India Turned a Manhunt Into Mass Repression.

The
Media Is Failing to Tell the Right Story

Punjab police forcefully removed the supporters of protesting against the Police action against Waris Panjab de Head
Amritpal Singh from sohana light point of International Airport Road on Tuesday March 21, 2023 in Mohali, India.

IDEAS
BY SIMRAN JEET SINGH

MARCH 28, 2023 9:00 PM EDT

Singh Singh is Executive Director of the Aspen Institute's Religion & Society Program and author of The Light
We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life. He is an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity with Columbia
University and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and a Soros Equality Fellow with the Open Society
Foundations.

T his past week, the Indian government shut down internet access for 27 million people
and denied the right to assemble freely in the north Indian state of Punjab.

Why?
Because the Indian government has decided that capturing Amritpal Singh, a 30-year-old-
Sikh political activist is more important than people’s human rights.

Singh (no relation to me) openly airs his grievances about India’s disenfranchisement of
Sikhs, as well as injustices committed by the government against other minorities in India. In
his advocacy, he has raised the possibility of creating a nation-state for Sikhs from their
historic homeland of Punjab.

Last month, as part of a larger campaign to protest what he said are wrongfully detained Sikh
prisoners, Singh led a contingent to a police station in Punjab to demand the release of a
member of his organization, Waris Punjab De (“the heirs of Punjab”). The confrontation
turned violent, and afterward protestors claimed police officers had charged them with
batons; the police said it was Singh’s group that instigated the violence.

Whatever the reality, the Indian state took the incident as cause for a manhunt for Singh and
to arrest more than 100 others. India has also taken the occasion to abuse fundamental human
rights, including severe restrictions on freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. The
government shut down internet communications and text messaging across Punjab, which in
itself the United Nations Human Rights Office said undermines a range of human rights.

Rather than focus on the government’s repressive tactics, most news coverage of the
lockdown — in India and abroad — has centered on Singh’s political views. This is not
surprising. A dashing but possibly dangerous religious leader evading a region-wide
manhunt makes for a good story. But reporting on it can lead journalists to accept
government narratives about the original violence and its response to it.

Most importantly, the drama shifts attention from people who are suffering human rights
abuses. The current news coverage is so enthralled by the story and spectacle of a perceived
national security threat that it neglects to question those narratives or consider the full
dimensions of the events. Journalists can and must do better.

I’ll confess, I don’t know much about Amritpal Singh. All I had really heard about him
before this month is that he was a Sikh activist devoted to mitigating drug abuse in Punjab. I
understand he has become an influential leader in Punjab over the last year and has
reportedly led marches of thousands of people. But India’s overwhelming response to the
police station clash suggests that, to the state, his growing influence represents a dire and
immediate threat.

This response should be familiar to reporters. Labeling someone a violent anti-national has
become a recurring strategy in quelling political dissent in India. Just two years ago, I wrote
about the Indian government’s frequent use of anti-national rhetoric to defame social protests
and justify human rights violations, including with nationwide protests against the
Citizenship Amendment Act, which codified discrimination against Muslims, and the
yearlong farmers’ protests, which also began in Punjab, largely among Sikhs.

It should be obvious from current events that the Indian government’s commitment to
democratic norms wasn’t that robust in the first place. Imagine if the U.S. government
cracked down on the entire state of Texas (whose population is about the size of Punjab),
suspending democratic rights and putting thousands of troops on the street, in order to
conduct a search for one person.

Equally revealing are the other activists the police have detained in Punjab in recent days,
who include the respected human rights lawyer Jaspal Singh Manjhpur. If this was really
about a single individual, why would the government arrest those who speak out against
human rights abuses?

The police actions in Punjab are reminiscent of the Sikh massacre of June 1984. After
imposing a media shutdown, the Indian military took control Darbar Sahib of Amritsar, the
most significant site for Sikhs, purportedly to flush out a Sikh leader, Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale. The operation resulted in the deaths of thousands of Sikh worshipers,
including women and children, the detention of thousands more, and the destruction of
historic Sikh sites and artifacts. Forty other Sikh gurdwaras were attacked.

Why? To capture one man?

In the 1980s, the Indian state controlled the media, one news channel, and therefore the
narrative. There was only and it was government-run. Today, we have dozens of outlets,
hundreds of journalists, and access to social media. There’s no reason we should be limited
to the state’s version of events.
As countries and leaders in many places today continue their rapid slide into fascism and
despotism, journalists’ questions become more necessary and urgent.

The world knows that India is currently engulfed by right-wing nationalism and is promoting
a supremacist worldview and enables dehumanization of minorities. Keeping this in mind,
it’s not difficult to connect the dots to the strategies the Indian state uses to strengthen its
hold while weakening dissent.

To a keen observer, the formula is apparent:

First, limit the possibility for sharing information. Today, this often means shutting down the
internet. For each of the past five years, India has led the world in internet shutdowns, with at
least 84 shutdowns in 2022. The internet enables free expression and exchange, and is key to
the functioning of modern democracies.

Next, spread misinformation. Stoke fears through rumors, lies, and propaganda to create
mistrust within and among communities. Invoking religious fanaticism and activating
people’s fear of political instability is especially effective. Ensure that anyone not buying
into the regime’s mythology is punished.

Lastly, keep each community’s repression and its particular story discrete. Don’t let people
see the operating framework that is being used against multiple communities; in India’s case,
against Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and so many others. When done well, people will have
no idea that the same strategies are being used similarly to pacify different communities.

What’s remarkable is that accomplished, well-trained journalists fall for this formula. I have
seen little reporting on why Punjab’s Sikhs have mistrust for the Indian state, why the
government is censoring journalists or on the human rights abuses that bring legitimate
concerns about state violence.

The least the journalist community can do is what they are trained for: Dig beneath the
superficial, connect the dots, and ask tough questions of authority.

When we fail to do that, it’s not just a failure to the profession. It’s a failure to serve those
amongst us who need us the most.