Earlier in the day, it was reported how M Lavanya, a student of standard 12th in Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Thirukattupali in Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, killed herself after she was allegedly tortured by her school authorities for refusing to convert to Christianity.
As per reports, when Lavanya refused to get converted, the school administration cancelled her leave application for Pongal Celebrations and forced her to do chores like cleaning toilets of the school, cooking and washing dishes. Completely dejected by the mental trauma being exerted on her for the last 5 years by the government-funded Christian missionary school she was attending, the young girl consumed pesticides used in the school garden to terminate her life.
Like other media houses, the Times of India also reported about the aforementioned incident, but with a completely different twist. The media outlet attempted to trivialise the entire incident through an article published in both its print and the digital edition on January 20 titled: “Forced to clean room, girl ends life”.
The archived version of the digital edition of the Times of India report can be viewed here.
In order to give the tragedy a ‘secular’ spin, TOI has completely overlooked the religious conversion angle in both the headline and its report.
At first glance, the headline of the TOI article reveals how dire the situation is. It attempts to imply that the girl committed suicide for something as insignificant as being forced to complete some mundane tasks. Through the headline itself, the media house has effectively shifted the blame for the horrific tragedy on the victim rather than the school authorities by leaving out the primary angle- forced religious conversion by a Christian school, from the headline of its report.
Further, not even once, neither in the headline nor in the entire body of the report, the news outlet mentioned that the girl was being forced to convert to Christianity. Despite the girl mentioning that she was forced to convert to Christianity in her dying declaration video, the Times of India chose to brush off the matter under the carpet.
In fact, TOI has been so careful that it has not even once mentioned the name of the school in its reports. It has called the school a ‘government-aided higher secondary school in Michaelpatti village near Thirukattupalli in Thanjavur district’, omitting the name Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School. Obviously, the purpose of not mentioning the name of the school is clearly to ‘secularise’ the incident in its coverage.
TOI – repeat offender of ‘secularising’ crimes
This kind of mischievous reporting is very well expected from the Times of India which has in the past too, resorted to ‘secularising’ crimes by attempting to give a Hindu spin to the crime.
In its leftist and general anti-Hindu bias, while reporting the incident where an occult practitioner and his friends had brutally gang-raped a 15-year-old girl from the Gajraula town of Amroha in the Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh in July last year, the Times of India not only attempted to hide the religious identity of the three rape accused by hiding their names in the headline of their report but also give a Hindu spin to the crime by referring to the occult practitioner as a ‘Tantrik’.
In 2018, Time of India reported that a ‘godman’ forced his male devotees into ‘unnatural sex’ in Maharashtra. As per the report, one Asif Noori was the culprit, but TOI had tweeted the same report, using the image of a sketch of a sadhu to mislead its readers. In another case, TOI used the word ‘Swami’ and ‘baba’, other Hindus terms, for a rapist who actually belonged to the Muslim community.
The practice rather hypocritical, because the same media organisations actually go hyper with religious identifications when the victim and accused religions are reversed.
12th standard girl ends life after missionary school in Tamil Nadu allegedly pressurised her to convert to Christianity
Speaking about the unfortunate suicide of the student of standard 12th in Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Thirukattupali in Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, OpIndia reported earlier in the day, how because of the constant pressure being exerted on her to convert to Christianity, M Lavanya had consumed pesticides used in the school garden to end her life.
A video of Lavanya’s call for help was published on social media where she was seen in an unconscious situation talking about her torture. The video, originally in Tamil (translated by The Commune) says, “My name is Lavanya. They (school) had asked my parents in my presence if they can convert me to Christianity and help her for further studies. Since I didn’t accept, they kept scolding me.” She also named one Rachael Mary who had allegedly tortured her.
Taking cognizance of the incident, Hindu organisations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Munnani and political outfit Indu Makkal Katchi have raised voices for demanding justice to Lavanya and against the predatory proselytization of Hindus.
