The Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) has issued a statement on the FIR registered against journalist Supriya Sharma for a report that shed light on a village in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The statement “condemns the UP police’s malafide action of filing an FIR” against Sharma who wrote about Domari, a village that had been adopted by the prime minister under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana in 2018.
The statement reads, “Sharma’s eight reports on the effects of the lockdown in the PM’s constituency have been like all her work, well-researched, objective and compassionate. In this report too, she has spoken to both ordinary people as well as the authorities….The complainant in the FIR is Mala Devi, who has been quoted extensively in Sharma’s report. In the FIR, Mala Devi denies having complained of going hungry during the lockdown (as quoted in Sharma’s report). She accuses Ms Sharma of having published false news about a Scheduled Caste woman, and of having made fun of her ‘poverty and her caste’, thereby causing damage to her reputation.”
The FIR filed on Thursday lists Sections 501 (defamation) and 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection) of the IPC in addition to sections of the SC ST Atrocities Act.
The statement further reads, “With the State having given itself more authority under the veil of the COVID-19 crisis, press freedom has shrunk considerably. Uttar Pradesh, especially under the current Chief Minister, has gained notoriety for targeting journalists….We demand that the FIR be withdrawn and Sharma be protected from arrest.”
Saurabh Singh, chief functionary of the Innervoice Foundation, an organisation that works on drinking water, groundwater contamination and public health in the Gangetic plain (including Varanasi), says that despite the many promises made to Domari, its condition remains unchanged since it was adopted by PM Modi.
“Government schemes have remained on paper. A hospital was announced but never completed. Neither was the water tank or a school for girls. The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas which could have drawn a spotlight to the village was also shifted elsewhere despite the construction of a helipad in the village,” says Singh.
The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is an event that commemorates the contribution of the overseas Indian community to the country’s development, while also showcasing various business and investment opportunities. The 17th edition of this event was held in Varanasi Aidhe village in January 2019.
Among the other challenges faced by Domari and its surrounding villages are the high levels of bacteriological contamination, nitrate and arsenic in the groundwater.
THE WEEK is attempting to verify how the complainant might have read Sharma’s report, which was in English and published on a news portal.
This is not the first time that a journalist in Varanasi has been targeted for reporting on the hardships faced by people during the lockdown.
Vijay Vineet, the news editor of a Hindi newspaper, was issued a notice by the district administration for ‘spreading misinformation’. Vineet had filed a report with his colleague Manish Mishra about families from the Musahar community in Koiripur village (Baragaon block of Varanasi) subsisting on ‘akhri’—a kind of grass on March 26. The report was shared widely on social media inviting criticism of the government.
