India's Dark Side: The Black Out of Kerala Floods and the Mob Lynching of Dissenters

The attempts to keep media – the supposed fourth pillar of the democracy – on a tight leash is one of the scariest developments of the right wing regime in today’s India. The mainstream media woke up very late to the biggest natural calamity that the country has seen this year – the floods in Kerala. What followed was the death of the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but real questions on his legacy were scarcely asked. On the other hand, JNU student Umar Khalid became a victim of the uninterrupted series of witch-hunt, where he was shot at, ahead of the Independence Day.

It’s a high time we question the meaning of independence, when the ruling regime has blood of the innocents on its hands, where hate-mongering and mob lynching is becoming routine. How can the media turn a blind eye to reporting facts and respecting dissent? And why should 'we, the people' allow this to become the new normal?