Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 24

In a special meeting held on Friday by members of the Folklore Research Academy, Ramesh Yadav, president of the organisation, condemned the attack on media houses by the government. Calling out the government and political leaders on deteriorating political climate of the country, Yadav said the Centre needed to come clean on Pegasus issue.

Describing spying as a covert attack on the right to privacy and freedom of the press and that of the people of the country, he said the recent IT raids on Dainik Bhaskar in several states was an attack on transparent discourse of news.

“We strongly condemn the raids carried out on charges of alleged tax evasion. This was a step taken by the government out of fear of independent journalism and this raid was carried out to deter and intimidate journalists from speaking out truth,” he said.

Meanwhile, he also slammed Union Minister and BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi for the anti-farmer statements made by her recently, in which she termed the protesting farmers on the Delhi border as “mawali”. “Such meaningless statements from those sitting in power show the conspiracy to discredit the farmer agitation,” he said.

Snooping row

• Members of the Folklore Research Academy condemned the attack on media houses by the government. Ramesh Yadav, chief of the organisation,said the Centre needs to come clean on the Pegasus issue
• Describing spying as a covert attack on the right to privacy and freedom of the press and that of the people of the country, Yadav said the recent IT raids on Dainik Bhaskar in several states was an attack on transparent discourse of news
• Members also slammed Union Minister and BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi for the anti-farmer statements made by her recently, in which she termed the protesting farmers on the Delhi border as 'mawali'.