It is perplexing that when the banking sector has been crippled by unpaid loans disbursed to industrialists over the years, and with no criminal cases being filed against them by the CBI, the agency should now hasten to act against a private and leading television channel. It is evident that the CBI continues to be a “caged parrot” even under the present dispensation and will remain so until it is brought under the Lok Pal, which the Modi government is intriguingly unwilling to operationalise. Is the raid a result of refusing to act as the one of the government’s cheerleaders? Is it a warning to the media to tow the government’s line or face the wrath of its agencies? By all accounts, the CBI’s action is an unmitigated attack on the independence of the media.
S.K. Choudhury,
Bengaluru
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