Prasanth.K.K

Times have sadly changed. And circulation has dwindled, as it must when you lose your moral compass. The irrepressible Ramnath Goenka moulded the Indian Express into a bulwark against the autocratic DNA of the Nehru-Gandhi family. When that dynasty sought to illegally perpetuate it’s rule after Indira Gandhi was found guilty of corrupt electoral practices and her election declared void by the judiciary, the Indian Express group became a veritable war machine against the Emergency that ensued in 1970s. For years after the Emergency, the Express group was the watchdog of our Constitution. Incomprehensibly the Indian Express since the demise of its inspirational founder - at least insofar as its northern avatar is concerned - has become the handmaiden of the 10 Janpath dynasty and its inconstant allies. Never at the forefront of the staggering corruption revelations of the dynasty in its UPA garb - 2G, Coal, Commonwealth to name a few out of a long list - the paper backed the regime. Indeed when the UPA tottered in 2012 under the weight of it’s scams, the Indian Express attempted to prop it up with an incredulous front page story that 2 units of the army were marching towards Delhi in an attempted military coup - a whopping falsehood which attempted to shatter the long vaunted reputation of the Indian Army as a disciplined force that confined itself to the barracks unlike it’s rogue Pakistani counterpart. Undoubtedly this wild insinuation was meant to garner sympathy for a most unpopular regime. Since the ascent to power of the BJP/NDA in 2014, the Indian Express is the forerunner of issues which the dynasty and it’s allies are going to magnify on the eve of elections - Central or State- or at the commencement of a Parliamentary session or the visit of a high profile foreign dignitary. The pages of the newspaper over these years are replete with evidence of this fact. While even blind one sided loyalty is consistent with freedom of the press , a false narrative which undermines the nations reputation for institutional integrity is plainly anti-national. The Express peddled a faux theory in its front page for 3 consecutive days from 23rd to 25th September. For those 3 days it insinuated that the CEC Gyaneshwar Kumar steamrolled his two colleagues on the Commission into subverting the SIR process and flouting election rules. The Commission was depicted as a hopelessly divided house and the Chief as a partisan bully intent upon a partisan election outcome. The opposition clamour led by a failed clown prince frothing at the mouth over his repeated crushing electoral defeats in desperation bayed for blood calling for the arrest of Gyaneswar Kumar and an investigation into the role of the PM & HM. He screamed his scripted slogan of “vote chori, kanoon chori aur sanstha chori“ and branded the entire charade as treason. The rantings of the boorish dynast were demolished at one stroke by a joint statement issued by all 3 members of the EC yesterday, that internal differences during the SIR and electoral list updating process were in the nature of checks and balances to ensure the integrity of the electoral rolls and there was total unanimity in all final decisions regarding SIR. In the end, the story is one of another failed assault on our vital institutions based on a fake narrative to salvage the careers of permanent losers whose end is nigh. On flimsy evidence, an unholy script is crafted to keep malign political actors afloat without the slightest care for the damage done to India's reputation for fair and free elections. Most of all this kind of false outrage is an insult to the verdict of the Indian electorate and no doubt the perpetrators of this crime against the people will be shown their place in the next election. I personally grieve however for what has become of a once great newspaper - the Indian Express. Its legacy as a champion of truth and real freedom lies in tatters. The late Ramnath Goenka was a crusader for truth and justice. It is a travesty that under the watch of the descendants of the titan that Ramnath Ji was - his newspaper should be transformed from the watchdog of our national interest to one dynasty’s poodle.