In a perfect world of journalism and reporting, all crimes done by individuals would be reported as they are, with no attempt to distort the issue. However, it is abundantly evident that the Indian media does not operate in an ideal society. One of its numerous transgressions is its ability to whitewash crimes committed by Muslims against Hindus, as evidenced this time too, by its biased coverage of the heinous murder of the 27-year-old Hindu youth Kishan Bharwad on January 25.
Earlier this week, a horrifying tragedy befell a 27-year-old Hindu man, Kishan Bharwad, when Islamists murdered him over a social media post that they believed was against Islam. Kishan had reportedly shared a video that had an image of Prophet Muhammad. The Gujarat police arrested the two bike-borne assailants-Shabbir (25) and Imtiaz (27), who shot the Hindu youth.
Apart from the two killers, Gujarat Police also arrested a cleric, Maulvi Ayyub, from Ahmedabad. Maulvi Ayyub is accused of providing weapons to Shabbir and Imtiaz and is also related to Maulana Qamar Gani. The Gujarat ATS, which has been tasked to investigate the case, on Sunday also detained Maulana Qamar Gani Usmani from Delhi. Usmani has been accused of inciting Shabbir to kill Kishan.
Ever since the news of the brutal killing of Kishan Bharwad surfaced several media houses have extensively reported the heinous crime. From the very beginning, it was clear that the Hindu youth was shot dead as some Muslims took offence to his social media post that they deemed insulting.
Still, there were these usual ‘left-liberal’ media houses that totally whitewashed the murder since clearly in this case too, the victim was a Hindu and the perpetrators belonged to their favourite ‘minority’ section of the society.
The Indian Express in its report dated January 28, reported the murder of the Hindu youth with the headline: “Communal tension after 27-year-old’s death: VHP bandh uneventful in Dhandhuka; two murder suspects held”.
What impression does The Indian Express’s carefully worded headline about the crime provide to a reader who is unfamiliar with the incident? Nowhere in the headline nor in the excerpt of the article the name of the victim or the perpetrators has been mentioned. In a clear attempt to downplay the crime since the accused here are Muslims, the media house has purposely ignored such vital details.
In fact, The Indian Express has not only carefully crafted its headline to shield the Islamist perpetrators but has been extremely cautious while wording the entire report. To dilute the offence, it has used the term “people of another religion” instead of terms like Islam, blasphemy, or Muslims.
Likewise, Shekhar Gupta run ThePrint, a publication that has a history of whitewashing crimes against Hindus, published a report on the incident on January 30 with the headline: “Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad to probe murder of a man killed over Facebook post, three arrested.”
Here, even though the article does mention the specifics, a casual reader would not understand the context based on the watered-down headline.
Here are some other instances where the media proceeded to water down the heinous murder of the Hindu youth by Muslim assailants as they took offence to a social media post.
The Times of India, which is infamous for its proclivity to ‘secularise‘ a crime when Hindus are at the receiving end, published numerous reports on the incident, all with ambiguous headlines in order to downplay the murder of Kishan Barwad by radical Islamists.
Interestingly, TOI is so meticulous with its plotline that it does not even reveal the victim’s name in the headline, since it is a Hindu in this case, let alone the names of the Muslim perpetrators.
Even vernacular media have been caught using the same tricks:
Hindi daily newspaper Patrika, for some reason, decided to leave out basic details like the name of the victim, the reason for the murder and obviously the name of the accused from its headline while reporting the murder of the Hindu youth Kishan Bharwad.
Likewise, Aaj Tak also carefully tweaked its headline to water down the heinous murder of Kishan Bharwad by bloodthirsty and intolerant Muslim fanatics.
Earlier too, Opindia has reported on the media’s ability to give a ‘Hindu spin’ to crimes committed by Muslims. Be it the Hauz Qazi incident or the menace of forced religious conversions, leftist media has always tried to whitewash crimes when the perpetrator has belonged to their favourite ‘minority’.
