With the media fraternity holding protests over filing of an FIR (first information report) against a newspaper journalist over the Aadhar leakage case, Punjab government, led by Chief Minister (CM), Amarinder Singh, has extended its support to the media protests.

Besides the CM, cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, media advisor to Punjab CM, Raveen Thukral, joined the employees of the newspaper in condemning the FIR and demanding its revocation. In her report, the journalist claimed to have got access to personal details of over a billion citizens for just Rs 500 paid through a digital wallet.
Bajwa said the filing of FIR against journalist amounted to sheer victimisation and could not be condoned at any cost as such acts were violative of the democratic ethos and principles.
Jakhar lashed out at the attack on the Press by the current regime at the Centre. He cited the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh and various other incidents of blatant assault on the media.
Pointing out that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had opposed Aadhar when they were in the Opposition, Jakhar said the Centre should plug the flaws in the Aadhar system and ensure that privacy is safeguarded. The entire leakage episode should be investigated, he said.

Jakhar accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of suppressing the voice of the media, and in fact the people at large, and added that this did not behove well of a democratically elected government.

Both Bajwa and Jakhar condemned the act of the Central government in getting the FIR registered, through the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), against a journalist who had merely done her job. Thukral conveyed Amarinder’s personal support to the agitating employees of the newspaper during a visit to their protest site. Though the CM could not meet them personally as he was ill-disposed, he had assured of his government’s full backing to the media in the interest of press freedom, Thukral told the protesters.

The CM was in favour of the central government plugging the Aadhar leaks instead of putting the plug on the system which had exposed the loopholes, said Thukral, adding that the Congress government in Punjab would do its best to fully protect the freedom of the fourth pillar of democracy.