Modi’s Blocking of The Wire Is More Brazen Than the British Raj’s Censorship Regime; Godi Media Plumb New Depths
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Over to Siddharth Varadarajan for today’s Cable
Snapshot of the day
May 9, 2025
Siddharth Varadarajan
Hostilities between India and Pakistan entered a third consecutive day, with no signs of de-escalation, with the Pakistani military saying it would “not de-escalate with India”. Pakistan has been accused of launching a fresh wave of drone strikes against India on Friday night, with projectiles reported over the skies of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. Explosions were heard in areas of the Kashmir Valley and the bright flash of intercepted drones were seen over the Punjab cities of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Ferozepur and the Unchi Bassi ammunition depot in Hoshiarpur. Eyewitnesses said the drone strikes were heavier than those that took place on Thursday night. Indian Army sources confirmed the sighting of drones over Jammu, Samba (near Jammu), and Pathankot in Punjab, stating that countermeasures were actively being employed to engage the aerial threats.
In Srinagar, mosque loudspeakers were used to tell residents to switch off their lights as a precautionary measure. In a post on X, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah posted a picture of the city in darkness, captioning the post as, “Blackout in Jammu now. Sirens can be heard across the city.” He said in another post, “It’s my earnest appeal to everyone in and around Jammu please stay off the streets, stay at home or at the nearest place you can comfortably stay at for the next few hours. Ignore rumours, don’t spread unsubstantiated or unverified stories and we will get through this together.” There is a blackout in Kashmir as well. Markets in Srinagar shut earlier than usual on Friday and traffic movement in the city is sparse. Rain and an overcast sky have added to the gloom.
Pakistan’s military is signaling plans for a significant strike on India following recent missile and drone attacks attributed to New Delhi. “They want to set a new norm,” the Army spokesperson told reporters in Rawalpindi. “Will we allow this happen?” No details were given on timing or scope, but the tone suggests a serious escalation is in the offing. India has not officially reacted to this, as The India Cable goes to bed.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the BBC’s Azadeh Moshiri, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif insisted that no militant leaders or groups were active in the country. While acknowledging their presence, he claimed they were not operational or involved in “terrorist activities against India or other countries”. One of course, should take this with a pinch of salt.
Pakistan’s military attempted intrusions using about 300-400 drones at 36 locations across the LoC from Leh to Sir Creek on the intervening night of May 8 and 9 and carried out multiple violations of Indian airspace along the entire western border with an “intent to target military infrastructure”, Indian Wing Commander Vyomika Singh said at a briefing in New Delhi on Friday. “The possible purpose of these large-scale aerial intrusions were to test the air defence systems and gather intelligence,” she said, while preliminary examination of the debris of the drones brought by India have found them to be Turkish Asisguard Songar drones. Singh said that an armed UAV of Pakistan attempted to target Bathinda military station which was detected and neutralised, while Indian armed drones were launched in response at four air defence sites in Pakistan. India has also said that Pakistan did not close its civil air space and is “using civil airliners as a shield”. While the locations were not mentioned, Singh said that one of these drones “was able to destroy an AD radar”. India claimed to have intercepted hundreds of Pakistani drones, which it said came across the border into Indian-controlled Kashmir, as well as Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat. It said a first wave of drones came on Thursday evening and another wave hit close to dawn on Friday.
Late on Thursday, the Border Security Force (BSF) foiled an infiltration attempt along the Pakistan border in the Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), killing at least seven gunmen, according to a BSF official. Those killed were affiliated with the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, and were likely attempting to exploit the volatile situation along the border to infiltrate into Jammu. Officials said that a shell hit a vehicle travelling from Razerwani to Baramulla near Mohura. “Pakistan also carried out artillery shelling along the LoC using heavy calibre artillery guns and armed drones at Tangdhar, Uri, Poonch, Mendhar, Rajouri, Akhnoor and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir area which resulted in some losses and injury to Indian army personnel; Pakistan army also suffered major losses in Indian retaliatory fire,” she said.
India has said that civil airlines were seen flying on the air route between Karachi and Lahore while the Indian side was devoid of civil air traffic due to closures announced before. About 28 airports across the country have been closed in the wake of tensions between India and Pakistan.
