 Hello and let's talk about the Delhi riots probe. Over the past few days, we saw the arrest of former student activist Omar Khalid, the summoning of filmmakers Rahul Roy and Sabha Divan for investigations, and the naming of Sitaram Nishuri of the CPIM and academic Jayati Ghosh in a disclosure statement. The investigation of the Delhi riots was always a bit strange, as those who had mowed made the most inflammatory statements never seemed in any danger of being arrested. Somehow from the beginning, it seemed like the focus was on students and activists, those who were in the forefront of defending the Indian constitution in the previous months. It seemed like the investigation was less into the Delhi riots and violence, and more into the critics of the government. The recent events have only confirmed this pattern, and we are likely to see more of this as the trials begin. We talk to journalist Basha Singh on the motivations of the Delhi police, the direction of the trial and the role of the media. Basha, thank you so much for joining us. So you see the developments over the past few days, Omar Khalid has been arrested, Rahul Roy has been summoned, and of course before that Sitaram Nishuri, Jayati Ghosh, Apur Varan and all of them were named in a disclosure statement, which also is running to its own controversies. And this is something we have been discussing about for the past couple of months. What direction the Delhi riots probe is going in? So how do you see the direction of the probe right now, especially with the latest news? Yeah, basically, it has become very clear now, what we were saying with some estimation mark or some doubts. So the Delhi police has helped to remove all the doubts, which they are moving, and especially when Comrade Sitaram Nishuri, Jayati Ghosh, Apur Varan, Rahul Roy, these name came and anyhow they have arrested Omar Khalid. So it's very clear in this case that whoever was against CAA, the Citizenship Amendment Act, whoever was speaking against NRC, NPR, all are being placed as writers. Now they have made this equation very clear that for Delhi police, this whole thing which happened in Delhi, and to make my stand very clear, Prasan, because I have traveled in all those areas which were burned, the design is very clear at the time of burning also. And now I'm dead sure about it that it was a planned attack on the minorities to just divert the whole attention because that day, Delhi was boiling. It was coming up with the protests. Everywhere there was a protest. They were challenging the movie government, Amisha. So at that time, this program was designed. This is not a riot because riot, both the communities are coming together and fighting. So I disagree with this term itself that there was a clash between two communities. No. And right now, it has become, the whole probe has become a dangerous level vindictive because when you place a party head, when you place a Suraj party's Yogin Yadav also there, when you place a Pooja Nand, a film maker, all of them at one go. And then you say, okay, this was not like this. Somebody has taken. This is not part of the charge sheet. So that means that they are also testing the ground that, okay, but they want to create a whole field of terror that everybody should get the message. Signal is very clear. It's a chilling signal that they are ready to even go or even take the name of Sikharam Yatuni without a single evidence, without a single stand, without a single discussion that makes their stand that they are vindictive. And I want to repeat it here again that they have not so far done anything on the Goli Maro Saloko Gang, which was raising the slogan. And that was a chilling night. I still can imagine what they were doing in the broad place of Delhi. When Opelli Kapil Mishra and the team was moving across and just making the riot, making the whole thing that, okay, you have to fire, you have to kill. So those were the people. We have a video footage of Kapil Mishra speaking at Zafrabad metro station. Everything is on the record. But after seven months, you won't find anything happening on that track. So now it is very clear that it is moving the same way as the Bhima-Poregaon case is moving. So two cases are very clear. So yeah, so it's good you brought up the issue of Bhima-Poregaon because both these cases, like you said, there are massive parallels in the way the government is out to, it has identified people who have been critics, who have raised fundamental questions about the government itself and all this seems to be happening at a time, of course, when the pandemic is raging, when the country is facing a hitherto unprecedented economic crisis. But once again, to go back to both these cases, where do we, where do you see both of them going from there, going from, these cases going from here right now, because we already have an entire conspiracy that is being laid out in both of them. So do we see the possibility of further attacks on descent and the kind of conspiracies kind of being more and more of these kind of being built up? Yeah, because now for example, I feel that both the cases are moving side by side. You find that Bhima-Poregaon started a little earlier and now also the arrest at the time of the COVID, when Indian government is not ready for the question are saying that it's an unprecedented condition and we can't have the questions in the parliament at that time, the arrest in both the cases and both the cases are very interesting because both are open ended, the charge, the way they are including now, they have arrested the Kaveer Kalamansh artists, singers, so and all have a same track record, you find that all are very critical to the way Modi government is taking away our fundamental rights. They are raising a very basic fundamental issues of democracy. They're not a single person is talking openly about the violence. Be it the arrest in the people here or the people who are named. And in Delhi, all those who have been arrested, their speeches are there. Umar Khale, the speech is there, that why they are afraid of us, what we are doing, how we have to love our country. I'm saying that as an Indian citizen, I need not to take a flag on my head and say