It is an established fact that the media, commonly referred to as the fourth pillar of democracy, has the power to bring about positive change in society when it works responsibly. On Monday, October 9, the Vadodara police revoked the stringent Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act (PASA) it had pressed on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker from Savli, Nilesh Parmar and released him from jail.
The RSS worker was arrested after the Vadodara incident where Islamists pelted stones on the Ganesh Visarjan Yatra at Manjusar in Savli taluka of Vadodara. Many Hindu devotees were injured in the attack and the idol of Lord Ganesha was also damaged. Both parties lodged complaints with the police after the stone-pelting incident. During their operation, the police detained a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker from Savli, Nilesh Parmar, and later sent him to Ahmedabad Central Jail under the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act (PASA). Hindu organisations and locals opposed the action, calling it unfair.
While Nilesh Parmar’s arrest did not manage to garner mainstream media attention, OpIndia contacted Nilesh Parmar’s family and tried to know their side of the story.
His family had confirmed that Nilesh was not even present at the place when the incident took place. They stated that the arrest of Nilesh was the result of a conspiracy allegedly orchestrated by the Muslim Sarpanch of their village and other local Muslims in their village, where Muslims are the majority.
Two days after OpIndia published the report, Nilesh Parmar was set free by the Vadodara police after all the false charges were dropped against him. On Monday, October 9, Nilesh Parmar’s family waited anxiously outside Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Jail where Nilesh Parmar was housed. Nilesh Parmar’s mother, Madhuben Thakorbhai Parmar, could not contain her happiness when finally she saw her son coming out of prison as a free man.
When Nilesh Parmar reached his village in Savli, Vadodara with his family and friends, thousands of Hindus had gathered there to welcome him. Nilesh Parmar got a grand welcome at his village. All his friends and family members as well as Hindu neighbours burst crackers to celebrate his return.
OpIndia spoke to Nilesh Parmar. Nilesh said, “This is the victory of truth. I was wrongly implicated in this case. Even though I was not present at the scene, my name was added to the complaint under political pressure. This has been done to me many times before.”
Nilesh and his family also expressed gratitude to OpIndia for reporting their side of the story. Thanking OpIndia, Nilesh’s emotional mother said, “No one else except you approached us when my son fell victim to the injustice. You came and gave us assurance and the courage to fight.”
The mainstream media chose to remain mum
The media’s primary role is to apprise the public of the truth and, if required, question the government and the administration to account for any injustices meted out to the people. However, this basic fact has been ignored by the majority of media outlets today.
Had they not forgotten this responsibility, they would not have remained silent on the wrongful and arbitrary action taken against the local RSS worker, following the attack on a Hindu procession by a fanatic Muslim mob in Manjusar, Vadodara city. They would have written, printed or at the least spoken about the attack on Hindus and the false implication of a Hindu in a crime carried out by Islamists.
While the mainstream media decided to stay mute, several leftist YouTubers worked overtime to defend the Muslim perpetrators and blame Hindus instead. They shared videos and posted articles which raised fingers at Hindus. “Why do Hindus need to carry out their yatra through Muslim areas?” they questioned, essentially trying to blame Hindus for provoking the Muslims. With such videos and posts, they tried their best to shield the Muslim attackers and blame Hindus for the attack. OpIndia also tried to give a logical answer to these illogical conspiracy theories peddled by several leftist YouTubers and self-proclaimed journalists.
OpIndia is delighted to have kept the ethical journalism standards and revealed the truth which, in turn, assisted an innocent person in getting justice.
OpIndia Impact
OpIndia on October 7, published a report on its interaction with Nilesh Parmar’s family. Throughout our discussion, Madhuben’s voice exhibited a sense of distress, clearly affected by the recent turn of events involving her son. Throughout our interaction, Madhuben consistently asserted that Nilesh was entirely innocent. She claimed that Nilesh was present at a different location on the day of the incident in question. She said that Nilesh had actually gone out to attend a social gathering. and only one day after the story was published.
By the time we prepared a report after verifying all the information and evidence we gathered, no other mainstream media had written anything on the subject or even bothered to contact Parmar’s family to know the truth. Not only this, until Tuesday (October 10) evening, no media outlet reported on this matter.
However, our efforts paid off, as only two days after we highlighted the issue, the RSS worker was cleared of all the charges that were invoked against him and released from jail. Nilesh Parmar is now with his family and has extended his gratitude to OpIndia for bringing out his truth before the public. Although we are pleased with our unbiased reporting on this particular issue, we are baffled by the mainstream media’s stoic silence when Muslims commit crimes and Hindus are the victims. How long will such leftist YouTubers, journalists, and media outlets continue to concoct conspiracies to cast Hindus as the perpetrators of crimes, regardless of who actually committed them, is the urgent topic at hand.
