‘Keeping Up the Good Fight’ Released in Tamil
Narmadha Devi
THE Tamil translation of the book Keeping Up the Good Fight by online news portal NewsClick’s founding editor Prabir Purkayastha who has been booked under the draconian clauses of UAPA, titled Porattam Thodarkiradhu was released in Chennai on January 26, 2024 – the 75th Republic day. The original book in English which was published in October 2024 by Left Word Publications has been translated by writer Subbarao and is published by Bharathi Puthagalayam at a record pace. Subbarao, the translator and K Nagarajan, publisher of Bharathi Puthagalayam were congratulated for their steadfastness in bringing out the book in Tamil.
G Ramakrishnan, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member in his special address mentioned that the works of Prabir as a scientist, journalist, writer, science forum activist are extraordinary. He recollected about how the annual research reports on economy by the Delhi Science Forum in which Prabir played a huge role, made an impact. He said that the NewsClick online news portal founded by Prabir in 2009, was upfront in the field of journalism and published scores of news articles, audio-visual coverages which aimed at strengthening democracy, safeguarding human rights and it covered the struggles of working class people of India effectively, both before and after the present BJP regime came to power.
“After 2014 with BJP coming to power at the centre, NewsClick not only exposed the detrimental and chaotic economic policy of the BJP government, but also published vast number of articles, interviews and videos against the communal and hatred policies and agendas of the BJP-RSS’s rule aimed at dividing the working people. It is in this backdrop, the 2021 attack on Prabir by the Enforcement Directorate took place, citing that he was involved in money laundering illegal activities. Prabir defended in court that all his actions were in compliance with the Reserve Bank of India’s rules and regulations. The attack on Prabir in 2021 was a warning to him to stop his impactful work. But he did not budge and only carried out his tasks with more vigour. That’s why the October 2023 attack on NewsClick and Prabir was planned and executed with an intention to halt his works”, Ramakrishnan explained. He asked, how the three questions that the investigating agencies pointed during the interrogation process – 1) Did you critically write about the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2) Did you condemn and write about the attacks against the CAA protesters (by the Sangh Parivar) in North East Delhi, 3) Did you write in support of the farmers’ agitation? were connected to money laundering offences?
G Ramakrishnan spoke about how in his memoir Prabir powerfully differentiates the emergency days of 1975 and the present situation. “In Chapter 2 of the book, what Prabir records is important- his statement that, ‘The major difference between then and now is at the fundamental level of ideology,’ is very important, he said. “In both the scenarios, the governments misused power, but today the BJP is implementing its Hindu Rashtra agenda, and it doesn’t hesitate to attack or even murder those who don’t agree with its ideology of ‘One Nation, One Religion, One Language and One Culture’. Writers and thinkers like Narendra Dabholkar, Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, and Gauri Lankesh were all murdered by the Hindutva elements and the investigative reports of these murders are being shared with the Hindutva headquarters”, he added.
N Ram, director of The Hindu Group Publishing Limited, said that the assault on NewsClick is clearly one of the largest attacks on media in India since independence. He mentioned that there are two main movements that have been covered exceptionally well by NewsClick; One was- the very spirited, widespread, prolonged protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the other was the farmer’s agitation against the three farm laws. “Although NewsClick was not the only digital media organisation that covered this agitation, there were also others like the Wire, the Scroll and so on, as well as a section of the mainstream media organisations. But, NewsClick covered the farmers' protest, more effectively, more consistently and more meaningfully perhaps than any other media organisation. This, I think enraged those in the government.” he opined. After recollecting the background of Prabir as an influential intellectual of the Left, Ram mentioned that the way the assault on NewsClick and Prabir Purkayastha has been carried out by the probing agencies including the CBI, as directed from above, marks the lowest point of press freedom in India since the emergency of 1975. He said that the attack on NewsClick is clearly not a police story but a political dispensation targeting journalists. He elaborated about the downslide in media freedom in India since 2014, by quoting the World Press Freedom Index, as tracked and compiled by Reporters Without Borders and the Global Impunity Index as compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists. In 2013, India was ranked 140 out of 180 countries, and in 2023, India’s rank sank further to 161 out of 180 countries.
Sudhanva Deshpande, managing editor of the Left Word books, spoke about the versatile works of Prabir. He said that Left Word which began its journey in 1999, published Prabir’s first book on Enron deal around 2001 which he co-authored. After that Left Word published his book on nuclear deal which again is a co-authored work and then published a collection of essays edited by him in honour of Comrade Amit Sen Gupta which is about the people’s health movement and science movement. “We recently published another book by Prabir, which is called ‘Knowledge of Commons’ and now this book-his memoir. This book will give an idea of the very many movements and issues he has been involved with. He had a very prolific public life of about 50 years and this public life has been marked by his two arrests – one during the emergency and now. He is in jail today because he has stood up and spoken out as every citizen of India should have spoken. He is in jail today because he is a good citizen” Sudhanva noted.
The book Porattam Thodarkiradhu was released by Justice Chandru and was received by journalist Kavitha Muralidaran. Justice Chandru in his address said that, in this book Prabir writes about the emergency of 1975 more elaborately and only outlines about the present scenario. Today, while he is in jail and his bail petitions are not being heard by the courts, he must write about this second phase as a sequel. “In that emergency phase, it was told that everything was in compliance with the laws. There remained a scope to approach the courts against the misuse of laws by the government. Those days, many high courts were ready to enquire about the legal issues. There was a situation then, where judges were not afraid of. Even when they were transferred to remote locations, they did not bother. They faced a fearless situation where in they could serve according to the oath they had taken that they will ensure justice is delivered. Today, does such a situation prevail, is a question mark” he remarked.
The book release event was presided by Hasif Mohammed, journalist and convenor, Centre for Media Persons for Change.
