Paraphrasing that immortal line from Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, political commentators in India have been arguing for quite a while that the Left and the Right cannot meet. But this hypothesis is not quite foolproof. Recent developments in Kerala, where the Left Democratic Front is in power, when put together with the conduct of the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre, seem to suggest that the Left and the Right do meet in one particular context — the intimidation of the media. Recently, Asianet News, a Malayalam television channel, received a knock from — not the taxman but — the police. The raid had been conducted after an independent legislator — he enjoys the support of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) — complained that the channel had published misleading information on an alleged incident of child abuse. Activists of the Students’ Federation of India, the CPI(M)’s student arm, stand accused of vandalising Asianet’s premises even before the police had swung into action. The chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, appeared not to be critical of these excesses and has accused the channel of peddling fake news.

If the channel is, indeed, guilty of presenting a distorted narrative, measures exist to take the guilty to task. However, no rulebook in any civilised democracy prescribes letting loose law enforcement agencies or party cadre on the media, something that the Left and the Right seem to take perverse pleasure in doing. The BJP has been repeatedly and justifiably criticised for beating the media — domestic or international — with the proverbial stick. The tax raid on the BBC for its documentary on the prime minister was the latest example of such a transgression. The CPI(M) had accused the BJP of intimidation on that occasion. However, after its own predations on Asianet, the Left’s duplicity stands exposed. The real issue perhaps concerns the ideological bent of mind of some parties. Regimental, orthodox political outfits, be they from the Left or the Right, are seldom tolerant of freedom — journalistic or civil. They are also particularly prone to retaliation on being criticised. The intimidation can take numerous forms, from the stifling of government advertisements, tax raids to sieges on media offices by cadre. India’s slide on credible registers of press freedom is a reality. The BJP may have a lion’s share in the pie of media intimidation but, for once, it does not enjoy a monopoly. The Left and the Right are comrades in this game.