The last few years have seen an increase in verbal attacks on journalists directly by the ruling dispensation and more than directly by its Bhakt Brigade. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has clearly articulated his disdain for a large section of national media on more than one occasion.

If Modi called journalists news traders, his motor mouth minister General VK Singh called them ‘presstitutes’. On social media, we often watch with shock and dismay, the way journalists, women in particular, are hounded by the Bhakt Brigade. Some of them fight back, most of them ignore, while there are some who simply break down.