THE media is a powerful institution with a fragile base. It depends on public opinion for support against the state and any others who seek to stifle it. But it finds itself weak in the face of mob fury whipped up by vigilante groups. Every institution has come under attack lately in India — the newspaper office, the TV station, the cinema hall and even the book publisher.
In the main, vandals are of two kinds — those who perform on their own and those who enjoy political backing. They either instigate the agitation or use state machinery to see that vandals escape punishment. Gradually, the room for dissent has become more restricted than ever before. This has happened especially since boundaries were redrawn in 1956 to establish states on a linguistic basis.
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