The New York Times has embarked on an effort to increase its readership in India. Thus, Vindu Goel, Tech and Business Correspondent for the alleged newspaper, who is based in Mumbai, announced on Twitter that the cost of digital subscriptions has been cut to Rs. 25/week for the first year of subscription. Sharing that tweet, Amar Govindarajan, Publisher and Chief Digital Officer of Swarajya Magazine, joked that he had received three promotional emails since morning from NYTimes.
The joke didn’t go down too well with Goel who attempted to use Swarajya Mag to increase the readership of the ‘failing’ NYT. He told Govindarajan, “You post public proof that you have subscribed to @nytimes and I’ll post proof that I have subscribed to @SwarajyaMag. Maybe we will both learn something.”
At 780 rupees for the year, @nytimes is offering a lower rate than you are for @SwarajyaMag. Tell you what, though: You post public proof that you have subscribed to @nytimes and I’ll post proof that I have subscribed to @SwarajyaMag. Maybe we will both learn something. https://t.co/AzRO6kTifm
— Vindu Goel (@vindugoel) March 11, 2020
Soon after Goel’s tweet, people on social media decided to remind him of the NYT’s atrocious coverage of events in India. The NYT, like much of the western press, has run a vicious campaign against India based on sheer lies and propaganda. And Indians have long been raising their voice against it, without any effect on the alleged newspaper’s coverage. Thus, when Goel made the subscription pitch, people let their anger known.
We have free access to the venom which you spew so why would we waste our money on you.
— Vishnubhatla Aparna (@VishnubhatlaAp2) March 12, 2020
Barkha, Rajdeep,Saba,Ranna and many more. https://t.co/7n8axceBnL
Ready to pay 10 times more for @SwarajyaMag but not a single paise for anti India Hinduphobic @nytimes https://t.co/Y3cklbdUUe
— Amitabh Poddar (@AmitabhPoddar1) March 12, 2020
Not everyone has leftist billionaires bankrolling so the publication can engage in propaganda without worrying about finances. https://t.co/amXfGJN1lN
— ડોન ભાઈ ડ્રેપર (અમદાવાદવાળા) (@SlyandSulk) March 12, 2020
There were a lot of responses that compared the alleged newspaper to toilet paper.
Nope. I’ll pass. I prefer toilet paper that isn’t already soiled. https://t.co/iLmnXbOck2
— Grim Malkin (@Vidhuvyala) March 12, 2020
Cheaper toilet papers are available off the shelf, try it out. https://t.co/PZ1lxcQmmg
— BongMusings (@BongMusings) March 12, 2020
Sir, I don’t use toilet paper hence don’t subscribe to @nytimes…sell your @nytimes subscription elsewhere. https://t.co/Ef8Qf9zeQG
— Raj Kulki 🇮🇳 👍 CAA,NPR,NRC (@rabhku) March 12, 2020
The last straw for Goel’s patience was when columnist Shefali Vaidya said that she would subscribe to the alleged newspaper if Goel publicly admitted that NYT is a ‘Hindu-hating racist rag’. At that, Goel lost his calm and called people ‘trolls’ for questioning the bias of the publication he works for. He said he had ‘real work’ to do and Indians “read whatever Indian nationalist publications” that made them happy.
Bye, trolls. I have real work to do. Go read whatever Indian nationalist publications make you happy. https://t.co/cBzYRXlAKf
— Vindu Goel (@vindugoel) March 12, 2020
It appears that Goel did not like the fact that Indians showed NYT the mirror. The NYT has a history of peddling anti-India narratives, whether it be the events that transpired in the aftermath of the Balakot Airstrikes or Narendra Modi in general. In the past, it has published racist cartoons to denigrate India right after the Mangalyaan Mission. In the cartoon, a bare-footed man wearing dhoti, turban and holding a buffalo next to him is seen knocking on the doors of ‘Elite Space Club’. The failing NYT had also attempted to downplay the Pulwama Terror Attack in which over forty of our soldiers had lost their lives.
In one article, NYT claimed that as the 2019 general elections were closing in, Modi’s popularity was on a low and the “rejuvenated opposition was landing punch after punch with corruption allegations. But one bombing in Kashmir, and weeks of military brinkmanship with Pakistan afterward, appears to have interrupted Mr. Modi’s slump.” The alleged newspaper was forced to change its newspaper after outrage on social media.
The NYT has also exploited children’s deaths to malign Yogi Government’s crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in Uttar Pradesh. In an op-ed about India that was centred around the CBI raids at the residences of Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, the founder promoters of NDTV, the NYT also had tried to take the similar path. The editorial was titled ‘India’s Battered Free Press’ which read like a textbook case of how it has been distorting the truth.
NYTimes’ former Delhi bureau chief Ellen Barry had also indulged in white-washing the 2002 Godhra carnage where as many as 59 people were burnt alive in a train. She had also spread lies to insult the victims of Godhra carnage in her report on the Gulbarg Society verdict. NYTimes also encourages troll-like behaviour while reporting on democratically elected public representatives by attempting to trivialise the personal lives of female politicians.
