The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has ordered 12 news outlets and independent journalists to comply with a Delhi court directive and take down what has been termed “defamatory content” against the Adani Group.
On Tuesday night, the ministry instructed platforms including Newslaundry, The Wire and HW News, along with journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ajit Anjum, Ravish Kumar, and satirist Akash Banerjee, to remove 138 YouTube links and 83 Instagram posts.
The directive follows a September 6 order by a senior civil judge of North West Delhi district court in the case Adani Enterprises Ltd vs Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Others. The ex parte order, passed without hearing the defence, directed the removal of material alleged to be defamatory towards the conglomerate.
Copies of the order were also served to Google and Meta, which own YouTube and Instagram respectively. The ministry’s notice instructed compliance within 36 hours and demanded a report of the action taken.
Targeted Journalists and Media Platforms
Interestingly, barring Guha Thakurta, none of those served with the ministry’s notice are parties to the civil suit. Guha Thakurta has reported extensively on the Adani Group for over a decade, often alleging financial irregularities and political patronage. He resigned as editor of the Economic and Political Weekly in 2017 after his article on alleged tax evasion by Adani was retracted. Currently, he is contesting seven defamation cases filed by the group.
The appeal by Guha Thakurta and other respondents is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday.
Reactions
Ravish Kumar reacted sharply on social media, posting on X that “17 September should be celebrated as ‘Adani Video Takedown Day’,” mocking the directive as an act of corporate censorship.
The development coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 75th birthday, when the Congress party launched an AI-generated video as part of its #MyModiStory campaign. The video featured a caricature of Gautam Adani, voiced in Hindi with a Gujarati accent, boasting of receiving land, tenders and contracts with Modi’s backing. Another image showed Modi and Adani shaking hands, overlaid with visuals of defence contracts, ports, airports and green energy projects.