On Thursday, February 29, the News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority directed Hindi news channel AajTak to delete a video of a show anchored by its news anchor Sudhir Chaudhary on the violence that had swept different parts of the country on March 30 last year on the occasion of Ram Navami. In a letter sent to the media house, NBSA claimed that Sudhir Chaudhary, in his show, had targeted a particular community by generalising the acts of violence carried out by a few miscreants.
News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority directs @aajtak channel to remove the video of a show anchored by @sudhirchaudhary on Ram Navami violence as the anchor generalised the acts of certain miscreants to target a particular community. pic.twitter.com/Bb9YklHRSi
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) February 29, 2024
Claiming that the anchor gave a completely different colour and used the incidents of communal violence to target a particular community, NBSA warned the channel to be careful in future. The notice was sent to the media channel based on a complaint filed by an X user Indrajeet Ghorpade (@jeetxg).
Based on a few statements the anchor made during the show, the NBSA claimed that the anchor gave the programme a “completely different colour.”
It warned the media organisation to exercise caution while airing content in the future and instructed them to take down the aforementioned video from their website if it was still accessible and to confirm the same to NBSA within the following seven days.
It is pertinent to note that the attack on Ram Navami procession was purely an act of aggression by the Muslim community against the Hindu community based on religious intolerance and hate. The local Muslims often claim that Hindu processions crossing a so-called Muslim area, essentially an area where Muslims live in larger numbers, is an act of aggression in itself. The media channels have been penalised for pointing out the obvious phenomenon of religious hate and intolerance by the Muslim community against Hindu processions and faith. If the reverse were to be true and Muslims were attacked for crossing through an area where Hindus lived in a majority, the act would certainly not be seen as the action of a few miscreants but an example of religious intolerance towards a particular community and their faith.
The argument used to justify violence against Ram Navami is precisely the argument used to tear India into two nations based on religious hate and intolerance. The Muslim community and their leaders had claimed that Islam is a nation and culture unto itself and it could not co-exist with Hindus, therefore, they wanted their own country where Islam would be the ruling religion. By penalising the media channels pointing out the obvious intolerance displayed when demography favours the Muslim community is essentially a legitimisation of the two-nation theory used to justify violence against Hindus.
Commenting on how Islamists, leftist-liberals, and several opposition leaders accused Hindus of passing through “Muslim areas” during the Ram Navami procession, Sudhir Chaudhary questioned why certain areas are classified as ‘Muslim areas’ when we don’t classify other regions as Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Christian or Parsi areas. He presented the 2011 demographic census and pointed out that 81% of the Indian population are Hindu and only 14% are Muslims. He inquired, “Why are some places designated as ‘Muslim areas’ when no Sikh, Christian, Hindu, Parsi, or Jain declares any given place to be theirs and forbids members of other communities from carrying out their religious ceremonies there?”
He also called out Mamata Banerjee for blaming the Hindus for the attack on the procession of Lord Ram, whom he said is revered not only in India but across as many as 12 countries around the globe.
After Ram Navami violence Mamata Banerjee resorted to dog-whistling, alleges Hindus deliberately entered Muslim areas with guns and bombs
Hours after Islamists ran riots against Hindus celebrating Ram Navami in Howrah, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attempted to blame the violence on ‘outsiders.’
“You bring goons-on-hire from outside of Bengal, carry out arson, and orchestrate riots here…We have never stopped you from conducting rallies… Who permitted you to hold rallies with swords and bulldozers?” she said during a protest rally against the Union government.
“I heard that today they used bulldozers in Howrah…What is this audacity? We will give a befitting reply…Why did you change the route (of the Ram Navami procession)? You chose an unauthorised route to provoke a community,” Mamata Banerjee said.
Her appeasement politics did not stop at this. On April 3, she made a heartfelt appeal to the youth of Purba Medinipur to come forward and fight off rioters in the State.
During her speech, the West Bengal Chief Minister slammed the Hindu devotees, who participated in the Ram Navami procession, for supposedly carrying deadly weapons.
Mamata Banerjee alleged that Hindus took out Ram Navami processions without permission, and asked why there should be processing for five days. ‘Don’t carry guns in procession, don’t carry bombs in the processions’, she said, alleging that guns and bombs were carried by Hindu devotees.
Seven incidents of attacks on Ram Navami from across the country
Violence swept different parts of the country on Thursday, March 30, on the occasion of Ram Navami, as Islamic supremacists provoked and attacked Lord Ram devotees in the Shobha Yatras, many of which were organised for the first time since COVID-19 restrictions came into force in 2020.
From Vadodara in Gujarat to Howrah in West Bengal, from Mumbai to Sambhaji Nagar, cities and towns across the length and breadth of the country were smouldering with the fire of religious zealotry as Islamists attacked Ram Navami processions while they were traversing through Muslim-majority regions or as the ‘liberals’ call them ‘Muslim areas’.
The Ram Navami procession near Panjrigar mohalla in the Vadodara district of Gujarat was attacked by Islamists who pelted stones at the procession. According to the reports, around 200-500 Muslims arrived on the street during the procession and began pelting stones at the procession and the Hindu participants. Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)’s local office bearer Vishnubhai Prajapati stated that some vehicles including big cars were also damaged.
Howrah, the twin city of Kolkata witnessed a similar spate of violent attacks on the occasion of Ram Navami as stones were pelted on the procession from the terraces of the buildings in the Shibpur neighbourhood.
Vehicles and shops were also torched during the violence. Videos from the place show several vehicles on fire on the road, while many other vehicles were lying overturned. The damaged vehicles include a police vehicle. The neighbourhood where the violence was reported is dominated by Muslims.
Similar violence was reported from Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district on Ram Navami. Violent clashes broke between two groups at the Kiradpura area of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, videos of which had emerged showing that the decorations outside Ram Mandir in the area were attacked by a violent mob on the previous night.
Several injuries were reported after a Ram Navami procession in the Malvai region of Mumbai’s Malad suburb was attacked by an Islamist mob as it passed by a Masjid near gate no. 7 area. The Islamists attacked the procession by pelting stones and also forced the loudspeakers to be shut in the area.
Also in the Paldhi region in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, a fight broke out between two groups when DJ music was played as a religious procession passed by a mosque in Paldhi. The police had made 45 arrests and registered two FIRs in the case.
Such attacks, especially when the procession passes through Muslim-majority regions, have become alarmingly common in the last few years, especially on the occasions of Hindu festivities, in particular, Ram Navami, the birth anniversary of Lord Rama.
