For years now, the New York Times has been brazenly peddling Hinduphobic articles, distorting facts and muddling narratives with its prejudiced coverage of India. To this end, it recently published an article that defamed Hindus as it blamed them for ‘attacking’ Muslim sites after Islamist mobs went on a rampage following the demolition of a madrassa and a mosque in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani, which was built on encroached lands.
The New York Times published an article titled ‘Demolition of Muslim Properties Sets Off Deadly Violence in India’, authored by one Sameer Yasir, who conveniently ignored to mention in its headline that the ‘Muslim properties’ stood upon encroached lands. The demolition was carried out by state authorities, but the New York Times blamed Hindus, including the consecration ceremony of Ram Mandir, responsible for ‘unleashing a wave of violence’ surrounding ‘Muslim sites’.
Besides this, the author is shamelessly brazen in distorting facts and relying on obscurantism to paint victims as aggressors and aggressors as victims—a classic ploy that the New York Times has achieved mastery as it aligns with Islamists around the world and shields them from negative portrayal, often at the cost of truth.
The article starts by stating that the demolition of a mosque and a Muslim seminary has touched off a wave of violence in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani, describing it as the “latest bout of sectarian tensions as Muslim sites have become a broader target of the Hindu right-wing after the opening of the major temple last month.”
Instead of holding the Islamists who went on a rampage against the authorities doing their duty and clearing govt lands arrogated by encroachers, the New York Times fails to mention that the action had the apex court’s imprimatur and dragged the Ram Mandir temple in Ayodhya and the churn over Gyanvapi complex to insinuate that Hindu right wing has been targeting the Muslim sites.
For starters, the Ram Mandir Temple in Ayodhya was reclaimed by the Hindu side in November 2019 after the Supreme Court ended the centuries-long dispute in favour of Hindus.
Just like the Haldwani demolition was carried out after securing the orders of the Supreme Court, the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was built after the top court handed over the land to Hindus violently usurped by Mughal rulers in the sixteenth century and on which a mosque was raised after demolishing a pre-existing temple at the site.
The author also tried insinuating that Muslim sites have increasingly come under attack from the Hindu right-wing, alluding to the Gyanvapi complex, where a Shivling was found in its wazukhana in 2022 and the ASI report said there is evidence of the existence of a temple underneath the mosque.
There is overwhelming archaeological and epigraphical evidence that points to the existence of a temple at the site of Gyanvapi mosque, which was built by Mughal tyrant Aurangzeb, infamous for his habit of ordering temple demolitions, destroying and desecrating idols placed in them, and raising mosques and Islamic structures over them. Even leftist ‘historian’ Irfan Habib has admitted that the Gyanvapi mosque was built after razing down temples.
To claim these and hundreds of other places as “Muslim sites” is not only factually misleading but they are also an insult to millions of Hindus who fought against their illegal and violent occupation, even giving up their lives against Muslim iconoclasts bent on taking over their religious places and meting out humiliations on them by destroying and raising mosques over them.
This is not the first time that the New York Times has demonstrated its anti-Hindu bias. There are at least 14 instances documented by OpIndia when NYT had shamelessly displayed its Hinduphobia. You can read it here.
Islamists go on a rampage as authorities fell illegal buildings on encroached lands
In this case, too, the New York Times tried defaming the Hindus even when they had no involvement in the demolition of the madrassa and the mosque in Haldwani.
Notably, illegal encroachment on government land has been a perennial issue in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani district with the administration finding it challenging to deal with the situation.
Violence swept the Uttarakhand town on Thursday, Feb 8, after a raft of Islamists indulged in open acts of violence against policemen and civic authorities who went there to remove a structure illegally constructed on encroached government land in the Banbhoolpura police station area, which some labelled a madarsa and others a Namaz place.
As many as 4 people were reported dead and over 300 police personnel were injured in the violence.
Several videos emerged showing Islamists pelting stones, shooting guns, and indulging in rampant arson and violence. There are testimonies from police officials which claim that the Muslim mob wanted to set them on fire. As many as 6 people lost their lives and more than 300 policemen were injured in the Islamist violence.
After the incident took place, the DM of the Nainital category explained that the violence was pre-planned and that the Islamists had decided that the day the authorities came to demolish the structure following the High Court order, they would indulge in violence against them.
Uttarakhand HC orders eviction of illegal encroachers in Haldwani
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that Haldwani has been engulfed in protests and violence over government action against illegal encroachments. In January last year, a massive protest erupted in Haldwani over the issue of the removal of encroachment from the land owned by the Indian Railways.
The protests started after Uttarakhand High Court, on December 26, 2022, ordered the authorities to immediately evict the illegal encroachers which comprise nearly 4000 families to vacate the land belonging to the Indian Railways. The protesters (mostly Muslims) claimed that the clearance of encroachments would affect a large number of women, children, and elderly persons residing in the area.
While illegal encroachers were not ready to leave the Railway land, the railway department had said that the encroachment was impeding growth and expansion efforts. Several requests for increasing railway tracks in the region, according to the railway officials, were previously submitted to the government but were thwarted due to encroachment. A proposal to build pit lines was received a few years ago, however it was shelved owing to a shortage of area caused by encroachment.
