On Constitution Day, a good time to remember what journalism can do

On this day 76 years ago, the Constitution of India was formally adopted before coming into effect on January 26, 1950. Since 2015, the Modi government has announced that Constitution Day will be celebrated to “promote constitutional values” and “promote greater awareness and understanding of the Constitution among citizens”. 

The Constitution is a document that literally guarantees our freedoms, protects dissent, and ensures that power is always answerable to the people. But those guarantees don’t mean that much without a media ecosystem that’s willing to question the government and investigate wrongdoing. 

We do. At Newslaundry and The News Minute, we’ve built a model that answers only to the public. No ads, no billionaires, no shady figures pulling the strings. But we’ll let our work demonstrate how we uphold constitutional values every single day:

• Before the data dump that was electoral bonds, we launched a multi-part political funding series to draw connections between companies that donated to the BJP and companies that faced action from India’s central agencies. 

• This series – see here and here – from Uttarakhand on how the state government spent Rs 55 lakh a day to publicise itself. And distributed over Rs 314 crore to a bouquet of print media publications, from The Economist to Panchjanya.  

• Students are the backbone of a nation, and India’s NEET exam controversy left thousands of them with shattered dreams. We documented the scam, the paper leaks, the so-called ‘perfect’ scores, and what lies ahead for aspirants.

• We all have the constitutional right to vote, but are the institutions that are meant to uphold democracy keeping that intact? We scrutinised the deletion of names from voter rolls, and all the murky questions raised along the way. 

This is just the smallest of samples of our work. There’s so much more than we’ve already done and so much more that we’ve got planned. So, this Constitution Day, support journalism that upholds freedom of speech, equality before law, accountability of power, and democracy itself. 

Now, the government may have approved a 26% hike in print ad rates, but we’re 100% funded by you. So we’re giving you 26% more reason to defend the Constitution – buy a subscription and get 26% off on the usual price. All you have to do is click here.