In a secular democracy, the mainstream media has become a zealous fundraiser for the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. While it has often opposed the appearance of any religious symbol belonging to minority communities in the public sphere, it has never restrained itself from campaigning for the Hindutva forces. A recent example is the ongoing fundraising campaign[Read More…]
As the assembly elections near in West Bengal, the media is busy constructing and spreading a new narrative that the TMC Government under Mamta Banerjee has failed to maintain law and order in the state. The recent incident of the alleged hurling of stones at convoy of the BJP National President J P Nadda not only became the big[Read More…]
Instead of listening to the grievances of the farmers and objectively reporting the concerns raised during more than half a month-long farmers’ demonstrations being held around the areas in and around the national capital Delhi, the media is busy maligning them. The pages of newspapers are filled with the negative stories and anti-farmers opinion pieces. The farmers continue to[Read More…]
While the farmers continue to hold demonstrations near the national capital against the recently-enacted Farm Laws that have facilitated the entry of big corporate players in the agricultural sector, several Hindi newspapers are busy demonizing the movement and linking it to the Khalistani terrorists. Several narratives are being constructed by the media to portray the Farmers’ Protests as unruly, violent,[Read More…]
Several leading Hindi newspapers have brazenly mouthed the Hindutva narrative of anti-woman and anti-Muslim “Love-Jihad” conspiracy theory and justified the proposal of the BJP ruled state to come out with a strong law against it. “Love-Jihad” is a conspiracy theory designed and propagated by the Hindutva forces to demonize the Muslim men for feigning love for the Hindu women.[Read More…]
The mainstream media has again shown its upper-caste character in analyzing the result of the Bihar Assembly Elections 2020. While it has hailed “the Modi magic” for helping the NDA win the state assembly elections, it has blamed the collective memory of Jungle Raj for the defeat of RJD-led Mahagathbandhan. The term ‘Jungle Raj’ means a collapse of law and[Read More…]
The BJP leaders have failed to make development an electoral plank in the recently held Bihar Assembly Elections 2020. The Hindutva leaders, instead, have invoked Muslims, terrorism, and Pakistan in their electoral speeches. Last week the elections for the second (94 seats) and the third phase (78 seats) were held for 243-member Bihar Legislative Assembly. During this period, the top[Read More…]
Several leading newspapers published from Patna appear biased in favour of BJP. In their coverage, they are giving a large share of space to the BJP. Their major focus is the speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several reports have come, singing praises for him. In return, the newspapers are rewarded with big advertisements. For example, several newspapers carried a[Read More…]
The media, which holds the flag of uprightness, is now reluctant to talk about the dirt defacing its own image. The immediate context is the claim of Mumbai Police that news channels including the Republic TV have indulged in the malpractices of boosting TRP (Television Rating Points). A day after the police allegation, The Telegraph (Kolkata, October 9, 2020, p. 5)[Read More…]
Lord Rama, one of the major deities of Hinduism, was born at the very place of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. The mosque was built after the “Muslim invaders” had demolished the Ram Temple. With these historically unsubstantiated narratives, the Hindutva forces, led by the top leaders of the BJP, the VHP and the RSS created frenzied mobs, culminating in[Read More…]
The Farm Bills – which pave the way for private companies to buy farmers’ produce and go for contract-farming- have been vigorously opposed by the opposition parties and the farmers. While covering the issue, the mainstream media, particularly the Hindi press, not only largely ignored the concerns of the opposition parties but also pliantly toed the government’s line. Worse[Read More…]
The youth of the country observed the 70th birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ‘National Unemployment Day’ (Rashtriya Berozgari Diwas). The mainstream media, which was busy celebrating Modi’s birth day, not only paid scant heed to the youth unrest against unemployment but also maintained a conspicuous silence on the ensuing police crackdown. While the Hindi dailies prominently covered several[Read More…]
The mainstream media – particularly Hindi newspapers – has reproduced the police version while covering the news related to the naming of opposition leaders, activists, scholars in a supplementary chargesheet in the February 2020 Delhi riots. CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Swaraj Abhiyan leader and scholar Yogendra Yadav, JNU economist Jayati Ghosh, Delhi University professor and social activist Apoorvanand[Read More…]
The mainstream newspapers have given very little space to the story of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shirking by the steepest ever 23.9 per cent that it deserves. In their reporting, they have ended up solely blaming the corona pandemic for the steepest decline. Hardly has any newspaper dared to link the sharpest fall in the GDP to the Government’s economic[Read More…]