Heavy shelling and drone and missile attacks on several defence installations and civilian areas along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir led to the death of one woman and another suffering injuries, while a blackout was imposed from 10 pm on Thursday night. Residents of Jammu city and several villages along the LoC in Kashmir and International Border spent a brutal night on Thursday as the sounds of artillery shelling, integrated defence systems targeting incoming drones and missiles from Pakistan, and air raid sirens were heard.
Earlier today, at the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) meeting in Washington, India abstained from voting on the IMF’s proposed $1.3 billion bailout package for Pakistan, citing Islamabad’s “poor track record” in effectively utilising previous financial aid. India flagged concerns over Pakistan’s repeated failure to meet conditions attached to IMF assistance. India’s position also pointed to the widespread perception that political considerations have influenced IMF lending to Pakistan, raising questions about the effectiveness and end-use of the funds. New Delhi has consistently argued that financial aid to Pakistan indirectly supports military intelligence operations and terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which have orchestrated attacks on Indian soil.
Yesterday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the leaders of India and Pakistan that they should immediately de-escalate. But soon after, US Vice President JD Vance muddied the waters by telling Fox News a war between the two South Asian states will be “none of our business”. Today, the White House spokesperson clarified that President Trump wants Rubio to pursue de-escalation. “The President has expressed that he wants this to de-escalate as quickly as possible. He understands these two countries have been at odds with one another for decades, long before President Trump was here at the Oval Office.” Karoline Leavitt said.
Of course, there is no ambiguity when it comes to Turkey. President Erdogan has conveyed his “solidarity” to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the wake of the recent Indian airstrikes.
The Indian foreign secretary yesterday said he had no knowledge of this but the Pakistani side is saying the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan have had contact with each other.
While the jingoism levels are at the highest levels, “ordinary Indians are feeling jittery about the escalating conflict”, reports The New York Times as “no one has a clear idea about how far the new fight with Pakistan might lead — into their country, or even into their own homes”.
The strategic distraction allowed the government to deflect scrutiny and accountability for original security lapses as attention turned to the spectacle of Operation Sindoor instead of failures that led to the tragedy, writes Sushant Singh. He als points “to a flaw” in Modi’s Pakistan policy.:
“Instead of expanding its options in various domains — economic, diplomatic, people-to-people and informational — New Delhi has boxed itself into only one domain; the military one. That would provide more space for action and would not raise the risk of escalation, as has been witnessed in recent days. New Delhi can maintain open channels for regular dialogue at multiple levels (government, military, back-channel) to address issues before they escalate.”
Remember the Ambanis rushing to trademark Operation Sindoor? Manjul is unsparing:
The Global Affairs account of X has been withheld and later restored in India day after Elon Musk-owned social media platform said that India asked it to block 8,000 accounts. “X has received executive orders from the Indian government requiring X to block over 8,000 accounts in India, subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company’s local employees. The orders include demands to block access in India to accounts belonging to international news organizations and prominent X users,” X had said in a statement. Among prominent accounts withheld: Anuradha Bhasin, the editor of Kashmit Times, and BBC Urdu.
Today, the government went one step further and blocked access to The Wire’s website. The official reason: it wanted to prevent innocent Indians from reading a story on CNN’s report that a French official had told it an Indian Rafale had gone down following skirmishes with Pakistan. CNN’s story is freely available, of course, so what purpose is served by taking down The Wire’s report of it is not clear.
What makes the blocking of The Wire especially shocking is that it came on a day that prominent Indian TV channels had engaged in irresponsible ‘reporting’.
Indian news channels ran programming for hours last night reporting that the Indian Navy had been deployed and had bombed and destroyed Karachi Port.
Indian news channels ran stories that the Indian army had entered Pakistan.
Indian news channels ran stories that India has captured Islamabad.
Indian channels ran stories about suicide terror strikes in Rajouri
Among those who amplified the godi media’s false and potentially dangerous claims that the Indian navy attacked Karachi’s port was none other than Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju. He later claimed that a ‘fake account’ was responsible for the post: “Who's doing this mischievous work? It's serious time for all of us. This is no time to play politics. Somebody creating fake accounts and sharing through journalists!” he said. Mohammed Zubair had none of it.
