The conviction of self-styled “independent investigative journalist” Ravi Nair in a criminal defamation case has triggered predictable outrage from India’s entrenched left-liberal media ecosystem. Leading that chorus is The News Minute and its editor Dhanya Rajendran, who have rushed to frame the judgment as an assault on press freedom rather than what it legally is – a conviction delivered by a court of law after due process.
A magistrate court in Mansa, Gandhinagar, convicted Ravi Nair under criminal defamation provisions and sentenced him to one year of imprisonment along with a monetary fine. The conviction stemmed from a series of tweets and publications targeting Adani Enterprises Limited, where the court found a pattern in what Ravi Nair, the Soros lackey did – alleging illegality, manipulation of policy, and impropriety without substantiated proof meeting legal thresholds.
Yet, in TNM’s telling, this was not adjudication but victimhood.
TNM’s ‘mourning piece’ attempts to elevate Nair into the pantheon of persecuted truth-tellers. But the record shows that much of his output consisted of amplification of already-published material, often packaged with insinuation-heavy commentary.
Courts are not social media timelines. The defence of “I shared links others published” does not automatically absolve imputations that courts deem defamatory in tenor, direction, and cumulative effect.
The judgment itself underscored that the publications, though spread across time, maintained a uniform narrative alleging unethical conduct and misuse of state machinery. In law, reputation harm need not show quantifiable financial loss, only demonstrable tendency to damage standing.
That distinction, inconvenient to activism masquerading as journalism, lies at the heart of the verdict.
What makes Dhanya Rajendran’s indignation ring hollow is not merely its defence of Nair – it is its deafening silence elsewhere.
Where was this moral urgency when commentators and YouTubers in Tamil Nadu faced arrest under the DMK regime? There were so many YouTubers, so many political commentators, portals like The Commune – every single one who was against the DMK ecosystem faced arrests and cases after cases piled up against them. Where was Dhanya when Maridhas was arrested, when Kishore K Swamy was detained, when Felix was arrested, when police hounded Savukku Shankar and his family over and over again. Where was Dhanya when a 70+ year old YouTuber Varadharajan was arrested and remained in prison even during Deepavali, away from his family – where were you Dhanya? Was your mouth plastered or had you swallowed Fevicol?
The list of people facing police action, the people against the DMK ecosystem, is long, very long, and conspicuously under-reported by the same platforms now sermonising about democratic freedoms. This is the ‘raththam, thakkali chutney’ logic. It hurts only when it happens to them, while they cheer and laugh when it happens to someone on the other side – this was the same crowd that cheered when Arnab Goswami was arrested.
What Ravi Nair is facing is hardly anything. Here’s what Savukku Shankar and his family faced – case after case for exposing the DMK government, arrest under Goondas Act for alleged finding of ganja in his home, and here’s the worst – In March 2025, a group of unidentified individuals posing as sanitation workers allegedly broke into Savukku Shankar’s residence, vandalised the property, terrorised his mother, and dumped filth inside the house. Shankar said stones were thrown at his vehicle before the intrusion and that the attackers used his mother’s phone to video call him. He linked the attack to his corruption allegations he made against TNCC President Selvaperunthagai over sanitation vehicle contracts.
TNM’s framing of the Ravi Nair case foregrounds selective tweets while downplaying others central to the defamation findings – particularly posts courts considered imputational rather than analytical.
This is how leftist ecosystem makes their followers fool. @dhanyarajendran while reporting the case delibrately replaced the main tweet posted on 20 oct 2020 with other two irrelevant tweets to make Nair’s case relevant. https://t.co/U2zlhU154U pic.twitter.com/BYYDapFPdu
— kanhabansri (@kanhabansri) February 11, 2026
This is classic narrative management that the Left has mastered – Humanise the accused, politicise the prosecution, internationalise the outrage, omit inconvenient parallels – basically, flash the victim card over and over again.
If Dhanya Rajendran and TNM wish to be taken seriously as defenders of free speech, their outrage must be consistent, not curated.
Press freedom cannot be loud in one state, silent in Tamil Nadu, fierce for Nair, muted for regional dissenters, global when convenient, local when risky.
