Mandeep Punia’s Mann Ki Baat exposes the media, BJP and Delhi Police

Till Saturday I had not known about Mandeep Punia or his work. I noticed late in the evening that a journalist had been taken into custody by Delhi Police and his friends and colleagues were anxiously seeking information about him. Late in the evening there was confirmation that police had detained him. It was not clear why. Some accounts quoted Delhi Police as saying that he had obstructed public servants (policemen) from discharging their duty. Another account held that he was arrested for misbehaving with the SHO of Alipur Police Station.

One of the first tweets I noticed on Sunday morning was by a faculty member of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. Punia had passed out of IIMC, he recalled, and said that Punia was bright, inquisitive and had a questioning mind. That Punia, a freelance journalist contributing to Caravan magazine, could be detained by police was worrying, he said. Punia, I thought, must have been an exceptional student for the faculty member to stick his neck out for a former student.

Sunday afternoon saw a sudden spate of tweets with the hashtag #ReleaseMandeepPunia. There were video clips posted of groups of people demonstrating at the HQ of Delhi Police and raising slogans demanding that Punia be freed. To my surprise the young men and women, presumably all of them journalists and photo journalists, were fearlessly and lustily shouting, “ Delhi Police Hai Hai/ Amit Shah Hai Hai”. There were also video clips of a smiling Punia being driven off to Tihar Jail, of media bytes and interviews given by his wife at the Press Club of India and, finally, clips of Punia being led inside Tihar. He had been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.

Late on Sunday I realized there were more than one lakh tweets and retweets with the hashtag #ReleaseMandeepPunia and another hashtag with a similar demand. Somebody also mentioned that on Monday Punia will be the best known journalist in India.

On Monday I was alerted to a facebook post by Mandeep Punia posted before he was held. The video explained why it became necessary to arrest him. But before giving details of his video, it needs to be mentioned what he said towards the end. He had not reported this because he still did not have the version of the police. “I have been calling the SHO of Alipur but he is not taking my calls,” he says and adds that without the police version, the report would not be fair or complete.

In the video he had recorded the police beating up a Sikh man. “He was a volunteer,” Punia says but adds that he has not been able to identify him and did not have his name. But the volunteer was dragged by his hair by policemen, one of whom put his boot on his neck as he lay sprawled on the ground—a truly George Floyd moment—and then was handed over to the ‘local’ mob, who pounced upon him.

Who was he ? What is his name ? Where is he now ? Punia says he would wait for 24 hours for Delhi Police to hold a Press Conference and reveal the details. If they don’t, he asserts, he would reveal the entire footage and details that he had.

Even more importantly, Punia shows a clip of a news channel called ‘Khabar India’ which also corroborated what Punia had stated. But the accompanying commentary claimed that the police had been attacked. The reporter amusingly screams, “ There is this solitary man with Kripan who has attacked more than 50 policemen and still the attack is continuing and the policemen are unable to ward off the attacker”.

Punia’s revealing post also showed that a prominent Hindi newspaper the next day photoshopped an image to remove policemen who were supporting the local mob.

“ The so-called local mob comprised not more than 50 people, who were throwing stones, who tried to set women’s tent on fire and hurled a few petrol bombs. Lights had been cut off and the policemen were providing the mob cover by firing tear gas shells at the farmers—which is why so many of them sustained injuries,”Punia claimed.

It is shocking that an enterprising, young reporter like Punia is in jail. We must all be ashamed.