Pakistan isn’t the only thing the godi or state-run media are going after. A Doordarshan program yesterday displayed the following banner under the photographs of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and MP Imran Masood: “India is ready, but how many traitors are present at home?” Will the police show up at program anchor Ashok Shrivastava’s door, as they sought to do at Kunal Kamra’s? In any case, the grand old party has taken strong exception to the program.
In a one-of-development of its kind, India has proposed reducing its tariff differential with the United States to under 4% from the current 13%, seeking exemption from US President Donald Trump’s existing and future tariff increases, two sources familiar with the negotiations between both nations have told Reuters. India and the US are working towards a swift agreement. The proposal represents one of the most significant modifications to trade barriers in India.
The clock is ticking on the fate of Justice Yashwant Verma. After the submission of an adverse report by a panel of three judges on the cash allegedly found at his residence, CJI Sanjiv Khanna had asked him to resign. He refused to do so and now the file has gone to President Droupadi Murmu. What happens next is not clear but the CJI expects the government to begin the process for impeachment.
Firebrand BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s remarks against the Supreme Court – wherein he said the institution would be responsible for inciting religious wars in the country and its Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna the cause for all civil wars occurring in India – are “absurd”, the top court said in an order released yesterday. It also found that they were intended to cast aspersions on the court and its judges but remarked that the former is “not as fragile as flowers to wither and wilt under such highly irresponsible statements”. Krishnadas Rajagopal further reports that the court opted not to find Dubey in contempt of court because
“Every commission of contempt need not erupt in an indignant committal or levy of punishment, however deserving it may actually be. It is so because judges are judicious, their valour non-violent and their wisdom springs into action when played upon by a volley of values, the least of which is personal protection.”
If there is a reunion between the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party, said Sharad Pawar to journalists yesterday, “it should not surprise others”. He also said that a section of his faction of the NCP was in favour of a reunion but that he himself was not “actively involved in taking such decisions”, Anurag Bende quotes him as saying. Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar, the leader of the other faction that broke away from the party last year to join the BJP-led alliance government, have attended a few events together in less than a month’s time recently, Bende also notes.
Three junior commandos of the Telangana police’s elite anti-Naxal force, the Greyhounds, were killed by Maoists near the state’s forested border with Chhattisgarh early yesterday. They were carrying out a search operation in an effort to defuse IEDs the Maoists said they planted in the area, when the latter ambushed them by triggering landmines and opening heavy fire. An assistant assault commander of the Greyhounds was injured, reports P Sridhar.
“All media channels, digital platforms and individuals are advised to refrain from live coverage or real-time reporting of defence operations and movement of security forces,” the Indian Ministry of Defence said. Sadly, it has not issued an advisory on not making stuff up. In case you missed the show, Indian television went bonkers on Thursday night. Here’s a glimpse of one of the more idiotic channels:
Meanwhile, Pakistani memesters are busy poking fun at the Indian media.
Cricket bows to conflict: IPL halted, PSL exiled as India-Pakistan tensions explode
Starting today the IPL stands suspended for one week, the BCCI announced. Nagaraj Gollapudi reports that during the phone call that senior BCCI officials had before making the announcement, in which IPL chairman Arun Dhumal was also present, they agreed that it was not appropriate to continue the IPL amid the ongoing escalation between India and Pakistan. He also reports that teams have already started disbanding and players as well as support staff are taking the next available flights within and outside India. The board’s decision comes a day after the match between the Punjab Kings and the Mumbai Indians in Dharamsala was halted midway.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to carry the remainder of the Pakistan Super League in the UAE, having determined that it was unsafe to hold the tournament at home due to the bilateral conflict, Dawn reports.
Courts must always be open to public observation, debate: Supreme Court
Not only did the Supreme Court today set aside the Delhi high court’s order that the Wikipedia page on ANI’s defamation suit against it be deleted – the HC had said the page had interfered with court proceedings – it also said that courts as public institutions “must always remain open to public observation, debate and criticism.” Its order, passed by Justices Abhay Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, said that “it is not the duty of the court to tell the media to delete this, take that down”. Amisha Shrivastava reports that the court also invoked an earlier judgment which noted that if reportage on ongoing proceedings is to be postponed, such a decision must be both necessary and proportionate.