that, okay, I am a patriarch and this and this. This is a very stupid thing for me. But all these people who have been placed whose name have come, they have been talking about the nation, about their love, how the peace has to be restored and especially in the Delhi case, you find that all these people, be it Sitaram, B.J.D. Hors, D.A. Purvanand, Harsh Mandar, Kavitha Krishnan, its list is you can't even take the whole names. So all those people, I have also personally seen working for the relief work. They have been working in the relief work. They have been going and narrating, recording, documenting the stories. When we were going for the news click, news reports there. So this is the biggest irony that these were the people who were standing on the side of the victim, helping them out, trying to make the documentation. And now they are placed as the writers. So they have been doing conspirators. Same you find in the Bhima Koregaon case, be it Sudha, be it anyone you can name. We know many of them for very long. They have been talking about their rights and many have not stood by the Bhima Koregaon. So what I feel that these are the two test case for this new very fast changing Indian fastest state. They want to test their grounds that whoever is on the descent, whoever is talking about the constitution, constitutional rights, fundamental rights, as Sitara Muturi said in the press conference, that it is my constitutional right to raise the dissent. And it's my constitutional duty to save the constitution. This is a fundamental right and duty of any Indian citizen. So these are the people whom they are afraid and they want to book so that the dissent, because I think what now that we are going to see in the next four, five, six months, is going to be a terrible state for the Indian democracy. We are going to lose more and more of our rights as Uttar Pradesh government, Yogi Adityanath, has come with a very draconian law that has passed the ordinance where you can be just picked up without war and without anything. So it looks like that they want to book or lay down all the possible voices of dissent, which can challenge them. And those voices are raising. We have seen just now how the unemployed have come out. They use the same tool which Modi was asking them to bang the utensils and said that, okay, we are unemployed, you listen to us. So I think this, the Indian state is also able to understand that this reverse gear is now happening because unemployment is rising, GDP is down like anything, and they don't have anything else to say. So now this dissent they want to curtail, and it is on our very ordinary sustained design that whoever is raising, who can raise also potential, they are looking off the potential people also. You can raise, you can write. So that's a very dangerous and chilling experience for all of us who stand by constitutionality. And finally, at this point in time, one of the most depressing, but not necessarily surprising things is the fact that the media is doing what it is right now. So something we've been talking about, again, many sections have been talking about it, but even today it's sometimes difficult to really believe that in the country is going in one direction and the media is in completely other direction. So how do you see this happening? I think this is also a part of the same strategy that they are basically not the media, they are the perception builders now. As we said, the PR agencies, public relations agencies, so same way we find that these media houses which are very big, powerful, their reach is tremendous, they have become as a perception builders. So they want to create a perception about the country. You may be hungry, you want food, but 24 into seven, the media will be bombarding you with the photos of say that some pizza delivery is happening, some food is happening, some party is happening, or the mystery of Sushant Singh Rajput society. So you find that this is not, all of a sudden it is happening. It's also the way we are thinking that how the investigative agencies are happening, taking place, same way. This is also very organized way, the media, I think they decide that today they are going to have this TRP thing on the Sushant Singh, then it will come on the Kangana Ranaut, then it will come on something else, whatever. You can have the Rafael King, you can have that India is losing its ground with the China, but you will have that, okay, how powerful we are, we'll bring out 1962, 1968, anything, anything. So it's becoming a selling of the fiction stories. I think Bollywood, that's right, many of our Bollywood friends, script writers are saying that they don't have so much of imagination much Indian media is going to have. So this, I think at this juncture, Indian media is facing the same crisis which Indian democracy is facing. And to assay it with the very deep grief that when I compare it with the US media, at least they have not bowed down or they have not joined the party of the Trump. They are at least in a position to raise the question. Well, they have their own limitation, we know, but at least they have not come out with their PR agencies. And this is very dangerous for Trump because 24 into seven, you find that right now when we are talking so much unemployment is there. But so much price hike is there. It's unprecedented, vegetable prices are beyond control. There's a fire. But even the Indian consumer, they are not feeling that kind of a grinch which we used to see in Delhi when the onions increased. We had the rallies and the dharanas. But now nobody is talking about, they are saying that, what are you doing? So this feeling that the government is not accountable. The Modi is not accountable. So this they are able to build in the middle. How long it's going to sustain. But this is what is happening. And it is definitely very worrisome for all of us. Not only as a media person, but also as Indian citizen. So that I find that this is a very crucial juncture for Indian media also. Absolutely. Thank you so much for talking to us. Thanks. That's all we have time for today. We'll be back tomorrow with more news from the country and the world. Until then, keep watching NewsClick.