Lawfare, Summons/Notices | Harassment – Journalists

On the evening of March 29, journalist Om Sharma went live on Facebook. He stood in the middle of a road in Baddi, an industrial town in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan district, and pointed his camera towards dozens of migrant workers crouched by the roadside. “These people have come out on the roads because they haven’t eaten in two or three days. The administration doesn’t have adequate arrangements” said Sharma, a reporter with the local daily Divya Himachal who had been tipped off about the roadside protest by a police constable. “I request local charitable organisations to step forward and help out these people.”

Within 15 minutes, police officers and local politicians reached the spot and asked the workers to end the “drama” and return to their homes. “We’ll make sure the food reaches you. Give us some time. On the behalf of the administration, I assure you that food will reach your homes,” declared a Bharatiya Janata Party councillor, as Sharma’s camera continued to roll.

At one point in the video, the councillor turned to Sharma and claimed that one of the protesting migrants had food at home — the worker merely hadn’t received the fresh stock of rations. “They are only complaining because they had not received a new batch of rations, unlike a neighbouring migrant colony,” he argued. The worker shot back: “If we had rations, why would we be on the road?”

The video garnered attention on Facebook, with over 1,500 shares. Later that day, the Baddi police slapped an FIR on Sharma, calling his video “sensational/fake news on social media”. The FIR was announced on WhatsApp through a message by Baddi’s superintendent of police, Rohit Malpani, who claimed that the “District Administration [is] making all arrangements for [the] stay of homeless people, their food and their well being. Food/ration being liberally distributed by different teams.”