On August 11, locals of Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh met with a peculiar sight: about 200 journalists, with their shirts unbuttoned and torn, stood at traffic signals and roamed crowded markets holding out steel bowls, begging for money – and sloganeering “patrakaron ko dabana band karo” or “stop muzzling journalists”.  

This unusual protest was against the Rs 50 crore defamation suits slapped against four local journalists by BJP MLA Jawaharlal Rajput for “crafting a conspiracy to tarnish his reputation” by publishing reports pointing to his alleged involvement in illegal sand mining in his constituency, Garautha. The reports published in June also mentioned that a “personal assistant” of Rajput assaulted local journalists while reporting.    

The four journalists Pushpendra Yadav, Ashutosh Nayak, Dhirendra Raikwar, and Ram Naresh, had separately reported on Rajput and received defamation notices seeking an unconditional apology and Rs 50 crore monetary compensation on July 24. 

“Even if every journalist in our locality sells their kidneys, we will never be able to collect this amount,” said Yadav, who runs YouTube news channel Times Samachar, which boasts of 15k subscribers and carried reports on Rajput. He is also president of the local Electronic Media Club. “We do stories for the public so we thought we would go to the public for the money too, because there is no way we can afford this.”

Videos of the protests showed the journalists telling locals about the reports in question and the legal notice and requesting their contribution to “fill the stomach” of the MLA. They also carried posters and placards with similar slogans as they marched in the city. 

Some passersby offered coins and even big notes on hearing their ordeal. The journalists told Newslaundry that even some beggars donated money to them. They collected a cumulative amount of about Rs1,200 and said that they plan to extend their crowdfunding and protest to other districts, and even the capital city of Lucknow.

The journalists told Newslaundry that their revenue is “unreliable”. Nayak, who runs Bundeli Varta with over 21k subscribers, said that “even if we sell all our properties, we won’t have such money”. 

Like Yadav and Nayak, Raikwar also runs his own portal News 30 Express with a little over 5k subscribers. Their revenue depends on the YouTube ads driven by the virality of the content. Meanwhile, Naresh is an independent journalist who contributes to multiple news portals. His monthly income depends on the ads he brings for the news outlets, a revenue model popular among outlets in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh.  

While Rajput’s counsel Seema Patnaha Singh maintained that the notice had been sent to only four journalists, another local independent reporter, Diku Jain, claimed that the notice was sent to him as well, but he did not receive it. 

Legal notice says ‘commercial interest, intent to tarnish reputation’

Newslaundry reviewed the legal notices sent to the journalists, which alleged that the headlines of their video reports were “squarely deliberate and mischievous with the sole intention of tarnishing Jawaharlal Rajput’s reputation”. 

It said the journalists acted as “judge, jury, and executioner in breach of all journalistic ethics” and the reports were intended to further their “commercial and corporate interests”.

The notice sought Rs 50 crore as monetary compensation for the “defamation” caused to Rajput on public platforms “having pan India reach”. It also demanded that the journalists remove the “existing false news report”, publish an unconditional apology, issue a corrigendum “clarifying the facts” and compensate Rajput with Rs 1 lakh for legal fees. 

It further accused the journalists of “intricately crafting a conspiracy” to show that Rajput was involved in illegal activities. It also stated that the MLA commands immense respect and goodwill across the country for his “invaluable support and help for the farmers and agriculturalists in Garautha”.

Nayak, who runs Bundeli Varta on which the report was published, said, “After we received the notices, we sat together and wondered what to do. There was no way we would be able to give this amount. In fact, no journalist would be able to give this amount. So we thought, let them go to court. And let us fight this publicly, so that the public, for whom we do the reporting, will also come to know.”

Rajput’s counsel Seema Patnaha Singh told Newslaundry that it did not matter if the defamation amounted to more than the journalists could afford. She said that the legal notice was just a “reaction” to their “action.”

“His reputation is actually worth even more than the amount we have asked for,” she claimed. “The MLA has a good image in the society and it is important for his reputation to be protected. Journalists are the fourth pillar of the constitution so they should act like that and verify sources before publishing reports. There are so-called journalists in every household today, but doing this kind of journalism is harmful for the society.”

However, it was not the first time that Rajput made headlines for controversial reasons. In October last year, his son allegedly “abused” a police official, while years before that Rajput himself assaulted a cop for stopping his car for routine checking. In January 2022, he “mistakenly” made statements against his own party, and a month later, his son was chased away by villagers while campaigning for his father. 

‘Began own portal to escape censorship, deleting refutes purpose’ 

Nayak said that he began his own portal to do stories without worrying about censorship. “I started it in October 2022, when I realised that newspapers and TV channels can’t report anymore on what is happening. I wanted to bring real incidents to light.” 

He said that Rajput’s move was unprecedented. “There is always danger when you report from ground zero but it is not the style of the politicians in this area to use such tools against journalists. It is a clear case of targeting.”

Raikwar said, “We have the option of deleting our stories and apologising. But if we do that, the entire purpose of the report will fall flat, won’t it?” 

He said that his portal has “probably done over 100 stories where the MLA is shown in a good light, we prominently show the good things the MLAs do too. So why can’t we do these stories as well?”

Yadav of Times Samachar said, “We have nothing to lose, which helped us come to the decision of this protest. We’ll go to the MLA’s constituency, we’ll go to Lucknow too, begging. We have no other way of collecting this amount.”

Newslaundry has reached out to Rajput with queries in the matter. This report will be updated on receiving a response. 

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