There is justifiable outrage in social media over a newspaper taking down a column critical of BJP’s newly anointed president Amit Shah. After publishing Rana Ayyub’s hard-hitting opinion column last Wednesday, DNA took it down summarily on Friday. Ayyub told TOI that she has not been given any justification by DNA for the removal of her article.

While it’s not yet clear whether this is a case of censorship or self-censorship, what’s clear is that it signifies a danger to freedom of press.

BJP sympathizers have fast rammed in defences like, first, Ayyub has long been a Modi-baiter and that Congress rule was hardly a paradise of freedom of speech. Bans on books and imposing surveillance on the internet come immediately to mind. Second, concerning the press specifically, LK Advani’s criticism over its role during the Emergency is getting a lot of play. He has accused – You were asked to bend, you crawled. In the current instance, since DNA considered the column worthy of publishing in the first place – it publishes columns by this journalist regularly as do other newspapers – its actions are questionable, condemnable.

But as defences, both the above charges are specious. First, by definition where freedom of press flourishes there is a vast diversity of voices, ranging from passionate fans to equally passionate critics and covering all the shades in between. India today is in this fortunate position, which must be strengthened because this strengthens democracy.

Second, we have voted in a new government precisely to reverse the mistakes of the previous one. While we have no evidence that the government actively sought the taking down of Ayyub’s column, this episode does play into fears that the new dispensation will tend to repress oppositional voices. Moreover the media ought to remember Advani’s advice – not to crawl when it’s asked to bend.

And everyone should mind the Enlightenment injunction, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’

The final irony is that all this has directed much more traffic to Ayyub’s column than it would have ordinarily enjoyed. Because we live in a hyper-real world now where even when one newspaper turns chicken, a mass of web and smartphone portals can defeat its agenda. Freedom of press has a legion of fans and they are not chicken.