India’s Rwandan Media: Television Channels from Zee News, Aaj Tak to Network18 Add ‘Jihad’ To Everything to Target Indian Muslims and Islam
By Zainab Sikander
13 April
2020
Activist
Kavita Krishnan’s video tirade against India Today channel’s news editor Rahul
Kanwal for his coronavirus show titled ‘Madrasa Hotspots’ is spot on. The one
thing Indian media is not doing is journalism. In fact, very few people are
doing journalism today. Channels from Zee News, Aaj Tak to Network18 like to
add the word ‘jihad’ to everything. Corona jihad or Zameen jihad, love jihad, Arthik
jihad, and whatnot. But if anyone is waging a holy war today, it is Indian
media’s jihad against Indian Muslims and Islam.
India
Today news editor Rahul Kanwal | Twitter
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The year
2014 was a watershed moment in India. Not just because Narendra Modi became the
prime minister with an absolute majority but because the Indian media, as it
functioned until then, metamorphosed from a pigeon — a messenger of truth and
facts — to a hyena, one that serves its own interest fuelled by an insatiable
greed that drives it to devour its prey alive, sometimes ripping it apart,
while it sniggers. Today’s news media, especially the prime time debates, is
brutal, almost barbaric, with little to no regard for ethics and morality.
Journalism
is now endangered and what’s masquerading in its name is business — with open
display of bigotry and hate against Muslims and other minorities. It not only
builds its viewership base by hook or crook to more advertising money but it
also doubles up as a PR firm, serving the interest of the ruling Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), to show it as the saviour of India.
And what’s
the flavour of the season in the Indian media’s bid to do the bidding for the
BJP? An extra large scoop of Islamophobia with some sprinkling on top —
Tablighi Jamaat conspiracy theories (from spitting to shitting), a dash of
anti-nationalism reserved for Muslims who are called more Pakistani than
Indian, a huge dollop of ISIS connection (especially in the land of Malayalis),
and a generous serving of demonisation through constant use of rhetorics like
jihad, Halala, triple talaq, beef eaters, and anything that a devious mind can
conjure (‘Muslims in India are deliberately spreading the coronavirus’).
Of course
not every media house is like this. Some try to be trailblazers of truth and
investigation. But media is a capital intensive industry. It needs money,
especially to compete with the dazzling HD-quality channels or publications
with subscribers in millions. Besides, the government can cut it off anytime or
withhold advertisements to make it go bankrupt. It’s really a choice between
Scylla and Charybdis.
Govt Encroachment
Let’s
compare this to the past when things were not so bleak. Except during the Emergency,
Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) used to air news without any opinion. In
fact, Section 12 (2) (b) of the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of
India) Act, 1990 makes the duty of public broadcaster very clear: to safeguard
“the citizen’s right to be informed freely, truthfully and objectively on all
matters of public interest… and presenting a fair and balanced flow of
information including contrasting views without advocating any opinion or
ideology of its own.”
Although
dubbed as the central government’s mouthpiece, Doordarshan’s DD National
(formerly DD1) was not a perception changer like today’s news channels that
primarily depend on sensationalised ‘breaking news’ with a lot of confirmation
bias.
But
Doordarshan has not been without the blemish either. It edited out portions of
Narendra Modi’s pre-election interview in 2014 and then telecast it in full
when Modi took umbrage at it. But the broadcaster refused to telecast then
Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar’s pre-recorded 2017 Independence Day speech
even after the CPM leader called its act “undemocratic, authoritarian” and
“also (an) expression of intolerance”.
Now,
Doordarshan appears to be buckling completely under pressure, with the Narendra
Modi government considering dissolving Prasar Bharti and converting both DD
National and AIR into public sector units to keep the majority stake with
itself.
When print
publication dominated the media sphere, things were still authentic because
reportage was given more weightage than opinion. But that also died with the
emergence of social media. Today, anyone with a camera phone is a journalist
and everyone has a ‘journalistic’ opinion to air. A video is more easily
consumable than an 800-word article. Full-page political ads and increase in
the number of classified pages are a sign of how print media’s independence has
taken a hit in the past six years during which a large number of people have
moved to social media that Modi and his BJP have used like a magic wand.
The Muslim Angle
While it’s
here on social media that bigotry against Muslims is more pronounced, it takes
inspiration, and content, from the news channels that engage in hate 24X7. So,
the question remains, why does India media detests Muslims so much? Why don’t
news anchors like Sudhir Chaudhary, Arnab Goswami, Deepak Chaurasia, Amish
Devgan, Anjana Om Kashyap, Rohit Sardana and their types ever get tired of
demonising Muslims day in and day out?
Is it that majority Hindus have always hated Muslims and after 9/11, the
advent of Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, ISIS, and 2014, it just became the new normal to
do so publicly? Or has the persistent propaganda to reinforce fanatic beliefs
about Muslims as being violent and irrational led majority Hindus to inculcate
them in their daily lives, even if they have personally never experienced any
of those propagated beliefs?
The
Tablighi Jamaat fiasco is a good example. Like a herd of cattle that cannot
think on its own, the 1500-odd men who were stuck at Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz
continued to stay there while their spiritual shepherd — Maulana Saad — didn’t
think it necessary to empty the premises despite the fear of the coronavirus.
But were they the only religious groups who did this? No.
The
Tablighi Jamaat congregated between 13 and 15 March, but temples like
Siddhivinayak and Mahakaleshwar were not closed until 16 March. Shirdi Saibaba
Mandir and Shani Shingnapur Temple were closed only on 17 March, Vaishno Devi
on 18 March, and the Kashi Vishwanath Temple was operating until 20 March — a
day after Prime Minister Modi had addressed the nation and called for ‘social
distancing’. Some news channels pointed these anomalies out but for the most
part, the narrative to demonise and blame the entire Muslim community — and not
only the Tablighi organisers — played on a loop. What did it lead to? Muslims
began to be targeted, assaulted, beaten up, abused on streets by nameless goons
and the police without any action against anyone. The same media that helped
propagate it conveniently ignored all the attacks on Muslims.
Is This New?
Fake news
has been used rather assiduously in India to create a sense of unity within the
majority. A feeling of unity to hate a common enemy and defeat that enemy by
voting a Hindu nationalist political party that will safeguard their rights.
The ‘us vs
them’ elixir has always worked. And so a premier liberal institute like
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) can be projected as the land of condoms and
‘anti-nationals’. Or media can blithely express entitlement over Ayodhya by crooning:
“Janmabhoomi Humari, Ram Humare,
Masjidwale Kahaan Se Padhare” (The land is ours, Ram is Ours, Why have the
people of the mosque arrived here). Or that the protests against the
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC)
were being funded by foreign entities. Why isn’t anyone talking about the Gaumutra and Gobar parties thrown by superstitious Hindus to fight the
coronavirus? Why aren’t these unscientific and unhygienic practices being
called out? Why isn’t anyone outraged by pilgrims stuck in Gurudwara and
temples? Because no one is bothered by “non-Muslim” folks doing anything wrong.
From the
looks of it, Indian media is winning the war being waged against Muslims and
Islam. Have you read the news? A “Muslim” man — Dilshad Ali — has been lynched.
Dilshad, badly beaten up by goons over accusations that he had plans to
deliberately spread the coronavirus, is alive. But since he survived the brutal
attack and didn’t join Mohammed Ahlaq and Junaid Khan and Pehlu Khan among
others, there’s nothing to feel outraged about what’s going on.
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Zainab Sikander is a political observer and
writer. Views are personal.
Original Headline: Indian media is waging a
holy war against Muslims. It acts like hyenas
Source: The Print
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