The ABC’s lead India correspondent, Avani Dias, has returned to Australia after facing a campaign of intimidation and bureaucratic hurdles from the nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Dias’ visa was withheld after an episode of ‘Foreign Correspondent’ about Sikh separatism aired last month and before the final installment of her podcast investigating the life of Modi. Despite lobbying from the office of Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Dias was only granted a two-month visa extension, which was not delivered until after she and her partner had packed up their New Delhi home and made arrangements to leave.
In the podcast series finale, ‘Looking for Modi,’ Dias discusses the situation. She says, ‘The Modi administration gave me the visa in the very last minute, but it felt too difficult to do my job in India. I was struggling to get into public events run by Modi’s party. The government wouldn’t even give me the passes I need to cover the election.’
Dias’ experience is not an isolated incident. Journalists in India are increasingly subjected to state intimidation, or worse. Some have been jailed, while others have been stripped of their Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status.
Critics accuse the Modi government of enforcing an authoritarian brand of Hindu nationalism and using state institutions to silence dissent. Weeks after the BBC broadcast a documentary about Modi’s actions as the Chief Minister of Gujarat during deadly 2002 sectarian riots, tax authorities raided the broadcaster’s Indian offices.
The ‘Foreign Correspondent’ piece explored the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, which authorities there pinned on Indian state operatives. Filming took the crew to Nijjar’s family home in India and to several activists still agitating for an independent Sikh nation called Khalistan.
The issues – Khalistan and Nijjar’s personal story – are extremely sensitive to the Indian government. The journalists were questioned in Punjab by the Criminal Intelligence Department and, despite prior approval, were blocked from filming a public event at the India-Pakistan border.
After the program aired, the Indian government used its laws to force YouTube and other social media sites to wipe this episode, and a separate news package featuring Australian Sikh activists, from their Indian platforms.
Dias was told that the episode breached foreign journalist visa rules because it was 30 minutes long, deeming it a documentary. However, Dias and other news journalists have previously reported at this length without trouble.
The ABC stands by Dias’ journalism, which was ‘meticulously researched and balanced.’ The Ministry of External Affairs and Penny Wong’s office have been contacted for comment.
