For the last several weeks that innocuous looking navy blue document issued by the Republic of India, emblazoned with the Ashokan lions and the words ‘Satyameva Jayete’ in gold, has been in the news for two reasons. First, on June 24, an MEA official stated (whether he was tutored to say this or not will never be known), that the Indian passport is merely a “travel document” and not conclusive proof of Indian citizenship. Really? Does a document that has a column marked ‘Nationality’ not have the word ‘Indian’ stamped on it? Is this not the Republic’s solemn guarantee to the countries of the world that the subject bearing the document is indeed an Indian citizen? The second reason why the passport captured public attention was because the Indian state in its wisdom had sought to harass former editor-in-chief of the Telegraph, R. Rajagopal, over the renewal of his passport. It took over 100 days for what should have been a routine renewal to come good because the local police held up its clearance on the basis that Rajagopal’s right to vote had been withheld under the ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.What should we make of all this? That the decisions taken by the Central Passport Organisation under the Passport Act now crucially impinge on the decisions taken by Election Commission of India under SIR? Are we to conclude that the right to vote could be seen as a more “conclusive proof” of citizenship than the possession of a mere passport? If a passport is not conclusive proof of citizenship, then why should its issuance be tied to the right to vote? The jalebi-like circularity of such reasoning leads to only one conclusion: the government of India is ultimately more pre-occupied in disowning, disempowering and dis-enfranchising people than in appearing logical. Here is a government intent on choosing its own electorate; one that is “seeking to redefine citizenship on the basis of politically-driven administrative arbitrariness” (‘Chronology Samajhiye: Method Behind Modi Government’s Passport Madness’, June 26). For this column, however, the more important aspect is why was the casual cruelty of applying “politically-driven administrative arbitrariness” extended to Rajagopal, a hugely respected, fiercely independent journalist; a man who has edited a major newspaper like the Kolkata-based Telegraph for seven years and who considered Bengal his home having lived in the state for 30 years (‘MKV’s 360 Degrees | Vote Deletion, Then Passport Denial: Ex Telegraph Editor’s Ordeal’, June 29)? This question may have been hanging in the air waiting for an answer were it not for two occurrences. The first was statement issued by the Editors Guild of India (ECI) which noted that “Rajagopal, despite decades of work in the public domain as a journalist and editor, today finds himself not only disenfranchised as a voter due to the deletion of his name from the electoral rolls, but also unable to renew his passport since more than 100 days, allegedly due to an ‘adverse report’ from the Kolkata Police, who must have been very familiar with Mr Rajagopal as the Editor of one of the city’s leading dailies” (The Wire, June 28). The fact that this statement raised the hackles of Kanchan Gupta, Senior Advisor at Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, was the second development. Gupta attacked the ECI statement in an angry post on X: “Where was @IndEditorsGuild’s ethics when day after day R. Rajagopal ran a toxic campaign against Modi Govt, not to critique it but indulge in ad homimem vitriolic abuse? Remember how @smritiirani was labelled ‘Aunty National’ in a front page banner headline? Roll your outrage and smoke it.” Kanchan Gupta’s rage may suggest that the treatment afforded to Rajagopal may be something more than just the confusing ways of the Indian administrative system. During his stint as its editor, Rajagopal steered the Telegraph into becoming something of a national oracle, distilling the news of the day through the agency of wit and bold political stances. He made the front page headline a living, breathing thing, able to convey through a few carefully chosen words the essence of the day’s news. The newspaper could be accused of having stepped on the pedal a tad too heavily on occasion, but generally its front pages reflected political reality. While it may have created powerful enemies, the sardonic spirit behind the headlines did help create public interest in newspapers at a juncture when the print media was steadily losing its edge and capacity to provoke debate.So was this a revenge drama? Editors today know only too well that they had better toe the government line if they want to keep their jobs. But in the Rajagopal case things were taken much further: it sent out a message to every independent-minded editor – and may their tribe stop declining – that exemplary punishment could await them even after they have put in their papers and begun to nurse dreams of a comfortable retired life. It came as a reminder that the State and its minders have long memories and short fuses. These developments recall for me India’s first Press Commission, set up in 1954 and chaired by the redoubtable administrator and judge, G. S. Rajadhyaksha. Filled with the fervour of building a post-independence India founded on freedom of speech and