Special forces have joined the Western media in whitewashing the Islamist onslaught on Hindus in Bangladesh. Yes, the Indian leftist media has reached Bangladesh to slander India and whitewash the crimes against Hindus unleashed by Islamists following the unceremonious ouster of Sheikh Hasina. On the 27th of August, leftist propaganda portal Newslaundry published a ground report from Bangladesh.
To no surprise, the propaganda report by Newslaundry journalist Smita Sharma attempted to whitewash the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh and even slander India while being on a government junket. It must be mentioned that the Bangladeshi interim government led by Muhammad Yunus had invited Indian journalists to cover from ground on minority groups saying that the reports of attacks on the minorities have been ‘exaggerated’.
In the report, a Newslaundry reporter spoke to several Bangladeshi youths who said that they wanted to reform the country. The report showed some Hindu girls visiting a temple, suggesting that Hindus and their temples are safe now, however, the iron grills placed before the idols of Hindu deities tell a lot about how safe Hindu temples are in Bangladesh, especially after 5th August, since when numerous temples have been vandalised and idols of Hindu deities smashed.
Amusingly, the Newslaundry reporter asked a Hindu girl about the reports that ‘perhaps’ Hindu temples were attacked, however, before the student could speak anything about it, the propaganda portal’s reporter moved on to the next question.
The report also featured a conversation with Nusrat Tabassum, the central coordinator of Student Against Discrimination which led the ‘student’ protests against Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government. Tabassum claimed that none of the Awami League politicians have been beaten up by mobs, however, there have been many reports of how Awami League leaders both Muslim and Hindus were attacked and mob lynched. It was seen how Shahidul Islam Hiran, the Chairman of the Porahati Union and General Secretary of the Jhenaidah Sadar Upazila Awami League, was mob lynched and his body was found hanging from a sculpture at Paira Chattar in the Jhenaidah city centre.
Unsurprisingly, the Newslaundry reporter did not bother to refute Tabassum’s claim because the aim was probably not to present factual information but to reinforce the narrative that what happened in Bangladesh was a ‘revolution’, a students’ revolution, and that people should remember this only rather than the ethnic cleansing of Hindus.
This becomes clear as the student leader dismisses anti-Hindu pogroms orchestrated by Islamists as the aftermath of a revolution and “post-revolution depression”. “There is a term called post-revolution depression, post-revolution situation…disaster. This has been happening in the world since the beginning. Post-revolution period is a testing period,” Tabassum said.
Indeed, the post-revolution period, let’s assume the mobs that looted Sheikh Hasina’s residence, flashed undergarments and urinated on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statue, were ‘revolutionaries’, is a testing period. And, the Islamist onslaught on innocent Hindu minorities demonstrated how the so-called student revolution was never just a student revolution but was hijacked by Jihadist political outfits like BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami who singled out Hindus and attacked them merely for existing. The Newslaundry journalist Smita Sharma, behaving like a true Islamist cheerleader, chose not to confront Nusrat Tabassum for downplaying anti-Hindu violence.
Newslaundry slanders India and Indian media for their reportage on anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh
Beyond the whitewashing of Islamist crimes against Hindus and how the ‘student protests’ were hijacked by Jihadist parties like BNP and JeI, Newslaundry also attacked the Indian mainstream media for not essentially whitewashing the anti-Hindu pogroms. In conversation with a Bangladeshi girl, Newslaundry journalist Smita Sharma said that Indian television media is predominantly aligned with the government narrative and the agenda. But there are a whole bunch of critical voices [read anti-BJP voices] working ‘independently’. Ironically, the Newslaundry journalist accused the Indian TV media of setting off a narrative, while the propaganda outlet itself thrives on peddling anti-BJP/RSS and anti-Modi propaganda.
Watch @Smita_Sharma, an independent Indian Journalist who is currently visiting Bangladesh, talk about the state of Indian media in her interview with a Bangladeshi student
— Tamjidul Hoque🇧🇩 (@TamjidulH24v2) August 28, 2024
X only allows 2 min, link to full interview is in replies #BangladeshCrisis #India pic.twitter.com/9nLReCikOo
Sharma did not forget to slander North Indians saying that the Hindi-speaking people have different perspectives towards reports on the unrest in Bangladesh since they receive information via ‘WhatsApp University’ and fake news, while in South India people speak varied languages and have lesser stereotypes towards Bangladesh and other countries.
The Newslaundry journalist alleged that there was a “high degree of exaggeration” by Indian media about the anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh and the general unrest. Except for some misleading social media posts, there was no exaggeration of events, if Sharma is labelling the usual dramatic aspect of the Indian media as ‘exaggeration’, then the dishonesty of the Newslaundry reporter and her lack of empathy for Hindu victims of the Islamist violence is alarming.
OpIndia has reported how Hindus were singled out, JeI prepared lists of Hindu houses to be attacked, and how Hindus were threatened to give money and other valuables to save their lives. How Hindu temples were vandalised and idols were broken by Islamists. There have been more than 200 such anti-Hindu attacks emanating from hatred of Islamists for Hindus since 5th August while the leftist media both India and Western were busy passing it off as ‘political revenge’.
She also claimed that Indian media labelled Citizenship Amendment Act protestors as “Islamic forces” shrewdly covering up the fact that the anti-CAA protests were both politically and religiously motivated. Despite CAA causing no harm to the Indian Muslims, the anti-CAA protestors unleashed violent protests that culminated in the 2020 Anti-Hindu Delhi Riots. Sharma failed to mention how AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan instigated Muslim mobs, how the then AAP councillor Tahir Hussain’s building housed 3000 rioters, stored petrol bombs etc. She did not mention how Muslim rioters mercilessly killed IB officer Ankit Sharma, a Hindu youth Dilbar Negi and several others. It was not just Islamic forces, but also Islamist sympathising political and leftist media ‘forces’ that opposed the CAA, which simply granted citizenship to persecuted Hindus and other non-Muslim minorities who came to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Other than this, the Newslaundry journalist also alleged that participants of the 2020-21 Farmers Protests were labelled as ‘Khalistanis’ conveniently whitewashing the attempts of Khalistani elements to hijack the farmers’ protests. OpIndia reported how the farmers’ protest resulted in business losses to the tune of Rs 60,000 crores, the insidious resurgence and manifestation of Khalistani sentiments and a host of criminal activities such as rapes, murders, riots etc.
The Newslaundry’s reportage makes one wonder if is this why Muhammad Yunus invited select Indian journalists to Bangladesh, to whitewash crimes of BNP and JeI Islamists against Hindus, to convince the world that Hindus were just collateral damage of the post-‘revolution’ period. That the ethnic cleansing of Hindus should not be discussed, reported and condemned but be forgotten as a trivial matter? Are Indian journalists on government junket supposed to slander Indian people and media on foreign soil especially when that country has been shamelessly letting the Islamic fanatics persecute Hindu and other minority groups?
