![]() First edition | |
Author | Ravish Kumar |
---|---|
Translators | Chitra Padmanabhan, Anurag Basnet, Ravi Singh [1] |
Language | English |
Published | 27 February 2018 |
Publisher | Speaking Tiger Books |
Publication place | India |
ISBN | 9389231191 |
The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture And The Nation is non-fiction book written by Ramon Magsaysay Award-winning journalist Ravish Kumar [2] on India's democracy and its backsliding under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. [3] [4] [lower-alpha 1] .
A revised and updated edition was released in August 2019 with a new Introduction, and two additional essays examining the developments since the 2019 Indian general election. [10]
The Bharatiya Janata Party is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP is aligned with right-wing politics and has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right paramilitary organisation. Its policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. As of January 2024, it is the country's biggest political party in terms of representation in the Parliament of India as well as state legislatures.
Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician serving as the current Prime Minister of India since 26 May 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress.
Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician, historian, public intellectual, writer, and former diplomat, who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He is the present Chairman of the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers. He was formerly an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and unsuccessfully ran for the post of Secretary-General in 2006. Founder-Chairman of All India Professionals Congress, he formerly served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and on Informational Technology. He has about two dozen titles to his credit and was awarded by World Economic Forum as "Global Leader of Tomorrow".
The Union Council of Ministers, also called Union Cabinet is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which functions as the senior decision-making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by the prime minister and consists of the heads of each of the executive government ministries. Currently, the council is headed by prime minister Narendra Modi and consists of 29 members, including the prime minister. The council is subject to the Parliament of India.
New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching the first 24x7 news channel and the first lifestyle channel in the country. It owns and operates the broadcast news channels of NDTV India and NDTV 24x7. The two channels of the company have received 32 Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards.
Anantkumar Hegde is an Indian politician, the former Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the former five time Member of Parliament for Uttara Kannada constituency. Hegde is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Hegde is a Hindu nationalist and a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteer.
Relations between India and the United States date back to India's independence movement and have continued well after independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. Currently, India and the United States enjoy close relations and have deepened collaboration on issues such as counterterrorism and countering Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific.
Madhav Vittal Kamath was an Indian journalist and broadcasting executive, and the chairman of Prasar Bharati. He worked as the editor of The Sunday Times for two years from 1967 to 1969, as Washington correspondent for The Times of India from 1969 to 1978 and also as editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India. He had also written numerous books and was conferred with the Padma Bhushan award in 2004. He was born in a brahmin family
Ravish Kumar is an Indian journalist, author, media personality and YouTuber. He was the Senior Executive Editor of NDTV India. He hosted a number of programmes including the channel's flagship weekday show Prime Time, Hum Log, Ravish Ki Report, and Des Ki Baat.
Swarajya is an Indian right-wing monthly print magazine and news portal. The publication reports favourably on the Bharatiya Janata Party and has published misinformation on many occasions.
Narendra Modi, the 14th Prime Minister of India, has elicited a number of public perceptions regarding his personality, background and policies.
The premiership of Narendra Modi began 26 May 2014 with his swearing-in as the Prime Minister of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He became the 14th Prime Minister of India, succeeding Manmohan Singh of the Indian National Congress. Modi's first cabinet consisted of 45 ministers, 25 fewer than the previous United Progressive Alliance government. A total of 21 ministers were added to the council of ministers on 9 November 2014.
Freedom of the press in India is legally protected by the Amendment to the constitution of India, while the sovereignty, national integrity, and moral principles are generally protected by the law of India to maintain a hybrid legal system for independent journalism. In India, media bias or misleading information is restricted under the certain constitutional amendments as described by the country's constitution. The media crime is covered by the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which is applicable to all substantive aspects of criminal law.
Godi media is a pejorative term coined and popularised by veteran journalist Ravish Kumar for the "sensationalist and biased Indian print and TV news media, which supports the ruling BJP led NDA government ". The term is a pun on the name of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has become a common way to refer to television and other media that are perceived as "mouthpieces" of the leading party of the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav or 75th Anniversary of Indian Independence was an event, in which the 75th anniversary of the independence of India was celebrated in India and abroad. It was the 76th Independence Day of India.
Price of the Modi Years is a book authored by Aakar Patel, published by Westland Publications Limited in 2021. The book details the history of India since 2014 when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. It examines the potential human and economic price that it claims India will be paying for the decisions made in the seven years spent under the BJP government since 2014.
Aakar Patel is an Indian journalist, activist and author. He served as the head of Amnesty International in India between 2015 and 2019, and currently serves as the chair of the Board of Amnesty International in India. He is the author of Our Hindu Rashtra, an account of majoritarianism in India, and of Price of the Modi Years, which examines the administrative performance of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2014, he authored a translation of Saadat Hasan Manto's Urdu non-fiction Why I Write.
Ravish Kumar Tiwari was an Indian journalist who was associated with The Indian Express, India Today, and The Economic Times. At the time of his death, he was working as chief of the national bureau at The Indian Express.
Democratic backsliding, also known as autocratization, is the decline in democratic qualities of a political regime, the opposite of democratization.
While We Watched is a 2022 Indian documentary film by Vinay Shukla, profiling the NDTV news editor Ravish Kumar's resolute journalistic independence in the backdrop of general media bias in India The film premiered world-wide at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, winning the Amplify Voices award. At its Asian premiere in the 27th Busan International Film Festival, it won the Cinephile award and the International Competition at DocPoint Helsinki.
While India is a multiparty democracy, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has presided over discriminatory policies and increased violence affecting the Muslim population. The constitution guarantees civil liberties including freedom of expression and freedom of religion, but harassment of journalists, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and other government critics has increased significantly under Modi.