The Tanishq ad that created a furore and was eventually pulled down after strong disagreements by Hindus was seen as an opportunity by NDTV to peddle its agenda. Yesterday, NDTV had spread fake news claiming that a Tanishq store in Gujarat was “attacked by a mob” after the anger over the ad.
As the lies of NDTV began to crumble, NDTV changed its report on its website to claim that the store was “targeted”, but not attacked. In fact, NDTV went from how a “mob attacked” the Tanishq store to claiming that they simply received “threat calls” after the ad by the brand received backlash for promoting Love Jihad.
The saga, however, did not end there. Even after being called out for their blatant lie, NDTV and its journalists have continued to defend themselves over their claim that the Tanishq store was ‘attacked by a mob’, even though they have changed their report several times, each time, watering their own report down after being called out.
Sanket Upadhyay, an anchor at NDTV, went on to defend NDTV’s reports by citing that Gujarat Police had indeed admitted that threats were made at a Tanishq store. He added that as a consequence of the alleged threats, the manager had to write an apology.
In an attempt to defend NDTV for its act of peddling misformation about a ‘mob attack’ on the store, Upadhyay cited the dictionary meaning of the word ‘attack’ to claim that a person disagreeing to somebody or something was a form of attack. Sanket Upadhyay claimed that NDTV had used the word “mob attack” because according to the dictionary, the word ‘attack’ means “An act of saying strongly that you do not like to agree with somebody/something”.
Essentially, what the NDTV anchor was saying was that any form of strong disagreement can be legitimately turned into a “mob attack” by the NDTV as long as it serves its agenda adequately.
So for example, if someone does not like the fact that NDTV is peddling fake news, and they demand that NDTV issues an apology for the same, NDTV anchors are free to present it as a “mob attack” against the channel according to their worldview.
The NDTV clarification that was quoted by their anchor offering ridiculous explanations was no better. In the “clarification” issued by NDTV, the channel wrote, “The Gujarat police say people made threats at a Tanishq store after which store manager had to write an apology note. They claim this is not an attack”.
In a video that had surfaced earlier, the Gujarat police had categorically denied the allegation of a “mob attack” against the Tanishq store. The obvious meaning when media reports it as a ‘mob attack’ is that a mob physically attacked the store and there was violence and vandalism. However, this was not true. In the video, the police had also said that the store owner too attested to the fact that there was absolutely no ‘mob attack’ against the store.
NDTV in its clarification almost grudgingly accepts that the store was not attacked by a mob saying that the fact that there was no ‘mob attack’ is only a ‘claim’ by the police and the store owner.
The Tanishq Ad that created a furore
A massive outrage broke over various social media platforms with users calling for the boycott of the jewellery brand Tanishq for their latest advertisement which showcased a Hindu woman married into a Muslim family, preparing for her baby shower. Heeding to criticism, the controversial advertisement which was accused of promoting ‘love jihad’ has been pulled down from YouTube.
The Tanishq 'Love Jihad' ad that has now been taken down. Disgusting! pic.twitter.com/QuS1XBTVIO
— Kashyap Amrika Observer (@YearOfTheKraken) October 12, 2020
The ad released on October 9 shows a pregnant Hindu woman walking with her mother-in-law, who distinctly belonged to the Muslim faith. The Muslim mother-in-law then leads the Hindu daughter-in-law to the garden area, where the god-bharai ceremony has been set up according to Hindu traditions.
Shocked, the daughter-in-law asks the mother-in-law why the ceremony was set up in that manner since “these things are not followed in the house”. To that, the smiling mother-in-law tells her that while this might not be their tradition (since they are a Muslim family), making daughters happy is a universal tradition.
After severe backlash on Social Media, Tanishq had removed that ad from YouTube and issued a statement saying that due to the sentiments that the ad clearly hurt, the ad was being pulled down.
NDTV and its saga of lies after Tanishq pulled down their ad
On Thursday, the far-left news channel NDTV had falsely claimed that a Tanishq store in Gujarat’s Gandhidham was “attacked” by a mob, who later forced the manager of the store to apologise for the controversial ad that promoted ‘Love Jihad’.
However, an audio clip had resurfaced that busted NDTV’s fake claims, wherein one Twitter user Neel had talked to the manager of the showroom that NDTV had alleged was ‘attacked’ by the ‘mob’. Speaking to him, the manager had categorically denied being attacked by anyone.
Even the Gujarat police had dismissed reports of attacks on the Tanishq store in Gandhidham. SP Mayur Patil had also informed that only two persons had visited the store on 12th October and had demanded an apology in Gujarati over the controversial ‘love jihad’ ad released by the company. The SP had also clarified that although the store received some threat calls on the phone, the shop was not attacked by anybody.
Thereafter, NDTV changed its stance several times. From alleging that the Tanishq store was “attacked by a mob”, they went to changing it just to an “attack” and eventually, said that “threats were received”.
