The recent riots in Bengaluru where a Muslim mob went on a rampage due to an alleged blasphemous post against the prophet of Islam have revealed, once again, that the mainstream media is truly an enemy of the people. A concerted campaign of character assassination appears to be underway against P Naveen Kumar, the person who is accused to have made the said Facebook post, in order to justify the violence by the Muslim mob.
After Deccan Herald painted Naveen as a ‘serial offender‘, now India Today has published a ‘character profile’ of the nephew of the Dalit Congress MLA on the basis of which it has been claimed that the 35-year old is a fan of Sunny Leone. Great emphasis has been laid on that particular fact, for reasons known best to India Today, considering the fact that Sunny Leone has no relevance whatsoever to what happened on Tuesday night.
The tone and tenor of the character profile makes it abundantly clear what the objective of India Today is. The objective is to portray Naveen as the villain of the whole episode in order to absolve the crimes of the Muslim mob and justify the violence that was perpetrated against the family of the Congress MLA.
The character profile begins ominously, “A commerce graduate, P. Naveen Kumar, now under arrest, shot to infamy overnight after his alleged blasphemous post plunged Bengaluru into its worst night of violence in decades.” And throughout the report, India Today did not find one good thing to say about him.
The sub-headings of the character profile prove it quite abundantly. ‘NO RIGID POLITICAL IDEOLOGY’, ‘A SUNNY LEONE FAN’, ‘NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY’, ‘NOT A BRIGHT STUDENT’ are some of the sub-headings that have been used. Furthermore, the content does not justify the sub-headings at all.
For instance, it is claimed that Naveen does not have a rigid political ideology because he wished the Muslim community on Eid. It says, “A deep-dive into his Facebook handle, which has since been deactivated, suggests Naveen had no rigid political ideology. He would join his uncle and Congress MLA R. Akhanda Srinivas Murthy in wishing Eid to the Muslim community.”
The character profile continued, “In a post about Janmashtami greetings, he appears to be taking pride in India’s secularism with a picture showing a burqa-clad woman and children dressed up as Shri Krishna and Radha.” These are the justifications provided by India Today to prove that Naveen does not have a rigid political ideology. It is actually quite hilarious. These comments actually paint Naveen as secular, a fact that a liberal media house like India Today should be celebrating, not criticising.
For its much-publicised claim of Naveen being a Sunny Leone fan, India Today stated, “Sunny Leone seems to be another role-model for Naveen. On May 12, he posted her picture with a caption reading she “proved our past never decides our destiny”.” As evidence, a screenshot of a birthday wish to the former adult movie actress was attached. That is all the evidence on the basis of which Rahul Kanwal and India Today are screaming from the rooftop that Naveen is a Sunny Leone fan. Yes, just because Naveen wished the actress on her birthday, he became such a big fan of her that it became the most important factor in his profile prepared using ‘digital forensics on his social media accounts done by India Today’s Open Source Intelligence Team’, and it found a place in the headline.
It appears as if India Today was too lazy to even pretend that the sole purpose of the character profile was anything other than the character assassination of the nephew of the Congress MLA. It says, “A security guard and a driver in the area for a decade told India Today that Naveen was never seen going to work. Instead, he was often seen “chilling with friends”.”
Throughout the profile, India Today downplayed the fact that Naveen would often share pictures and posts conveying the message of communal harmony. Such messages that he shared was interpreted as him not having a rigid political ideology. Thus, quite clearly, the news network had a vendetta against him and proceeded to slander him in the name of journalism.
By the end of it, it appears that India Today felt a compulsion to punish the individual who dared to insult the prophet of Islam. Unlike previous occasions, when they would justify the violence committed by Muslims mobs, this time, they were so troubled it seems, that in addition to justifying the attack on the Dalit Congress MLA’s house, they have also decided to punish Naveen in their personal capacity for the apparent insult to their beloved prophet.
The mainstream media, which pretends to care a lot about Dalits, proves yet again that they will gladly throw Dalits under the bus and blame Dalits if they are attacked by violent Muslim mobs. Their abject surrender to the radical elements within the Muslim community appears utter and complete. Deccan Herald and India Today appear to be leading the pack when it comes to submission to Radical Islam.