The mainstream media has diluted the concerns of seven chief ministers about an assault on federal structure, misuse of central agencies, financial injustice, etc. Instead, the entire media coverage has reduced the whole issue to party politics and differences over holding medical and engineering entrance exams (JEE-NEET). Congress president Sonia Gandhi held a virtual meeting of these seven chief ministers[Read More…]
The mainstream media — particularly Hindi newspapers — has again concealed, underreported and suppressed the Bombay High Court ruling. In its Friday judgment, the High Court has said that Tablighi Jamaat was made “scapegoat” during the corona pandemic. It has also quashed the FIR against 29 foreigners and 7 Indian nationals who are associated with the twentieth century Muslim reformist[Read More…]
Several newspapers have struck a hyper-nationalist tone while covering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day. The highlights of his speech, in the media’s coverage, were his “fitting” reply to “trickster” (chalbaaz) China and warning to Pakistan. Hindi Daily Dainik Jagran (National, August 16, p. 1) sensationally reports the PM’s address. “On 74th[Read More…]
The mainstream media — particularly Hindi newspapers — instead of critiquing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for performing Bhoomi pooja (groundbreaking) of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, is chanting Jai Shri Ram. It has again failed to uphold the constitutional principle of secularism. On August 6, a day after Bhoomi pooja ceremony, almost all Hindi newspapers carried pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi[Read More…]
The media – particularly Hindi newspapers – has taken a blinkered view to the arrest of Delhi University Professor Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil by National Investigative Agency (NIA) on Tuesday, July 28. The 54-year old English Professor is the 12th person to have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad case. The Elgar Parishad case is related to the Bhima Koregaon[Read More…]
Last week the media – particularly Hindi newspapers – prominently covered the news of the construction work of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. At times it appeared that the Ram Temple issue for media was a much bigger issue than the sufferings of people reeling under the corona pandemic. The fact that the media is celebrating the beginning of[Read More…]
The mainstream media – particularly Hindi newspapers – has downplayed the news about the release of a fact-finding report by Delhi Minorities Commission on February Delhi riots, 2020. Releasing its report on Thursday, the commission has faulted the role of top BJP leaders in giving hateful speeches and inciting the violence. It has also accused the police of inaction[Read More…]
While covering the encounter of the gangster Vikas Dubey by Uttar Pradesh (UP) police, the mainstream Indian media – particularly Hindi newspapers – appears to have condoned the extra-judicial killing. They have again failed to act as a defender of civil rights. The diseased, Dubey’s, criminal life spanned 30 years. He has been accused of 62 criminal cases. The criminal charges[Read More…]
Amid India-China border standoff, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday made a “surprise” visit to Leh and indirectly referred to China by saying that “the era of expansionism is over”. Making a mountain out of a molehill, the mainstream media used the occasion to indulge in an act of hero-worship. It turned blind to critical questions and concerns raised by the[Read More…]
For the last few days the criticism of the Indian mainstream media — particularly the Hindi media — has been oscillating between China and the opposition parties. While earlier the media narrative trained guns at China for killing 20 Indian soldiers, the later narrative — synchronizing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s refusal of the Chinese incursion into the Indian side[Read More…]
With India Nepal relations entering a deep freeze, a section of Indian media, particularly Hindi, has turned ultra-nationalist, uncritically toeing the establishment’s line. Ever since Nepal opposed India laying a road on the border and claiming Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani as parts of its territory, the media has failed to analyse the situation critically. Instead of taking the matter[Read More…]
Do you know that the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights has written a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah, expressing deep concern about the arrest of activists and intellectuals such as Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde? Are you aware of the fact that Amnesty International (India) has demanded the release of 11 human rights activists who have been jailed[Read More…]
Just a week after the nation-wide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24, Tablighi Jamaat, a twentieth-century reformist Muslim organisation, was blamed for spreading coronavirus. The national media, particularly Hindi news channels and newspapers, were at the forefront of selling the establishment’s agenda of putting all blame on this organization (read Muslims) for the spread of[Read More…]
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Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
