The Congress and the opposition have been quite vocal about the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trying to curb press freedom in the country. While those charges are neither unwarranted nor untrue, recent reports have also shed light on the fact that the Congress is not as clean as one had hoped.
The issue is not that the Congress or other opposition parties have done something directly to restrict press freedom, but rather how they, the authorities, and affiliated organisations have responded when such incidents have taken place in the states they rule.
The Case Of Kerala Anchor Aparna Kurup
The most recent example is the case of journalist Aparna Kurup, who was booked after a complaint was filed over her remarks about Muslim cleric Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, who had said that women should be kept in their homes and compared them to ‘gold ornaments’.
In August 2026, the cleric, speaking at the Hubbul Rasool conference in Kochi, said that “Women should remain confined within their homes. They should not enter the public sphere. The Holy Quran says so.”
He further compared women to a gold necklace, stating that just as leaving one on the roadside would reduce its beauty and value since anyone could touch it, women too need to be protected by being kept inside homes.
He said, “If the necklace has to retain its beauty, it has to be kept safely inside a box.”
He added, “It is precisely recognising that bringing women onto public platforms in this manner causes great destruction that Islam mandated purdah for women. The Holy Quran states that women should live confined within their homes and must not make public appearances.”
Aparna Kurup, a senior co-ordinating editor and anchor with Malayalam news channel BIG TV, participated in a debate on August 31 regarding Kanthapuram’s remarks. It was here that she said there are religious leaders “who consider men having extramarital sex, consuming ganja and MDMA (synthetic drug), as the sunnath (approval) in kithab (the Quran)”.
This resulted in immediate backlash against the anchor. Abdulla Basil CP, another guest on the show, wrote in a social media post, “This is targeting a community and creating a narrative against the community,” adding that her statement had factual errors as well.
Kurup issued an apology on September 1, stating, “In the discussions held on gender inequality towards women, certain statements should have been avoided. If those statements have hurt anyone’s religious sentiments or belief, an unconditional apology is tendered.”
That was not enough. A complaint was soon filed with the Kerala Police by Kasaragod resident Abdul Hakkim, alleging that her comments could cause a riot and breach the peace while hurting the religious sentiments of the community.
Read More: ResearchED: Does BJP Have A Predictable Playbook On How To Finish Any Opposition In The Country?
Other Instances
This is not the first time the opposition has been called out for hypocrisy on press freedom.
The Congress is not the only party to have attempted to stifle free speech. In 2023, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), came under the scanner when Students’ Federation of India (SFI) state secretary P M Arsho named female journalist Akhila Nandakumar in a complaint.
Nandakumar had reported that Arsho had passed his third semester without sitting for the exam.
He proceeded to file a complaint against the Asianet News journalist and four others, including the principal of the government-run Maharaja’s College in Ernakulam, alleging “criminal conspiracy, forgery and criminal defamation.”
According to Arsho, the accused had created a fake result showing him as having passed an exam he never sat for, purely to tarnish his and the SFI’s image. The journalist was accused of spreading this “false news” on social media, which led to Arsho and his organisation being defamed.
CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan endorsed the move, warning that further such remarks by the media against his party or the SFI could invite similar action.
The Kerala Union of Working Journalists, however, spoke out against it, stating, “The case was registered against the journalist for reporting news. It’s anti-democratic and an infringement on media freedom. The case was registered for reporting allegations raised by a KSU leader on Live television.”
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in its country profile for India, also noted, “Anti-terrorism laws are increasingly used against journalists. The main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, and other regional parties have also used legal provisions against journalists for intimidation purposes and as retaliation.”
In March 2025, two Telangana journalists – Pulse News managing director Pogadadanda Revathi and reporter Thanvi Yadav – were arrested by the Hyderabad Police’s Cyber Crime division for allegedly “posting and amplifying allegedly abusive content against Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.”
The complaint concerned a video report in which Yadav spoke to an individual who allegedly made “derogatory” and “abusive” remarks about the Chief Minister. It claimed the post was “highly provocative” and a “deliberate attempt by Pulse TV to defame and spread propaganda”.
The BRS’ KT Rama Rao wrote in a post on X, “The arrest of journalists who posted a video of a farmer talking about the hardships he faces under the Congress government is the culmination of this government’s restrictive rule. Is this the constitutional rule that Rahul Gandhi is talking about?”
The criticism was notable, considering that Revathi had been arrested under BRS rule as well for a similar matter.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has faced similar criticism, with the Reporters’ Collective reporting that copyright claims were used to take down at least 48 social media posts and videos by journalists critical of the Punjab government over the past year.
Some pages were restored months later, with a Meta spokesperson saying, “The content and accounts were removed in error and have since been restored.”
AAP-Punjab’s media in-charge Baltej Pannu denied that those users were journalists, stating, “If anyone who does not have a proper degree or qualification, and is indulging in baseless allegations [against AAP], we have to take action.”
Given the recent anger against the ruling party, the Congress has certainly used it to gain brownie points with the public, trying to appear as the better alternative. However, it is important that the general public be aware that no side is any ‘cleaner’ than the other, and that blind worship or ‘hyping’ of any political party should be avoided.
Instead, every political organisation should be held to the same standard of responsibility and accountability, and questioned by the public whenever it attempts to misuse its powers.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Indian Express, RSF, The Hindu
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This post is tagged under: Congress, bjp, press freedom, press freedom india, Congress press freedom, indian journalists, india journalist freedom, indian journalism
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