expression, the Commission insisted on ring-fencing the independent editor in its recommendations. Fifteen pages of its Report were dedicated to protecting that very independence, a section that carried the observation that: “The status of the editor is inseparable from a high standard of journalistic capacity as well as moral authority.” It then went on to explain: “We consider it essential that if a newspaper is to fulfill its function in society, it should have a certain unity of purpose which could only be possible if the concentration of ultimate responsibility resides in one person…and where all members of the editorial staff realize that they are working towards a common goal under the leadership of the editor…This requires an individual who can inspire all members of the team with their journalistic abilities as well as absolute integrity.” So committed was the Commission to nursing that independence against avaricious proprietors and power-hungry governments, that it recommended the period of notice for an editor should not be less than three months during the first three years of service, and not less than six months thereafter. The Commission’s dream has long since faded in this country. But every once in a way, a salty individual turns up who is prepared to try, in their own way, to keep that vision alive. R. Rajagopal can be considered one among this tribe. The fact that it took sustained unequivocal nation-wide outrage over the treatment meted out to him to end the matter should concern every newspaper reader, alerting them to the need of protecting this turf at all costs.As for the little navy blue book we carry as a testimony to our Indianness, if not our Indian citizenship, we can only hope that the words ‘Satyameva Jayete’ it carries on its cover will stand the test of these times.§A large and unconscionable silence over a genocideJustice S. Muralidhar has won the admiration of the world by chairing the UN appointed Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, which was mandated to look at Israel’s war crimes. After the report of the Commission came out, revealing its integrity and courageous plainspeaking, Justice Muralidhar emerged a hero everywhere in the world but in his own country. The mainstream media did not even bother to carry an editorial on the commission’s extraordinary finding that killing children and babies were strategic military choices that Israel has made. The fact that Indian drones manufactured by Adani in a joint venture with Israel’s Elbit systems were part of the killing machinery Israel deployed, makes such comment even more urgent, but you may as well forget it! Fortunately there were a few serious newspaper and online interviews with Justice Muralidhar. The Hindu also did a neat summary of the report, which carried a section on the hate speech made by Israelis which the Commission recognised was a “precursor to …the genocide”. Many of these alarmingly monstrous observations emanated from the Knesset, with choice examples such as Deputy Speaker Nissim Vaturi enjoining his compatriots to “Erase Gaza. Nothing will satisfy us…Do not leave a child there, expel all the remaining ones at the end, so that they will not have a resurrection.” The message was clear: every baby is an enemy and no child should be left in the territory. Apart from politicians, there were quotes from soldiers who carried out these attacks with total impunity. As one soldier put it, “We saw two teenagers pushing some sort of cart and the first shot was directly to the head.” In fact, they were trained to shoot directly to the head and there was no ignominy involved. On January 28, 2025, one soldier informed the father of a boy he had shot dead: “I am the one who shot your son. God willing, he will die.”Justice Muralidhar did not pull his punches in his interviews. The insanity of a military strategy that systematically killed over 20,179 children and injured 44,143 was systematically broken down for the average person. As he explained, it is reasonable to believe the targeted killing of children was part of a larger plan for genocide of the Palestinian people. This approach was justified to ordinary Israeli citizens through the framing of every Palestinian child as a “terrorist”. Once this was achieved the children become fair game for trigger-happy IDF soldiers. The Justice also recognised with great clarity how India has let itself down over the genocide. As he put it to the Indian Express, “If we don’t act on the proof against Israel, we can’t redeem ourselves.” In an interview given to Business Standard he added that “countries supplying arms to Israel cannot escape the charge of aiding war crimes”.§Readers write in…A storm in a tea pot?Maju ‘Storm in a Tea Pot’ has sent in a response to a Wire article…The article https://m.thewire.in/article/politics/why-kerala-needs-satheesan-to-walk-the-nehruvian-talk is highly superficial and raises doubts on whether there is a functioning editorial desk in Wire. It is really sad that such half cooked editorial material based on the news coming in some “mainstream” Malayalam channels/news portals are being used as sources for a Wire article. We have a plethora of “news portals” already doing this. I would highly recommend the editorial team review this article to avoid such “copied from mainstream media” pieces appearing on its portal.My response: Must say that I was surprised at the tone adopted by Maju ‘Storm in a Tea Pot’ to dismiss the article of a well-respected economist. Perhaps the writer is only trying to live up to their chosen moniker!