Journalist Rana Ayyub recounts going undercover in 2010 — posing as a Hindu American woman with a fake identity and eight body cameras — to infiltrate members of Narendra Modi's administration for eight months and record a sting alleging genocide and extrajudicial killings of Muslims. Her editors and publishers refused to run or print the material, so she pawned her mother's gold and self-published a book, Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up, which she says became an international bestseller (about 750,000 copies in 14 languages). She describes professional and personal ostracism after 2014, ongoing legal/investigative gaps (courts haven't taken her tapes), and warns that India's ~220 million Muslims face escalating persecution that could amount to genocide; she criticizes international silence tied to strategic partnerships.
Questions this video answers
2010
Eight months
Eight
Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up
Approximately 750,000 copies in 14 languages
Chapters
I went undercover. I went undercover as this Hindu American girl with a fake name, a fake identity and a fake American accent with eight cameras on my body. And this was in 2010. I infiltrated the rank and file of Mr. Modi's government for eight months. I did a sting operation on all the top guys in the Modi administration where they spoke the truth of the genocide of Muslim and the extrajudicial murder of Muslims. When I came back to my organization, they refused to publish a story citing political pressure. I was only 26 then. It was a lot for a journalist to take to put her life in jeopardy and for her investigation to not be published. I went through a lot, including a nervous breakdown. And that's when I started seeing a psychiatrist. And of course I'm reliving those days back again. But I went to every journalism organization back in the day and they refused to publish. And then I went to publishers saying, can you publish the transcript of the tape of my sting operation? And they said it's too risky a book. So my mom had some gold kept for me. Like back in India, it's a tradition that when you're about to get married, the family gives gold. So she has kept some gold for my marriage. So I pawned the gold. I took a gold loan and self published my book which was called Gujarat File's Anatomy of a Cover Up. There was no media coverage, but social media, which can also act as has been weaponized against us, also has kind of democratized the space for us to speak. It became a great platform for my book to be an international best seller selling 750,000 copies in 14 languages. But the courts in India have still not taken or asked me for my tapes as investigation. After Mr. Modi came to power, I have literally been an independent freelance journalist. Because editors who wanted to offer me a job in their publications before 2014 pretended I do not exist. Friends who would meet me for coffee in cafeteria would prefer meeting me home. Because they did not want to be seen with me in public. Why is that? Because I chose to tell a truth without sugar coating it. And the way it should be. Unlike what you see of well meaning people these days who refuse to call fascists by their name, who refuse to call dictators by their name, who refuse to call demagogues by their name. That's what I'm trying to do. And that's what many unsung journalists in India are trying to do right now. In the face of everyday persecution of the Indian minority, which is about 220 million, the third largest population of Muslims in the world, where the Prime Minister of India himself issues dog whistle against the Muslim community. Yesterday, a Hindu priest in front of a massive crowd asked the crowd to rape and abduct Muslim women. And cops were present and they didn't do a thing. This is everyday life for each one of us. One of the reasons why the Prime Minister of India and his agencies did not want me to board the aircraft is because I am one of those journalists amongst many other journalists who are speaking this raw truth that the world needs to know. The world needs to act now, whether it's America. I mean, I just tweeted a couple of minutes ago about Kamala Harris, referring to the heard in the tweet that when she was elected as vice president, we expected her as somebody with Indian origin, to speak up. The world is silent about what's happening in India because you want to have a strategic relationship with India vis a vis China and other nations. So let's ignore what's happening in India. You cannot afford to ignore what's happening in India. The Muslims in this country are at the cusp of a genocide and none of the journalists can afford to look away. And if you look away, each one of us in the world are complicit in it. I stand here not just as a journalist, but also as a Muslim citizen of this country who feels persecuted. I don't know what will happen once I go back.
