On 10th March 2023, the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Youth Affairs, and Sports Anurag Thakur lashed out at New York Times for an anti-India editorial published on 8th March 2023. Anurag Thakur said, “We don’t need to learn the grammar of democracy from agenda-driven media.”
Taking to Twitter, Anurag Thakur published a thread of tweets in which he wrote, “New York Times had long back dropped all pretensions of neutrality while publishing anything about India. NYT’s so-called opinion piece on freedom of the press in Kashmir is mischievous & fictitious published with the sole motive to spread propaganda about India and its democratic values. This is in continuation with what NYT and a few other link-minded foreign media have been spreading lies about India and our democratically elected Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji. Such lies can’t last long.”
Minister Anurag Thakur added, “Some foreign media nourishing a grudge against India and our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi have long been systematically trying to peddle lies about our democracy and pleuritic society. Freedom of the Press in India is as sacrosanct as other fundamental rights.”
Anurag Thakur further said in his next tweets, “Democracy in India and We the people are very mature and we don’t need to learn the grammar of democracy from such agenda-driven media. Blatant lies spread by NYT abt press freedom in Kashmir are condemnable. Indians will not allow such mindsets to run their decisive agenda on Indian soil.”
The said article published in New York Times was written by Anuradha Bhasin, the Executive Editor of The Kashmir Times who criticized PM Modi’s stance against the Indian media and its freedom of expression. Donning an anti-India outlook on the international media platform, she alleged that the Modi-led government had imposed ‘repressive’ media policies in the country and was deliberately targeting the media organizations who chose to voice an opinion against it or the Prime Minister.
In an article titled ‘Modi’s final assault on India’s Press Freedom has begun’, Bhasin who has been a vocal critic of the Indian establishment for a while said that her outlet, The Kashmir Times, could not survive Modi. She also blatantly alleged that the government was intimidating media outlets into serving as mouthpieces and creating an information vacuum in the Union Territory.