§Killer roadsWire reader Anish Anand wants this news portal to do a series on rash driving…India’s roads are facing a silent epidemic: wrong-side driving. What was once a rare violation has now become a daily menace, eroding discipline and endangering lives.This is not a minor infraction. It is a reckless act that has already claimed thousands of lives across the country. According to the Government of India’s Road Accidents in India 2023 report, wrong-side driving alone accounts for over 9,000 deaths every year. These crashes are often high-speed head-on collisions, leaving victims with no chance to react.Across India – from metropolitan cities to smaller towns – motorists routinely drive against traffic to save a few seconds. The result: pedestrians, school children, and senior citizens are forced to look in all directions before crossing, as danger now comes from where it should never be.Despite strict fines for other violations, wrong-side driving continues to be ignored or tacitly accommodated. This undermines public trust in enforcement and breeds lawlessness. In reality, such behavior deserves immediate license suspension, not leniency.We urge your esteemed publication to shine a spotlight on this menace…This is not just about traffic rules. It is about safeguarding human life. Every preventable accident leaves behind grieving families and shattered communities. Saving a few seconds on the road should never cost someone their entire life…§Where is the courage in our journalism?Santosh Kumar makes an interesting observation…A friend just called. Both of us had produced innumerable editions in our career as chief-subs/news editors. We were wondering whether we would have carried a headline that read: ‘Trump says Modi a killer’. I replied that while there may be courage in the journalism practiced in the US, forget the possibility in our India.§The right to workStatement issued by the All India Feminist Alliance and All-India Workers Forum – NAPM (excerpts):(We) welcome the significant judgement of the Supreme Court in Prajwala v. Union of India delivered on 29th May, 2026, recognizing and re-affirming the constitutional and human rights, dignity and agency of adult women in India to actively pursue work and livelihood opportunities, including sex work. For far too long, sex workers have been spoken about, legislated over, raided, ‘rescued’, detained, shamed and punished, without being recognised as political subjects with voices, choices, histories and demands of their own. This judgement is an important constitutional intervention that attempts to right a long history of wrongs, stigmatization and violence against women engaged in sex work across India. As feminist and workers’ collectives, we welcome the recent judicial interventions against “compulsory rehabilitation” of women in sex work. We welcome the courts’ acknowledgement of the decades-long demand of sex workers’ organisations that consensual adult sex work should not be collapsed into or equated with trafficking. Actively involved in preventing trafficking, many sex workers’ organisations acknowledge that trafficking is a grave violation and must be addressed with seriousness and accountability. The Court’s position that the right to rehabilitation under Article 23 of the Constitution, cannot be in derogation of the right to consent to rehabilitation under Article 21, is crucial. Upholding the decisional autonomy of the adult woman, as integral to the right to live with dignity under Article 21 is a right long overdue… …As sex workers’ movements in India have long argued with clarity and courage, forced rescue or carceral rehabilitation makes the lives of women and transgender persons in sex work more vulnerable. The answer lies in labour rights, social protection, housing, healthcare, community-led support systems and the meaningful participation of sex workers in all decisions affecting their lives… An oily taleEnd note: Did Indian newsroom measure up to the energy crisis during the US-Iran war? There has not been as much as a backward glance at our media coverage of the war, so it was educative to come across M. Rajshekhar’s assessment, ‘The Big Story Energy: Taking Stock: How Resilient is India to Energy Shocks?” (June 30). This after all, as the writer notes, is a country crucially dependent on energy supplies from the region – not only does 40 per cent of its oil imports traverse the Strait of Hormuz, 50% of its oil, 60% of its LNG, and 80% of its LPG come from West Asia. The knockdown effects of all this on the lives of the most marginalised cannot even be imagined.So did Indian newsrooms actually deliver on this story? The crisis certainly demanded exemplary attention from the media and they needed, as Rajshekhar points out, to “fan out across the country and track the energy crisis from week to week.” But none of this happened. His assessment? “Compared to demonetisation, the botched rollout of GST or Covid-19, Indian newsrooms’ coverage of the energy shock was neither comprehensive nor sustained.” Write to ombudsperson@thewire.in.