Press Bill passes LS, Thakur says ‘step to shed mentality of slavery’

The Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon Session, on August 3. It replaced the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, 1867.

“This Bill is simple, smart and has a simultaneous process for registration of newspapers and periodicals. Earlier newspapers or magazines had to pass through an eight-step registration process. This can now be done at the click of a button,” Thakur said.

Calling the legislation “another step of the Modi Government towards jettisoning the mentality of slavery and bringing new laws for new India,” Thakur said the Government’s priority was to “end criminality, improve ease of doing business and ease of living through new laws”.

Targeting the Congress, he said previous governments had made attempts to amend the PRB Act of 1867 but the legislation proposed was “equally harsh as the colonial-era law”, with government permission required even to publish a college newsletter.

AIMIM member Imtiaz Jaleel raised concerns over a provision in the Bill that seeks to empower the Press Registrar to enter the premises of a periodical and “inspect or take copies of the relevant records or documents or ask any questions necessary for obtaining any information required to be furnished”.

Responding, Thakur said: “You as an individual or a journalist too can criticise the government as much as you like. No action has been taken. But if somebody carries the ideology of breaking and dividing the country, then the law will take its own course.”

He further said: “In the past 75 years, freedom of press has been provided most in the Narendra Modi government. The Modi Government guaranteed it… check the records of past 10 years. We have not taken any such action.”