On 3rd October (Tuesday), the former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, N Ram came out openly in support of NewsClick promoters who are accused of getting illicit funding from China. While interacting with India Today’s Rajdeep Sardesai, he claimed that there was nothing illegal in peddling ‘Chinese talking points’.
In an almost 12-minute interaction, N Ram also gave a clean chit to US billionaire, Neville Roy Singham – accused of being a Chinese stooge and peddling Chinese narrative in India through portals like NewsClick.
Can you believe it?
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) October 3, 2023
Shameless @nramind says that if NewsClick did paid stories on Pointers from China, it's not wrong.
Running Chinese agenda on border tension, covid, vaccines, Bhutan border against India is Fine for Journalists?
Journalists will do anything for Money? pic.twitter.com/04b0FktNnj
Here are some excerpts from the interaction which eventually turned out to be a shoddy attempt at whitewashing NewsClick and Roy Singham.
Rajdeep began by asking N Ram about his opinions on the recent developments revolving around NewsClick, accused of being linked to Chinese fundings. The India Today journalist Sardesai asked him whether he saw the raids as an attack on “freedom of the press” or does he consider it an act to defend sovereignty against those who are ‘anti-India’, as claimed by the government, Rajdeep added.
Responding to this, N Ram accused the government of indulging in a “McCartheiad campaign”, seemingly referring to McCarthyism. Notably, it refers to a period in the United States during the 1950s when Senator Joseph McCarthy led a campaign to accuse individuals, often without evidence, of being communists or communist sympathisers.
The trope he used leaves nobody surprised – according to him – the raids proved that the freedom of the press was under threat in India. He claimed that the government was trying to muzzle free voices and it was an attack on “freedom of speech”. According to him, NewsClick is a progressive offering and its reportage during farmer protests highlights it adding that though it is not an NGO, it doesn’t have profit as its motivation.
He said, “This is an outrageous attack, a military-style, on freedom of the press. Of course, Newsclick has been targeted, there has been a MaCartheiad campaign, largely based on lies, triggered by the New York Times piece published earlier. Nowhere in the New York Times piece has an ideological slant, nowhere does it accuse NewsClick of any wrongdoing by the law, or doing anything illegal. There are two “lazy references” that gave fresh life to ‘vendetta’ which started in 2021 against NewsClick, a small but focused digital venture that positioned itself very well during the farmer protests and has taken up issues that show it is a progressive offering, it’s not non-profit but profit is not its motivation.”
Interestingly, NewsClick, which, as per N Ram, doesn’t keep profit as its motivation, is accused of getting unaccounted money to the tune of more than Rs 38 crores.
ED investigation unveiled that an overseas fund amounting to Rs. 38.05 crores was deceitfully injected into NewsClick over a span of three years. The ED investigation uncovered that there were dubious transactions involving foreign inward remittances.
Specifically, Rs. 9.59 crore was introduced through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and an additional Rs. 28.46 crore was purportedly generated through the export of “services”. The ED Investigation brought to light that Prabir Purkayastha, the Director of Newsclick, had been acquainted with Neville Roy Singham of Worldwide Media Holdings LLC (Limited Liability Company) since 2017.
In his interview with Rajdeep Sardesai, Ram further lamented that the government has targeted NewsClick to send a wider message to muzzle dissenting voices and send a message to the press, reiterating that this is an attack on the press.
Going ahead, Rajdeep highlighted that ED in its investigation revealed that directors at NewsClick like Prabir Purkayastha had received money from Neville Roy Singham, a US citizen affiliated with the Communist Party of China (CPC). As per agency sources, it has therefore claimed that NewsClick portal was being used for anti-Modi, pro-China pieces.
Highlighting the ED findings, Rajdeep asked whether N Ram believed all of this was a red herring and an endless search for an enemy figure. Sardesai also asked whether he believes the Modi government is guilty of that or is it the way how governments, at centre or states, operate against dissenting voices to muzzle them using the force of law.
To which, Ram responds by reiterating his charge of the ‘McCartheiad campaign’ against the government. Instead of giving prominence to the probing agency or refuting its revelations against NewsClick, Ram argued that the New York Times report didn’t make a watertight case against the web portal.
He then goes on to highlight two references from the NYT report, both enclosed in the screengrabs below, and claims that the report didn’t mention Newsclick received Chinese money.
Interestingly, N Ram brazened his support to NewsClick stating that even if NewsClick did peddle “Chinese talking points”, it is not illegal.
He said, “…even if it (NewsClick) did for argument sake that (Chinese talking points), it is not illegal, you may agree with particular talking point of a country including China, that is not an offence under the law, certainly nothing to do with terrorism.”
Paraphrasing Ram’s words, Rajdeep sought clarity on whether he indeed considered it not illegal to spread Chinese talking points in India. For this, he said, “Let’s “assume” NewsClick was putting out commentary that was similar to possibly that China was doing, that is not a crime, is that what your stance is?”