Assam lawyer convinces Bengali-origin Muslims to boycott foreigner tribunal proceedings
Lawyer Faruk Khan says he has successfully convinced hundreds of people not to respond to notices issued by Assam’s foreigner tribunals. The odds, he says, are so stacked against the state’s Bengali-origin Muslim community that there is no point in their appearing before the tribunals – and he believes the issue is not judicial but political in nature. He argues that the process is set up in such a way that “the government files a complaint suspecting someone is a foreigner, and the same government decides its fate”. Other lawyers and activists, some of whom criticise his method, note that his appeal is owed in part to his being with his clients on the ground and showing empathy, which many counsels do not. Rokibuz Zaman reports.
The Long Cable
Modi’s Blocking of The Wire Is More Brazen Than the British Raj’s Censorship Regime
S N Sahu
As India marks the 75th anniversary of its Constitution — a document that enshrines the fundamental rights of its people — the Modi government has committed an act that runs counter to everything that charter stands for. The arbitrary blocking of access to The Wire, a respected and independent news portal, is not just an attack on one media outlet. It is an assault on the Constitution itself, particularly its guarantee of free speech and press freedom.
There was no notice. No explanation. No opportunity for The Wire's editors or readers to be heard. The action appears to have been taken in secret, without due process or any publicly stated legal basis. This is a blatant violation of the principles of natural justice — principles that are not only central to our legal system but to the democratic ethos of the Republic of India.
Disturbingly, this move brings to mind the authoritarian censorship of colonial India — and surpasses it in some ways. In 1941, during World War II, the British colonial administration imposed strict censorship to suppress dissent. Even Mahatma Gandhi was prevented from writing about non-violence as war operations expanded across continents. That censorship was condemned then as unjust and un-Indian.
Now, in 2025, India is a sovereign democracy — at least in name. There is no emergency. There is no press censorship sanctioned by law or constitution. Yet, the government has blocked an entire news portal – and that without providing any reasons in public. If this isn’t censorship, what is?
Gandhi responded to British press censorship by launching his Individual Satyagraha — the only such campaign in defence of press freedom. He called freedom of the pen and speech "the foundation of Swaraj." Any attack on that foundation, he warned, must be resisted with all the strength at our disposal. That warning is more relevant now than ever.
The blocking of The Wire follows a pattern: the coercive action against Newsclick.in, the targeting of independent YouTube journalists, the growing intimidation of dissenting voices. These actions are not isolated; they are systematic. They form part of a broader attempt to silence criticism and consolidate control over information — the lifeblood of any functioning democracy.
What’s more, by preventing citizens from accessing The Wire, the government is infringing upon their right to information — a right the Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed as integral to the right to freedom of expression. A democracy cannot thrive when its people are kept in the dark.
This is not just about The Wire. It is about the future of free speech in India. It is about whether our 75-year-old Constitution still holds meaning in the face of creeping authoritarianism.
As citizens, journalists, and defenders of democracy, we must rise to this challenge. The press is not the enemy of the state — it is the mirror in which the state must see itself. Break that mirror, and you break the very idea of India.
Such perverse decisions to muzzle critical voices, represented by The Wire, are indicative of the massive backsliding of democracy in India and the downgrading of its status in the global freedom of press index. Such attempts need to be fought tooth and nail so that the press freedom guaranteed by the Constitution is upheld in full glory.
S N Sahu served as Officer on Special Right to President of India K R Narayanan
Pen vs sword
Reportedly
Somebody hacked the X handle of the Economic Affairs Division of the Government of Pakistan and posted an obviously ridiculous tweet. But ANI reported on it as if it was genuine.
Deep dive
Most government efforts at preventing snakebite deaths have focussed on making anti-venom more widely available, but there ought to be more to it than that, reports Vaishnavi Rathore. She points out that studying the circumstances under which humans and snakes have come into more contact, being cautious of the fact that relocating venomous snakes in particular can increase such contact, and making sure that compensation to snakebite victims is increased, are also important things to factor in.
