Thiruvananthapuram-based online Malayalam news portal “Marunadan Malayalee” has become the new target for the Left government in Kerala. CM Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government’s crackdown on the media has prompted sharp criticism right from local media bodies to politicians.
Hitting out at the Kerala govt, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “As much as we have been criticising Congress & various State Governments of using the law to silence media, I think it is important for the people of the country to look at what Pinarayi Vijayan is doing in Kerala…His CPM Govt has been beset with scam after scam ranging from gold smuggling to camera purchases for traffic. And having his own office and his own staff and family involved, it has been cracking down on media repeatedly and has been using threats of intimidation to silence media.”
What is the case?
Online news portal Marunadan Malayalee, which also has a YouTube channel by the same name, is owned and operated by Shajan Skariah since 2008. On 24 May 2023, Skariah published a news report on YouTube alleging mismanagement of the Sports Hostel under CPI(M) MLA PV Sreenijin.
Following this, a defamation case was filed by the MLA against Skariah along with an additional case under ST/SC Act which led to a widespread crackdown on the news portal and its employees including Shajan Skariah. The case was registered under sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(u) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and section 120 of the Kerala Police Act.
Sreenijin alleged that Skaria intentionally humiliated him by making “false allegations and accusations through a video uploaded in Marunadan Malayali.”
Skariah is known for his open criticism of the CPI(M) regime. A spate of targeted attacks has since been made on Marunadan Malayalee and its employees over the past month.
The Kerala police have raided the offices of Marunadan Malayalee and even searched the residences of its employees and partners. Several gadgets including laptops, cameras, memory cards, and even personal mobile phones of the staff have been seized in raids across various locations including in the capital city Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.
This comes after the Kerala High Court struck down Shajan Skariah’s appeal against the rejection of anticipatory bail by a Special Court under the case filed by Kunnathunad MLA Sreenijin with the Elamakkara police. Despite the submission by Skariah that there was no mention of Sreenijin’s caste in the news report, the Court in reference to Section 3(1)(r) of the SC/ST Act observed that “referring to the caste name of the victim is not necessary to attract the offence.”
With no respite from both the Special Court as well as the Kerala HC, Skariah moved Supreme Court on 30th June.
In a video posted on the YouTube channel, Skaria said the police action showed that politicians and criminals had ganged up against the portal and wanted to shut it down. “Police have raided offices across the state as if they were looking for a terrorist,” he said. He added that “raids were held not only at the houses of journalists, but even at the premises of their relatives and friends”. Skaria said 22 computers, four laptops and four cameras had been seized by the police.
The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) has hit out at the Left govt. KUWJ President MV Vineetha said that it is completely unheard of to investigate workers when the case is against the owner.
R Kiran Babu, general secretary of KUWJ, said, “The Union’s position is that if there is a case against Marunadan Malayalee and its owner Shajan Skariah, it should be investigated and if he is guilty, he should be punished but implicating workers of the organization is deplorable and undermines the dignity of Kerala Police.”
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar pointed out the “hypocrisy” of the non-NDA political parties including the ruling Left govt in Kerala. “I think YouTube channels in this age of technology, in this age of digital…to try and silence a YouTube channel because the channel is asking some uncomfortable questions about the (Kerala) govt’s conduct, is raising a mirror to the govt about its own conduct vis a vis gold smuggling and other very questionable scams. And being intolerant of that kind of journalism and using the police to silence journalists and the platform in my opinion is what the Left is now leading the Opposition parties in.”
Furthermore, CPI(M) MLA PV Anwar reportedly threatened a senior reporter of Marunadan Malayalee on Facebook. His Facebook account is full of bullish posts against the channel and its employees. The MLA in his recent posts has been issuing open threats and abuses to the media.
MLA from Nilambur LA constituency, PV Anwar celebrated on social media the report of an attack on Shajan Skariah at the Gatwick airport in London last month.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said attempts to silence the media that criticises the Left is the reason the latter has lost ground in the country. “It is one of the reasons why all Marxist and left govts have been dispatched from all over the country… Tripura, Bengal everywhere they have been dispatched. But in Kerala, they continue to practice this politics of intolerance, politics of intimidation and threat against our media and our journalistic community. And it is absolutely unconscionable, it is absolutely unacceptable in a democracy like ours,” he said.
#WATCH | Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar says, "As much as we have been criticising Congress & various State Governments of using the law to silence media, I think it is important for the people of the country to look at what Pinarayi Vijayan is doing in Kerala…His CPM Govt… pic.twitter.com/ytHmIIZNwz
— ANI (@ANI) July 5, 2023
Talking about the raids on Marunadan Malayalee, he said, “this recent example of using the Police to raid the offices & homes of a journalist to silence a YouTube channel when the matter is in Court and when the person has appealed to the Court, to use this type of blatant intimidation by a CM who criticises our Govt for banning BBC’s documentaries and talks about free speech – in our country if there is hypocrisy and double standards about freedom of speech & there is continuing politics of threat & intimidation, it is represented by the Left and Marxist Govt in Kerala.”
He recalled how the Opposition made a hue and cry after the ban on the BBC’s propaganda documentary on PM Modi. “To use this type of blatant intimidation by a CM who criticises our Govt for banning BBC’s documentaries and talks about free speech. In our country if there is hypocrisy and double standards about freedom of speech & if there is continuing politics of threat & intimidation, it is represented by the Left and Marxist Govt in Kerala.”
Former Union Minister Prakash Javadekar also spoke out in support of the media saying freedom of the press is under attack in Kerala.
Left’s intolerance towards freedom of the press
In November 2022, the Marxist govt was reportedly mulling amendments to certain Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to increase State control over the media. The law department of Kerala ha prepared a Bill to this effect. Mathrubhumi had reported that the government plans to amend Section 292 of the IPC and introduce a new sub-section 292A to penalise the publishing of content ‘intended to defame someone.’
In 2016, merely months after coming to power, the media had been blocked from entering the courts in Kerala for nearly 2 weeks. More than 100 lawyers had reportedly moved the court on behalf of a cop who was suspended for preventing mediapersons from entering a Kozhikode court premises.
In June this year, a journalist was booked on a complaint filed by the SFI over a “forged result released by the government-run Maharaja’s College in Ernakulam”. The CPI(M) had openly backed the action against the woman scribe. CPI(M) State secretary MV Govindan blatantly issued threats saying, “If they continue to engage in an anti-government, anti-SFI campaign claiming to be media, they will continue to face cases.”
Two days after Akhila Nandakumar was booked, a news anchor reportedly received a call from the police asking him to appear and make a statement against news he reported about three years ago.
The Left in Kerala has come under fire more so in recent days for its dictatorial aggression against the media. From senior editors to employees, the Vijayan government, which gives sermons to the BJP on press freedom, has curbed the same in its own state for the longest time.
“These are the same people who talk about freedom of speech, who don’t hesitate to support misinformation and lies against our Prime Minister and our government in the name of free speech. But when it comes to scrutiny of their govt, scams being raised and questions being raised about their govt and their governance, they have suddenly become intolerant and suddenly they become freedom of speech opponents. So this double standard, this hypocrisy must be visible, must be known to the people of India. And this type of intolerance should never be accepted and tolerated not by the people of Kerala, not by the people of India,” Chandrasekhar said.
