New Delhi: In what appears to be yet another attempt at crackdown on free media, the Union government has cancelled the registration of Daily Desher Katha, a Communist Party of India (Marxist)-backed Bangla newspaper. In an October 1, 2018 order, the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI), the newspaper-licensing authority under the government of India, invalidated its ‘certificate of registration’ awarded to the Tripura-based daily that it had issued the same day.

The RNI order stated that its decision to revoke the certification was based on the Agartala district collector’s information that a subordinate state official had “cancelled” the “authentication” of the declaration submitted by the newspaper’s editor, Samir Paul. However, the newspaper is vehemently contesting the decision and claims that the RNI order is part of the BJP-led state government’s multiple attempts in the recent past to silence opposition voices.

Speaking to The Wire, Rahul Sinha, senior reporter with the daily, said, “As a daily, Desher Katha started publishing from August 15, 1979. It is a well-established newspaper in Tripura. But ever since the BJP formed the government in Tripura, the state government is determined to close it down. We have been facing threats and bureaucratic hurdles constantly, our reporters are being beaten up, and our hawkers and agents are being threatened to stop distributing our newspaper.”

Alleging political vendetta, Sinha said, “The cancellation of our registration might be the first instance in the history of Indian journalism when the RNI withdrew its own order hours after it issued it. This is a clear case of gagging and an attack on fundamental rights and the whole democratic structure.”

Sinha was referring to the RNI order, dated October 1, in which the agency issued a revised registration for the daily only to render it invalid within a day.

Sinha outrightly denied that it had provided wrong details in its declaration to the RNI, a reason that the agency used to cancel its registration.

Background

“At every stage of our evolution, Desher Katha has furnished every detail to the authorities. Desher Katha started as a daily which was owned by the CPI(M) state committee of Tripura. Our editor/publisher was Gautam Das. In subsequent years, we had to shift our office, printing press, and place of publication for various reasons. All these changes were duly informed to the the district collector, who is the representative of the RNI in the districts,” Sinha said.

He added that in 1994, when Desher Katha changed its office, it informed the authorities by submitting all the relevant affidavits. And then, in 2012, it did the same when the CPI(M) state committee transferred its ownership to a registered society, or, in 2015, when a new editor/publisher Samir Paul was appointed by the society.

“We submitted all the relevant affidavits to the collector when we formed a society so that he could inform the RNI, which would then update its record about us. But it was only in July this year that we found out that none of these records were updated by the RNI,” Sinha said.

Thus, the daily requested the district collector to remind the RNI to update its records. Sinha said, “On July 4 this year, the collector informed us in writing that he had all our papers which have already been verified and authenticated. And that he would now send those to the RNI for updation.

“The response came almost two months after one Shyamal Debnath moved the court of the district magistrate to say that the address of the printing press mentioned on our website does not match the one registered in the RNI. None of it was our fault as the RNI had not updated its records,” Sinha added.

Meanwhile, on September 1, 2018, the newspaper society, on the advice of its lawyers, formed a registered trust, and as a result, there was yet another change of ownership. The relevant affidavits in this regard were also submitted by the daily at the collector’s office, Sinha claimed. 

However, this is when trouble for the daily started. Despite informing the daily that its papers were all authenticated in July, the collector issued a notice seeking clarification from the paper in September. He was acting on Debnath’s complaint. Three hearings on this matter happened through September.

When the RNI issued a revised registration order for the newspaper on October 1, the collector objected to the order by informing the agency of Debnath’s complaint and that the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Agartala city had “cancelled the authentication” of the declaration submitted by the newspaper’s editor.

Political vendetta?

The changing stances of the district authority over the last few months is what has led the Desher Katha officials to believe that the RNI order is a result of the state government’s vindictiveness.

“Biplab Deb’s government came to power on March 3, 2018. From the morning of March 4, all the transport depots of the state were taken over by the BJP members. And they are heckling and threatening our distributors to stop our circulation. As a result, our circulation has dropped to a mere 8000 copies a day from around 53000 before March,” Sinha said.

He added that the BJP government had also stopped government advertisements to the newspaper, but the decision was revoked after the newspaper appealed to various authorities. The Congress government in the state from 1988 to 1992, too, had stopped government advertisements to the paper, following which Desher Katha got the decision reversed by moving the Gauhati high court and the Press Council of India (PCI).

“We know for a fact that state BJP secretary Rajeev Bhattacharya and other BJP members went to meet the DM at his office after he concluded the hearings on Debnath’s complaint,” Sinha said. He also alleged that the SDM, City was severely rebuked by higher officials for authenticating the declaration submitted by the daily to the DM. “As a result, the SDM was forced to cancel his own authentication, which became the basis for the RNI’s eventual decision to revoke our registration.”

There are hundreds of newspapers in India. The RNI has not updated many of their records. Why would it then single us out and revoke its registration order? There’s definitely something fishy about it,” Sinha said.

Desher Katha is planning to move the courts and approach the PCI to intervene in the matter. The PCI has already taken cognisance of the case and has sent notices to the chief secretary and the home secretary of Tripura.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M) politburo in a statement condemned the RNI’s action “a brazen attack on the freedom of the press.” “The district magistrate of West Tripura has cancelled the registration of the newspaper on flimsy and dubious grounds and consequently the RNI has also withdrawn the certificate of registration,” the statement said, adding that “Desher Katha is a prominent newspaper of Tripura of forty years standing.”

Many in Tripura believe that the move against the CPI(M) mouthpiece could not be seen in isolation and that it was a part of the continuing attacks on the party’s rank and file ever since the BJP came to power in the state.

“It is an attack on the democratic structure. Only recently, more than 60% of elected members in the panchayats from CPI(M) were forced to resign. The state government then announced the bypolls, which turned out to be a joke as in most of the places, our candidates were not allowed to even submit our nomination papers. It is unprecedented that as a result 96% of the bypoll seats were won unopposed by the BJP,” a Tripura-based political observer, who preferred not to be named, told The Wire.

Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta

Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletters in English and or French. You will receive one email every Monday containing links to all articles published in the last 7 days.