Amid the uproar over the case against The Wire Founder-Editor Siddharth Varadarajan for allegedly spreading 'fake news' against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor asks Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar to intervene in the matter.
Tharoor took to Twitter and said "He considers Siddharth to be one of the most able , strongly principles and courageours voices in Indian media."
"To prosecute him is indeed to persecute freedom of expression," he adds.
Tharoor was responding to Tuku Varadrajan's ( Siddharth's brother) tweet.
"I've known Siddharth Vardarajan for a long time and consider him one of the most able, most strongly principled & courageous voices in the Indian media, even when we don't agree all the time. To prosecute him is indeed to persecute freedom of expression. Prakash Javdekar, pl intervene."
Last week, Uttar Pradesh Police registered a FIR against The Wire Founder-Editor Siddharth Varadarajan for spreading fake news against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The police have booked Siddharth Varadarajan over comments on Twitter claiming that the day Tablighi Jamaat held its event in Delhi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had insisted that a Ram Navami fair will take place as usual. The FIR also mentioned his remark, questioning Adityanath's participation at a religious ceremony at the Ramjanmabhoomi site in Ayodhya during the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The FIR referred to a tweet by Varadarajan which said, "On the day the Tablighi Jamaat event was held, Adityanath insisted a large Ram Navami fair planned for Ayodhya from March 25 to April 2 would proceed as usual and that 'Lord Ram would protect devotees from the coronavirus".
Later reacting to the FIR, a statement by the Founding Editors of The Wire said, "A bare perusal of the FIR shows that it is politically motivated and the offences invoked are not even remotely made out. The registration of an FIR is a blatant attack on the freedom of the press." "The government of Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh does not seem to have learnt anything despite the strictures passed against it by the Supreme Court in June 2019 when the court ordered the release of the journalist Prashant Kanojia whom the state had illegally arrested. The right to liberty is a fundamental right and non-negotiable, the court had said."
