The monsoon showers, one would think, has cooled down at least some parts of the country. But the political climate is still hot and is likely to get hotter with the Congress-led UPA facing the heat from different quarters. The government has refused to wake up to reality of what democratic India wants and on the other hand Anna Hazare and team pushing for a more stringent Lokpal Bill.

The frustration was clear in the Congress quarters – Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that civil society couldn't dictate to the government what it should do. Why is Congress afraid of this powerful antigraft Bill? Perhaps one should flip through the newspaper headlines of last one year to guess the answer. The corrupt politicians and officials in the UPA government have contributed a lot in earning India the image of a corrupt state. 2011 will be remembered for some more infamy; the deadly attacks on the news reporters that have been coming in fast and furious.

The killing of renowned journalist Jyotirmoy Dey (Mid-Day) in Mumbai has shocked the country. He was shot dead, at close range, in broad daylight. In his two-decade spanning career, Dey had reported extensively on the corporate-underworld nexus, but Dey was not alone. In the month of May, here are some of the cases of attacks on the media. On May 3, on the World Press Freedom Day, Goan Observer journalist Gary Azavedo was attacked by security staff of a mining company in Cauverm, Goa when he went there to cover the on-going agitation against mining companies.

On May 8th in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, the alleged supporters of Nabam Tuki, Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee president and State PWD minister, attacked several media offices, including the local office of PTI and a local newspaper Arunachal Front, to protest a report in a leading daily involving their leader.

On May 19, Mid-Day reporter Tarakant Dwivedi, known as Akela, was arrested under the Official Secrets Act by the Government Railway Police (GRP) for an article written over a year ago in the Mumbai Mirror that exposed the poor condition in which hi-tech weapons procured after the 26/11 attack were being kept by the railway security personnel.

On May 21, assailants waylaid V.B. Unnithan, Kollambased senior reporter of the widely circulated Malayalam daily, Mathrubhumi, and assaulted him with iron rods. Unnithan was heading home after work on April 16.

And these are just a few of the many attacks on media. It is highly condemnable that many such cases end up unproven and the culprits go scot-free. The battle lines have been drawn, it will be interesting to watch if freedom is used or misused to protect the truth.