Your statement does not jibe well with the lived reality of most Indians. We have plenty of access to critical coverage of the ruling party and its leader. Plenty of journalists are living their lives, paying rent and venting out their frustrations against the government on twitter without being arrested.
A sample of Indian publications that are critical of BJP:
https://www.deccanherald.com/national/national-politics/govt...
https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/hindutva-pop-hate
https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/12/24/aaj-tak-and-india-tv-...
https://thewire.in/politics/twitter-amit-malviya-bjp-it-cell...
https://thewire.in/politics/if-rahul-gandhi-were-really-irre...
https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/bjp-accused-of-using-app-tek-fo... and https://restofworld.org/2022/the-wire-vs-meta-india/ - This bit of critical journalism was found to be outright creative writing. But since you Anglos don't trust Indians on how their own country works maybe check out Alex Stamos of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center on this piece of news. I couldn't care less about the guy but maybe you will give his words weight. The reason I am giving this example is because this is a clear cut example of journalists publishing literal fake news critical of the governement and going about their lives without imprisonment and consequences.
Time to time a corrupt politician tries to throw around their weight and gets people arrested, but our legal system typically strikes down the case. This is a problem with every political party in India but we don't have mass imprisonment of journalists critical of BJP as some publications may want you to think.