8 decades later, Ambedkar’s warning still echoes. The republic deserves better than hero worship

“Journalism in India was once a profession. It has now become a trade. It has no more moral function than the manufacture of soap. It does not regard itself as the responsible adviser of the public. To give the news uncoloured by any motive, to present a certain view of public policy which it believes to be for the good of the community, to correct and chastise without fear all those, no matter how high, who have chosen a wrong or a barren path, is not regarded by journalism in India its first or foremost duty. To accept a hero and worship him has become its principal duty. Under it, news gives place to sensation, reasoned opinion to unreasoning passion, appeal to the minds of responsible people to appeal to the emotions of the irresponsible.”

B R Ambedkar spoke these words in Poona in January 1943 – eight decades ago. It was a critique of the press’s tendency to lionise figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah – a point that, while rooted in that moment, resonates just as strongly today as India marks its 77th Republic Day.

This is the state of our republic: A government conceals the actual death toll of a stampede. Your taxes fund propaganda disguised as governance. The air you breathe poisons you. The state's labyrinthine processes are jeopardising your right to vote. And much of the media that should expose these failures instead amplifies official fantasies from air-conditioned studios.

While we are being promised a ‘Viksit Bharat’ tomorrow, accountability is vanishing today.

What a free press can still do

An accountable democratic republic requires informed citizens. Over the past year, Newslaundry pursued stories that document how your constitutional rights disappear in plain sight.

If they hide the truth, we can dig it out. After the Prayagraj stampede, the official count stopped at 30 deaths. Newslaundry went to morgues and hospitals, examined hidden records, and found 79 victims of governmental negligence. When Uttarakhand spent over Rs 1,000 crore on advertisements while its citizens lack basic healthcare, we reported it. When Rs 112 crore in public funds allegedly disappeared into the pockets of top bureaucrats, we uncovered a suppressed official investigative report. 

When public funds went to an influencer for propaganda on the prime minister in violation of norms, we uncovered the episode. When the government quietly dropped safeguards to allow commercial plantations in forests, we broke the story. 

When voices are silenced, we amplify them. In Ladakh, protesters demanding constitutional rights were met with bullets and detention. While television pundits spun conspiracy theories, we spoke to residents unafraid to tell their truth. We followed a Malayalam actor assaulted by hired criminals and a nun who accused a Bishop of rape – both confronting institutions that closed ranks to protect powerful men. In Rajasthan, we documented how Dalit and Adivasi lands were systematically stolen despite protective laws. 

In Chhattisgarh, we traced the ordeal of tribal Christians facing exhumations, vandalism and assaults as the police looked away. We travelled to various cities in Uttar Pradesh to investigate ‘half-encounters’ where the police apprehend alleged criminals after shooting them in the leg – an inexcusable violation of their constitutional rights. We put the focus back on Manipur by reporting on the gangrape victim who died waiting for justice. In Maharashtra, we looked into police impunity despite hundreds of custody death cases.

In Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, we traced state complicity in the assault on the rights of minorities by Hindutva outfits.

When data is dodgy, we verify. We exposed fudged air quality numbers and lies about cleaning the Yamuna. 

In Bihar, we found nearly 3 lakh voters registered at non-existent addresses and reported extensively on gaps in the special intensive revision exercise. In Rajasthan, we were the first to report on attempts to delete voters in a certain constituency in violation of the rulebook. We tracked the voter roll story on the ground long before it became national conversation.

In smart city Gurugram, we exposed how the claim about 98 percent processed waste is a lie in its broken waste system. We also exposed the dark underbelly of India’s e-waste sector and why India’s recycling economy is set to remain far behind its goals.  

When noise clouds the air, we report from the ground. During ‘Operation Sindoor,’ channels broadcast inane graphics and branded a local teacher as a terrorist commander. We went to areas near the border, not to thump our chests, but to meet a 22-year-old who lost his father to a missile, and the uncle of 12-year-old twins killed by shelling. Stories we told without bluster.

The choice before us

The truth is often sobering. Finding it requires journalism that digs through darkness without flinching. On this Republic Day, the question isn’t what our institutions will do for us – it’s what we’ll demand of them.

Ambedkar’s 1943 speech had these words too: “Never has the interest of the country been sacrificed so senselessly for the propagation of hero-worship. Never has hero-worship become so blind as we see it in India today. There are, I am glad to say, honourable exceptions. But they are too few, and their voice is never heard.”

Eighty-two years later, the exceptions are still fighting to be heard. The first step to defending your rights is knowing how they are being taken. Because if we don’t look, no one is telling. This Republic Day, stand up for your rights.