Claiming that the charges will not stick in any court of law, N Ram said, “There is no connection in the matters alleged and the charges, there is no Chinese money that has come in (in NewsClick).”
It is important to note that the probing agency and several purported e-mails that have surfaced over the course of the investigation, reveal that there was a sinister toolkit on how the nexus was working in tandem. It even used Chinese propaganda films and content to peddle pro-Chinese narratives in India and the world over. Several other emails exchanged between Newsclick Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha with US millionaire Neville Roy Singham show that the two discussed at length how to report the India-China border dispute, regarding the presentation of distorted map, COVID coverage and more
Conspicuously, in his interaction on India Today, N Ram then goes on to defend and give a clean chit to Neville Roy Singham. He said, “I know Roy, lot of people know Neville Roy Singham, he sold Thoughtworks (his tech firm) for 780 million dollars and pumped it into American non-profits where you don’t have to disclose details,” adding other findings about his NGOs published in the NYT report including the fact that they are not registered, meaning working clandestinely.
Taking his words as the holy grail and asserting that there is nothing wrong with how an independent-minded man conducts his business, Ram added, “Roy Singham doesn’t receive money from anybody else, he has already made it clear and he doesn’t act at the direction of anyone. He lives in Shanghai and if he chooses to cooperate with the Chinese organisations, that’s his business.”
Neville Roy Singham last month (6.Jul.23) has attended workshop "CPC International Image Innovation Forum 2023" in Shanghai.
— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) August 9, 2023
The workshop emphasised to find the "discourses interface" to propagate China's story as part of their "Global civilisation initiative"@dir_ed There can… pic.twitter.com/xxMEQKlByU
Rajdeep then proceeds to ask if isn’t it dangerous for the national interest to allow someone like Neville Roy Singham to influence the editorial policy of a small website. He emphasized that this is not about freedom of the press, it is about national security and sovereignty.
N Ram replied, “This is used by many autocratic governments all over the world to say that national security is threatened.”
He added that there is nothing in our law that says that this activity comes under danger to the national interest. It is important to note that peddling distorted or wrong maps of the country, spreading false propaganda to cause mayhem at times of once-in-a-century pandemic, and taking illicit money from foreign sources, do have penal provisions in our law and NewsClick is accused of these grave acts and more.
In 2021, OpIndia published a detailed article about the links of NewsClick and uncovered how it was linked to several individuals who regularly spew venom against India – from Urban Naxals to those like Teesta Setalvad, Abhisar Sharma and several others. That article by OpIndia can be read here.
N Ram, however, admitted that in one video embedded in the New York Times report, NewsClick did indeed eulogise China on its 70-year anniversary of the Chinese revolution.
Concluding the interaction, N Ram responded to Rajdeep’s query of what his advice to Journalists and the Modi government will be. He preached that journalists should express solidarity with NewsClick, set their differences aside, and unite on this issue (freedom of speech/press).
He added that the Editors Guild of India and the Press Club of India have come out in support but it should now protest in various ways.
He continued stating that the Modi government should learn lessons from it as this is giving India a bad name.
Stepping up his support to NewsClick, N Ram asserted that national interest requires the Modi government to reverse track on the NewsClick issue. He did not elaborate on how peddling China’s propaganda can be in India’s national interests.
Regarding the fact that agencies are following due process of law, he accused the Delhi Police of committing illegal things and following a lawless process.
He said, “There are many illegal things that special cell of Delhi police reportedly has done, taken away devices without giving receipt or copies to them which they don’t return for years, this is lawlessness.”
He added that this is a lawless process and it needs to be challenged in courts. He also called upon lawyers like Dushyant Dave, Prashant Bhushan, and Fali Nariman to come out and support the media and offer their services pro bono.
N Ram’s The Hindu regularly publishes paid fluff pieces promoting China
In 2020, while the world was battling the Chinese Virus and India was planting its feet firmly against the aggression by China, The Hindu ran extensive Chinese propaganda in their papers. On the 1st of October 2020, The Hindu ran a full-page advertorial paid for by China. The paid content appeared on the 3rd page of the paper.
Interestingly, the paid content by China that was published by The Hindu on Page 3, did not appear on the digital website of The Hindu.
OpIndia’s detailed report on The Hindu’s Chinese advertorial can be read here.
The beauty of the paid content was that to an untrained eye, the full-page article would seem like just that – a feature on how the world is wrong about mighty China and how, on the National Day of the People’s Republic of China, it was time to re-evaluate what “bhakt media” is saying about the country and look towards all its achievements.
However, upon closer examination, it became clear that the full-page feature was content paid for by China. The advertorial (paid for by China) essentially painted China as a saviour of the world amid the Chinese virus pandemic and also spoke glowingly about itself, taking the high moral ground against India in the standoff that India and China were engaged in at the time.
