An FIR was filed recently against Mahmood Paracha after he announced in a press conference, along with Muslim Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad, that the two of them would be setting up a camp in Lucknow to teach Muslims and Dalits about the ‘right to self-defence’ and how to apply for a firearm license.
The FIR doesn’t appear to have had any impact at all as he conducted a training camp inside a Lucknow Mosque training Muslims how to fill out licenses and acquire firearms. Mahmood Paracha proclaimed that Scheduled Castes, Schedules Tribes, and Minorities are under threat today and that they are not safe even in Uttar Pradesh. He asserted that the administration is not enough (presumably in protecting Muslims).
Intriguingly enough, Mahmood Paracha is a regular feature at news channels where his opinion is sought in debates. It appears to be a pattern across news channels where hoodlums and uncouth individuals are provided platforms that provides them with an opportunity to augment their credibility.
For instance, Trinamool supporter Garga Chatterjee who appears to be on a crusade to establish Dravidianist politics in West Bengal has been portrayed as an ’eminent intellectual’ by the mainstream media. While he spends much of his time on Twitter peddling hate and promoting divisive rhetoric among the citizens of this country, the mainstream media has provided him with an opportunity to spread his malicious agenda across a much larger audience.
John Dayal, a Christian bigot, is another communal hack of questionable integrity who is regularly invited to debates on news channels. He calls himself a human rights activist, however, his activism, more often than not, always leans towards a particular side. In the many debates that he has featured in, Dayal is yet to offer an opinion that is conducive to social harmony and larger national interests.
Dayal is also the secretary-general of the All India Christian Council and a past president of the All India Catholic Union. He was part of the 32-member group that drafted the anti-Hindu Communal Violence Bill. Recently, he triggered a huge controversy by telling a fellow panellist to go, rape anyone, he wanted. He had also written to Prime Minister Modi to not deport the illegal Rohingya immigrants from India despite these posed a national security threat to the country.
Another individual who is invited as a panellist in debates is Colin Gonsalves, the Founder of the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN). The HRLN is a division of the Socio-Legal Information Centre (SLIC). The SLIC receives huge donations from Christian organizations abroad. It has received donations from the European Union, George Soros’ Open Society Institute and Oxfam, international organizations which do not have India’s best interests at heart.
HRLN works in a variety of areas such as Child Rights, Labour Rights, Prisoners’ Rights, Criminal Justice, Refugee Rights among a host of others. It also claims to have provided free legal aid to Rohingya detainees across the country. HRLN is also part of a campaign to abolish sedition laws along with PUCL, PUDR, APDR, CPDR, APCLC, which are coordinating organizations of CDRO. These organizations have intimate links with Naxals. Therefore, the fact that the mainstream media provides him with a platform to further his agenda is a matter of deep concern.
The conduct of the mainstream media has been troubling in recent times, to put it mildly. They have invented fake hate crimes against minorities to suppress the news of actual hate crimes against Hindus. They have regularly provided platforms to the families of terrorists to further their anti-Army, anti-India narrative. Under such circumstances, it would not be far fetched to argue that the mainstream media is the enemy of the people.
