society and start acting recklessly like an all-powerful emperor.

In recent times, a new policy has emerged in Indian politics which exemplifies - ‘Might is Right’. Earlier it was said that power corrupts political leaders, but now power has become a means of washing away the sins of corrupt political leaders and bringing them to power.

For how long will this ‘Upar bhajan, Andar tamasha’go like this? If you still can't hear this alarm bell, then either you are deaf, or you are pretending to be deaf and serving your own interests! For those who have noticed all this and want to change the system, this is an opportunity that comes only once in five years and this opportunity is available at your fingertips! Now it is up to your discretion whether to take advantage of this opportunity or remain unaware!!

(The author is the Editor of Marathi daily ‘Deshonnati’, Hindi daily ‘Rashtra Prakash’ and weekly ‘Krishakonnati’) The author can be contacted at 9822593921.