While the gory details of Danish Siddiqui’s execution and mutilation by the Taliban were extensively reported by many Indian media outlets yesterday, it probably struck a chord with former NDTV CEO Vikram Chandra only after the international leftist media house The New York Times reported about it today.
Sharing the report by NYT, Vikram Chandra asserted in his Tweet on July 31, that the Indian government should demand an apology from the Taliban for this shocking barbarism.
“Shocking barbarism. India should demand an apology from the Taliban”, said the journalist in his Tweet, who now runs the digital news platform Editorji.
Shocking barbarism. India should demand an apology from the Taliban. https://t.co/wmwsPbtSu2
— Vikram Chandra (@vikramchandra) July 31, 2021
While the journalist rightly called the gruesome act ‘shocking barbarism’, it was the second part of his Tweet that flustered various Netizens.
Some doubted the journalist’s intellect for proposing something as absurd as this. They expressed disbelief that Chandra was suggesting that the Indian government should merely seek an apology from a terrorist organisation for the murder.
India must demand an apology from the Taliban? 😐👌🏼🙏🏼
— Arun Pudur 🇮🇳 (@arunpudur) July 31, 2021
Apology from a terrorist Organisation ????
— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) July 31, 2021
I think they should write “I shall not shoot reporters” 1000 times in their notebooks.
— कुशल मेहरा (@kushal_mehra) July 31, 2021
One social media user tried to educate the journalist by explaining that the Taliban is a “professional terrorist organisation, which excels in killing innocent people. They are not a political party or an NGO”, from whom an apology could be sought.
1st thing: Taliban is a professional terrorist org, which excels in killing innocent people. They are not a political party or an NGO.
— Anupam K Singh (@anupamnawada) July 31, 2021
2nd thing: Danish Siddiqui was an anti-Hindu photographer who sold the pics of dead bodies of Hindus for money. Maligned Kumbh. Praised Eid.
Netizens were quick to call out the hypocrisy of the left-leaning liberals of the likes of Vikram Chandra’s who needed an international media outlet to report about Danish Siddique’s killing to call out the Taliban for the murder.
An apology for executing a man & mutilating his body ?
— Nandini 🇮🇳 (@NAN_DINI_) July 31, 2021
Wow !
For starters, why don’t you & your lot grow a pair ?
Till the US press came out with the details you were fearful of even naming the Taliban.
“First Liberal Media should apologise for defending the Taliban and trying to portray their sham apology with credence”, wrote another social media user.
First Liberal Media should apologise for defending the Taliban and trying to portray their sham apology with credence. https://t.co/Crgd2Q7R1t
— Yossarian (@vsuda) July 31, 2021
Interestingly, until today, several left-wing “liberal-secular” journalists had taken to Twitter to condole the death of photojournalist Danish Siddiqui by aggressively sharing images of the deceased photojournalist to pay some sort of tribute to him. However, the intriguing part of the matter is that hardly any of them called out the Taliban over Danish Siddiqui’s killing.
In fact, Vikram Chandra’s colleague, NDTV news anchor Ravish Kumar had gone a step ahead to completely absolve the Islamic terrorist organisation from Danish Siddiqui’s murder. In his Facebook post, the controversial journalist had wished thousands of curses to the “gun which fired the bullets” that killed the Indian photojournalist but did not even mention a single word against the Taliban, which actually killed him.
Taking a dig at the leftist media and their anti-Hindu bias, another Twitter user Tweeted: “Was the Taliban not already proved better than RSS because they already ‘apologised’ for murdering him???”
Was the Taliban not already proved better than RSS because they already ‘apologised’ for murdering him??? https://t.co/lHtG8H01Pv
— Raju Das | ৰাজু দাস (@rajudasonline) July 31, 2021
For the uninitiated, after his death, Danish’s body of work, especially the pictures of funeral pyres during the second wave of coronavirus and Rohingya crisis in India, was publicised and hailed by all, and the Taliban had expressed sorrow on killing him. In fact, the Taliban had claimed they did not know how the photojournalist had died. “Any journalist entering the war zone should inform us. We will take proper care of that particular individual. We are sorry for Indian journalist Danish Siddiqui’s death. We regret that journalists are entering war zone without intimation to us,” The Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid had told News18.
Subsequently, Danish Siddiqui’s friends and colleagues in media and other ‘liberals’ had hailed the Taliban for expressing regret at killing Danish, whom they killed and mutilated his body because he was an Indian.
After being brutally trolled on Twitter, Vikram Chandra again took to the microblogging site to write in defence of his previous mindless remark.
Having brutally murdered an Indian journalist- the Taliban have signalled that they haven’t changed their colour. They are still barbarians and murderers! We should consider all options on how to deal with what is becoming an ugly situation in Afghanistan.
— Vikram Chandra (@vikramchandra) July 31, 2021
“Having brutally murdered an Indian journalist- the Taliban have signalled that they haven’t changed their colour. They are still barbarians and murderers! We should consider all options on how to deal with what is becoming an ugly situation in Afghanistan”, wrote the journalist.
