A frayed thread of free speech: AAP halts BBC interview with Avadh Ojha

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers abruptly stopped a BBC interview with Avadh Ojha, a recently inducted educationist-turned-politician, on Thursday just because they did not like a question.

Ojha, known for his viral educational videos and his transition into politics, was in the midst of discussing his new political journey when the BBC reporter, Anshul Singh, posed a question regarding Ojha's previous praise for political figures from rival parties, including BJP's Yogi Adityanath and Congress's Rahul Gandhi. 

This line of questioning evidently did not sit well with the AAP functionaries present, leading to an abrupt end to the interview.

The BBC's attempt to delve into Ojha's political consistency and his views on his former comments was met with resistance from AAP workers, who reportedly stated, "Aapse kaha tha na ulte sawal nahi karne" (We told you not to ask tricky questions). 

BBC uploaded 8 minute 32 seconds long interview of AAP leader Awadh Ojha and here are the last 25 seconds of it.

I want to end this tweet with some heavy words like freedom of speech, free press, new kind of politics, Modi is a dictator, vagairah vagairah ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Fxz3lxVUFt

— Open Letter (@openletteryt) December 5, 2024

The incident exposed AAP's 'manufactured' positioning as a champion of free speech after the alleged liquor scam washed away its anti-corruption positioning.

AAP had built an imaginary reputation for championing free speech through stage-managed interviews or a ‘shoot and scoot’ policy.

More than two years ago, NewsDrum exclusively wrote the Aam Aadmi Party's modus operandi for controlling the media. 

In its report titled, “How Arvind Kejriwal arm-twists media owners”, NewsDrum revealed Kejriwal’s model of terrorising media.

The AAP government spends huge amounts on ads, running into hundreds of crores every year, which is used blatantly to tame the media. According to industry estimates, in some cases, it makes 20-30% of the overall ad revenue of a few media houses. Any unfavourable coverage wipes out the entire portion of that revenue.

The first big victim of this financial terrorism of Kejriwal was the Hindustan Times.

Unhappy over some unfavourable coverage, Kejriwal removed HT from his media plan and the then editor-in-chief was sent to meet Kejriwal to get the business back. It is an open secret in the media fraternity that Kejriwal made the editor meet his deputy Sisodia and other junior ministers before reinstating HT in his media plan.

Kejriwal also got Aroon Purie trolled massively in order to terrorise the media entrepreneur who is known for his impeccable credibility.

Cut to today, the stoppage of Ojha’s interview clearly shows the pressure on journalists to toe a political line.