Coronavirus India: how Modi ally has suppressed damaging reports about oxygen shortages
- Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has increasingly been mentioned as a potential successor to Modi as prime minister
- Reporter accuses his government of threatening journalists to ensure ‘issues like lack of oxygen, hospital facilities and deaths never come to the forefront’
A few days later, the reporter for the local Kanwhizz Times was handed a so-called show-cause notice by the district administration under a law intended to curb rumours and misinformation. The notice states that the report was false and demanded that he reveal the source of his story and a subsequent Facebook post. Awasthi claims he has responded stating that his article contained factually correct information widely reported by other news organisations.
“The government is trying to threaten me and other journalists, hoping issues like lack of oxygen, hospital facilities and deaths never come to the forefront,” Awasthi said by phone from Rae Bareli district in central Uttar Pradesh, which has a population twice the size of Germany and a per capita income of less than US$3 a day.
There is no shortage of oxygen anywhere in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government said in an emailed response to questions. No action has been taken against journalists for writing against the government, and steps have only been taken “against such people who have incited hatred, discrimination or violence through misinformation”, it said.