Prime number: 93 per 100,000
India’s maternal mortality rate was 93 per 100,000 live births during the period 2019-21, new data from the office of the registrar general and census commissioner of India has said. This is a decrease from 103 in 2017-19 and 97 in 2018-20. One of the UN’s sustainable development goals is to reduce the global MMR to less than 70 per 100,000 live births. Bindu Shajan Perappadan reports.Opeds you don’t want to miss
India and Pakistan seem to be vying for escalation dominance—and veering toward catastrophe—without an off-ramp in sight, writes Vaibhav Vats.
Exaggerated claims of military success—amplified by the two countries’ media—could help India and Pakistan side save face and pull back from the brink, says Ravi Agrawal.
The air-to-air engagement between India and Pakistan “casts Chinese aerospace technology in a favorable light” writes Fabian Hoffman in a detailed analysis of the Indian air strikes and Pakistani air defences. “The Chinese-origin air-to-air missile, along with the platforms used to deliver it, appear to have performed effectively. This adds to the growing body of evidence that Chinese weapon systems must be taken seriously.”
The ‘mainstream electronic media’ in India prefers the sensational over the factual “with no thought spared for the consequences of such institutional irresponsibility at a time of crisis,” says Prem Panicker. “And they do this -- they are able to do this -- not merely because of the patronage of the government, but because of the complicity of the viewers.”
Apar Gupta says that the Indian government’s latest advisory to OTT platforms and social media intermediaries on removing content from Pakistan is “sweeping censorship”.
From journalism to jingoism: for the Indian media, truth be damned, says Shahzeb Ahmed in Dawn in a piece timely which reminds that “one can only imagine how dim-witted you have to be to cheer a war between two nuclear-armed countries.”
Jingoistic fervour and an unwillingness to question state narratives has severely dented the credibility of Indian media amidst ongoing tensions with Pakistan, scolds an editorial in The Standard.
The inequality that caste has engendered in our society does persist thousands of years later and a caste census will bring out this dirty secret of our country, writes Andy Mukherjee. He notes nonetheless that as far as genuine equality is concerned, “with all state institutions and the media controlled by upper castes and religious conservatism on the rise, any fight for” it “will be a slog”.
Because India and Pakistan don’t play bilateral cricket, the ICC has benefitted from their matches on the international stage being more scarce and anticipated. Now, with bilateral tensions soaring, if they stop playing with each other entirely (or if India refuses to participate in any tournament involving Pakistan), the ICC will find itself in dire financial straits, Tim Wigmore writes. He also notes that there are questions around Jay Shah’s independence as ICC chair given who his daddy is.
Being a reporter in Kashmir has been risky for a long time, but there has been a relatively new challenge that emerged when Article 370 was done away with: of top security officials and bureaucrats remaining “reluctant to furnish the details the public has the right to know without any confusion or misrepresentation”. Peerzada Ashiq cautions that “reporters without official access to information cannot fight the menace of misinformation and disinformation”.
Listen up
Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will at some point have to manage the tension in relations with India that were precipitated by the Justin Trudeau government’s allegation of Indian involvement in Hardeep Nijjar’s killing, but given that he is a technocrat and amid Donald Trump’s talk of making Canada the 51st American state, he will look to increase trade links around the world, including with countries like India, veteran journalist Daniel Lak tells Sidharth Bhatia.
Watch out
As they continue to carry out military operations against each other, India and Pakistan find themselves at a crossroads. Which way will they go now? Taking stock of developments over the last 48 hours, the Observer Research Foundation’s Manoj Joshi and the Stimson Center’s Elizabeth Threlkeld join Siddharth Varadarajan to try and paint a picture of what the next week may look like.
Over and out
Diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder – which features a mix of symptoms of schizophrenia and mood episodes – Arvind Sooknanan was hospitalised 20 times before he turned 20, had occasionally lived on the subway or in New York city’s parks and was asked to leave at least two colleges he’d enrolled in. Now he has a degree, is an ‘ambassador’ of people with serious mental illness to lawmakers, and successfully ran the campaign for the first South Asian woman elected to New York’s legislature. A key part of his success is Fountain House, a clubhouse run by people like himself, where a simple act of kindness transformed his life. John Leland reports on Sooknanand’s inspiring story.
That’s it for today. We’ll be back with you on Monday, on a device near you. If The India Cable was forwarded to you by a friend (perhaps a common friend!) book your own copy by SUBSCRIBING HERE.
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