As the Chinese spy ring in Delhi was busted and 3 persons, including a Bharatiya journalist, Rajeev Sharma were arrested, many people on social media actually came out in their support. These included institutions as well as people hailing from “secular” media-houses/publications. The Islamists also started taunting Hindus about the arrest, conveniently forgetting that the same day 8 ISIS terrorists were also arrested.

Outright support to Chinese spies

The Press Club of India, a group based in Lutyans zone, released a statement that alleged that police action was “high-handed” and alleged that it “may be inspired by obscure or questionable considerations”. The PCI said it is “astounded to hear of the arrest of Rajeev Sharma, a well-known independent journalist of long standing and a member of the club”. The Club, which apparently includes many heavyweights who consider themselves above the law, demanded that in all cases of arrests of journalists anywhere in the country, “the police must be required to inform the Press Council of India as well as the self-regulatory body of the broadcast media on an immediate basis”. The “self regulatory body”, of course, meant the Club.

The Club showed its political bias when it said that the arrests of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia “scholars” such as Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and others were done “acting on a political bias”. “Of late, Delhi Police, including its Special Cell, have made preposterous arrests under the lawless law called UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) in which the word of the government is enough to keep an innocent person behind bars for long periods. These have happened in matters relating to anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests and the carefully designed communal killings in the so-called February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi,” it continued.

One might ask the high and mighty members of Press Club, if they said a word when Arnab Goswami was interrogated for hours and there was an attempt to assault him. One might ask them where they were when the editors of OpIndia were harassed by Bengal Police or recently when the journalists from Republic were arrested in Maharashtra. There was a pin-drop silence in all these cases, as probably only “certain” journalists are worth saving and others not worth the effort.

Many “secular” journalists also opposed the action by Delhi Police. For example, take the case of Arvind Gunasekar. He works with NDTV and implied that this arrest is an attack on Press Freedom.

A senior journalist arrested under Official Secrets Act.

Two days ago this very Govt advocated for Press Freedom !! https://t.co/t8xeDMgQCB

— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) September 18, 2020

Perhaps, Mr. Gunasekar needs to be educated about the difference between Press Freedom and spying. But then, maybe in JNU and then in NDTV, they train you to think that spying also comes under Press Freedom!

National security or laughing matter?

Many other “secular” journalists saw it fit to joke about the strategy of the Army and government while talking about the arrest of Rajeev Sharma. As it was revealed that Sharma was passing on the sensitive information about deployment of forces and strategy to Chinese, Saurabh Joshi saw it fit to ask “He knew about the border strategy?”

Man Aman Singh Chinna of Indian Express, with a hint of magisterial arrogance, remarked that “it does not appear that anybody knows what the strategy is”. Perhaps, the Defence Ministry should ask his permission before formulating a strategy and keep him apprised of all their counsels. Vijaita Singh of The Hindu, who regularly peddles fake news in the garb of unnamed sources, gleefully remarked that “this should be feted”.

It must be remembered that Man Aman Singh had recently claimed that Chinese Army losses in Galwan were in single digits and also shared a photo of Nehru saying it is from a forward location in NEFA in 1962. The only issue was that the photo was from Assam, not NEFA, now called Arunachal, and the year was 1963, much after the war! Similarly Vijaita Singh has been reporting fictitious claims about issues as diverse as NPR and Chinese occupation of 1000 sq km in Ladakh, both citing unnamed govt officers. Of course, the whole list of their fake news would be enough to make a post in itself, so readers might assess their competence from these examples.

Slandering Ajit Doval

Vijaita Singh did not stop there. she implied that that Rajeev Sharma was employed by Ajit Doval and implied wrongdoing on part of VIF and Doval. However, she forgot to mention that this was in 2010-11 when Sharma was a fellow at VIF. Further, she never mentioned that Sharma’s Chinese connection started in 2016 when he was working with Global Times, the mouthpiece of Chinese Communist Party. Predictably, Global Times has denied any information and protested the association of its name with Sharma. The communist media in Bharat has complied.

Journalist Rajeev Sharma arrested under OSA, worked for Vivekananda International Foundation, founded by NSA Ajit Doval. A webpage linking his work has been removed from VIF's website. Here is the cached page though. https://t.co/NqY5IbycL0 pic.twitter.com/5YxMSi5Hqo

— Vijaita Singh (@vijaita) September 19, 2020

The reference to Ajit Doval was latched on to by the Islamist organisation Social Democratic Party of India or SDPI. It released a statement saying that role of Vivekananda Foundation, RSS and PMO should also be probed. It used the incident to abuse “Sanghis”, although Rajeev Sharma has no relation whatsoever with Sangh and is in-fact opposed to RSS!

Arrest of Rajeev Sharma for spying for china just a tip of the Iceberg -SDPI pic.twitter.com/rGCN5GHr0O

— SDPI Karnataka (@sdpikarnataka) September 21, 2020

It goes without saying that SDPI is the same party which engineered Bengaluru riots and had significant role in Delhi riots. Many ISIS terrorists of Kerala and Karnataka have found ready shelter in SDPI.

Conclusion

One can learn from Bharatiya media-persons how to make a national security issue trivial and how to frame it in terms of press freedom. Clearly, many of these media persons are rattled. As we indicated in a previous piece, many more are likely to be on Chinese payroll and will make sure that the issue is diverted in other direction.

A few years ago, General V K Singh talked about the “two and a half front” war. The front lines of the “half front” within the country are becoming clear every day. Before dealing with external enemies, it is important to deal with the enemies within.

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