A mob of 2.5 lakh (some reports suggest a conservative figure of 30000) Muslims who had come together under the banner of Anjuman Ahle Sunnatul Jamat (ASJ), went berserk in Malda, West Bengal on Sunday, 3 January 2016. Kaliachak Police station, block development office and public property were vandalised, Several vehicles were set ablaze and over 30 persons including police officers were injured. We had written how MSM had completely ignored this story for a good 3-4 days.
After consistent pressure from social media, mainstream media was finally forced to sit up and take notice of this large scale violence by a Muslim mob. But even then, all we got was spin and outright lies from our MSM.
Then too, Rajdeep Sardesai, who in a way symbolizes all that is wrong with Indian media, was ready with his equivalences and “moral compass” complying commentary. Having earlier attempted to justify the brutal murder of Prashant Poojary, Sardesai could now only talk about Malda while also raising Dadri, thus keeping his secular moral compass intact.
Condemn all violence, but don’t use Malda to rationalise Dadri. Isolate all extremists, Muslim or Hindu. https://t.co/ujR0yJ5vwz
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) January 6, 2016
After a few days, Rajdeep Sardesai uploaded a video on his Youtube channel, once again trying to defend the indefensible: Justifying MSM’s stoic silence as Malda burnt to ashes. Rajdeep offered 2 excuses (which he later said weren’t excuses):
- Malda is just too far
- Media can do only 1 story at a time and the Pathankot Terror attack was that big story
But if social media can wake up a sleeping giant like the MSM, it can also show the mirror to liars like Sardesai. And that is just what one social media user did. He used Rajdeep’s own statements, his own videos and turned them against him beautifully. He first showed how the excuse of “Tyranny of Distance” which Rajdeep often throws around holds no good whatsoever:
Fully believe @sardesairajdeep‘s excuse of distance being reason why media ignored Dadri. He cant travel that far pic.twitter.com/YR1AWpqgTh
— India in Emergency (@IdeaofEmergency) January 18, 2016
While Malda is too far for Rajdeep and his ilk to go, flying to distant Montenegro to catch an interview with Lalit Modi is child’s play for journalists like Rajdeep. Of course the targets of reporting from Malda and reporting from Montenegro are totally different and so we can understand which way Rajdeep’s compass points.
Secondly, the user uploaded another video where Rajdeep claimed media can do only 1 story at a time:
.@sardesairajdeep has the attention span of a flea hence he does only 1 story at a time. No multiple stories by him pic.twitter.com/60jQi4kcMH
— India in Emergency (@IdeaofEmergency) January 18, 2016
We do not need real proof here because we see almost on daily basis, Indian media reporting on a multitude of stories. If any media would be doing just 1 story 24×7 then rest assured the channel would shut down or the Executive Editor would be kicked out.
These 2 videos once again have exposed Rajdeep Sardesai’s double standards when it comes to reporting uncomfortable truths. It is a miracle how such a journalist continues to be a “senior” in Indian media, but then that is the kind of level of journalism prevalent in Indian media. Just like it did in the Malda case, perhaps it is only social media which can hold such frauds accountable.
