Union I&B Minister Anurag Singh Thakur on Thursday targeted the West Bengal government over “frequent reports of deadly attacks on journalists and violent incidents” in the state. West Bengal, he said, was also “the only state” where the vans part of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra were vandalised. “This is a conspiracy to deprive the poor and needy of Bengal from development. When journalists go to show this, they also face danger to their lives and property,” Thakur told the Rajya Sabha. “The state government should work to provide a safe environment to journalists,” he said. Thakur was responding to a starred question by Dola Sen, an MP of the TMC, which rules West Bengal, on the “policy framework for protection of journalists”. Although Sen was not present in the House, Thakur read out a list of what he said was a series of attacks on journalists under Banerjee’s watch. The Minister also took a dig at press freedom indexes and reports. “To date, no one from any such organisation has come to me. I don't know how these reports are made.”
