NDTV Editor Ravish Kumar has proven yet again how certain section of mainstream media is complicit in spreading misinformation, conjectures and sometimes blatant lies to fan violence under the guise of ‘freedom of press’. In his show ‘Prime Time’ on 26th February, 2020, Ravish Kumar resorted to spreading half-truths and full lies.
Most shocking is when Ravish, while speaking about the February 24 shooter who fired at Delhi Police personnel, identifies Mohammad Shahrukh as ‘Anurag Mishra’. For the 26th February show, Ravish claims that police has not yet arrested him while he was arrested on 25th February itself, good 24 hours before his show premiered. “Police ki haalat yeh hai ki abhi tak giraftar nahin hua hai. Police saaf kehti hai ki Shahrukh hai magar aap social media mein dekhiye Anurag Mishra bataya jaa raha hai. (Situation of Police is such that they have not yet arrested him. Police says his name is Shahrukh but if you see on social media, he is called Anurag Mishra),” he says. Which is surprising because no one has referred to the shooter as “Anurag Mishra” till now.
He then asks Delhi Police to speak out on his identity again. He then plays an undated speech of his reporter who appears to be asking Delhi Police personnel about Shahrukh’s arrest. Slyly, Ravish Kumar then plays the videos of BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and Pravesh Verma addressing rallies ahead of Delhi elections to cast aspersions that their speeches have led to the riots a month later.
Speaking on the victims of the riots, Ravish talks about the IB official who was dragged out of his house and brutally murdered by the rioters before dumping his body in a drain. Ravish briefly mentions how the family has accused Aam Aadmi Party ‘leader’ (Ravish chooses not to name AAP corporator Tahir Hussain the family has categorically accused) but then blames television debates on provocative speeches. Kumar and his team conveniently forget 51-year-old Vinod who was killed by a Muslim mob in front of his son and had his bike set on fire.
Same incident. different angle.
What happened after “Naare e takbeer, Allah hu akbar”, listen to this ??pic.twitter.com/zlxKfAyM9o— Shash (@pokershash) February 25, 2020
That a mob killed a Hindu activist while chanting ‘Allah-hu-Akbar’ and ‘Nara-e-Takbeer’ did not find a mention in Ravish’s show. Ravish, in his show, plays a clip about a Muslim man heckling NSA Ajit Doval making wild allegations that the anti-CAA riots are RSS sponsored and that Home Minister Amit Shah is at the helm of it. Trying to make a point of incidents of shooting that have happened in last one month, Ravish Kumar says that it is the responsibility of Police and Home Ministry that no one is roaming around on the streets wielding guns. He talks about January 30 incident where Rambhakt Gulshan, a minor, shot at anti-CAA protests in Jamia Nagar. He speaks about Kapil Gurjar, an Aam Aadmi Party member, who opened fire in Shaheen Bagh just two days later. Ravish Kumar suffers selective amnesia where he forgets to mention that Gurjar, along with his father are Aam Aadmi Party members. He, however, does remember to mention how Gurjar had shouted that in our country only the will of Hindus will prevail.
Ravish’s reporter nonchalantly asks people who are quite obviously in fear and are appearing to be fleeing to safe place if they are afraid. Perhaps he was expecting that the people fleeing area to escape mob violence perpetrated by anti-CAA rioters should look happy and make merry while running for their lives. He even asks if ‘yahan darr ka mahaul to nahin hai na? (there is no atmosphere of fear here, right?’ to a man who just had his showroom destroyed and set on fire with loss pegged at Rs 50 lakh.
Half-truths and whole lies. NDTV’s Ravish Kumar proves yet again how mainstream media is complicit in fanning the violence and watering down crimes if criminals are Muslims.
