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India Today connects a Facebook cleansing activity to Modi’s “unpopularity”

OpIndia Staff
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India Today connects a Facebook cleansing activity to Modi’s “unpopularity”

Yesterday, India Today used amazing data mining and analytical skills to prove that Prime Minister Modi’s “popularity has taken a dip”.

No, it did not conduct any internal survey or any opinion poll from their (and AAP’s) pollster Cicero. Instead they used “Facebook Likes” to reach to this conclusion.

They presented the following graph, which shows a clear dip in Modi’s “Likes” on Facebook, which according to India Today, coincided with Land Acquisition Bill and Farmer Suicides:

modi-650_040915054155

While we were wondering if this is possible, we got a startling revelation from @bhak_sala that the Land Bill and Farmer Suicides might have affected his likes on Facebook too! Take a look at his graph too:

bh

In both the graphs, there is a visible drop in number of ‘Likes’, which starts exactly around 13th-14th March. Could it be that Farmer’s and pro-farmer lobby unliked BhakSala’s Facebook page too? Or Is India Today building another false narrative?

The answer is right in-front of you. If one looks at the note which appears above BhakSala’s graph, it shows Facebook clearly alerting users that “Pages may see decrease in likes after March 12” because they have “removed inactive accounts“.

In fact, Facebook had released a detailed circular explaining this phenomenon, so that users aren’t alarmed at a sudden fall in likes.

Ironically, India Today in the same article quotes Convenor of BJP’s national communication cell, who gives the exact same reason. But India Today, even though they were informed of this technical glitch, chose to correlate this fall in likes to Land Bill and other issues. This clearly indicates India Today had a narrative ready in mind, and just wanted some sort of “data” to back it, irrespective of how false that claim may be.

Just to be absolutely sure, we asked similar graphs from popular Facebook accounts like FakingNews and TheUnrealTimes. Both the graphs showed the same results, a massive dip in likes in between 13th and 19th March:

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In fact, if India Today had bothered to check their own Facebook likes, they would have seen a similar fall at the same time. But alas, Indian MSM doesnt believe in checking, especially India Today.

In March, India Today lied that Sadhvi Prachi had said “Valdimir Putin’s original name is Vaarahmihir Putr Singh” and that Modi’s office is the top rejector of RTI queries. In February, they had misreported Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s comments. And now, they have made up another story.

Considering this shoddy, biased, agenda driven reporting, India Today’s Facebook likes should have plummeted even without Facebook removing inactive accounts.

UPDATE: An alert reader showed us similar “Likes” graphs for India Today and Aaj Tak too. And unsurprisingly, both the accounts had lost “Likes” in the same time frame.

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VHP’s criticism of Kamal Hassan’s movie is as silly as “liberal” criticism of Tulsidas

Rahul Roushan
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VHP’s criticism of Kamal Hassan’s movie is as silly as “liberal” criticism of Tulsidas

VHP is hardly known for its intellectual faculty and tolerance, and they have displayed it again by asking for a ban on Kamal Hassan’s upcoming movie Uttama Villain.

The organization believes that a song in movie is disrespectful to Lord Vishnu and could hurt the sentiments of Hindus. The concerned song is reported to be a conversation between Vishnu devotee Prahalad and his father Hiranyakashipu.

Those well versed in Hindu history and mythology would know that Hiranyakashipu was a villain who abhorred Lord Vishnu. His hatred was so strong that he attempted to kill his son Prahalad, who had become a devotee of Lord Vishnu, by burning him alive. That failed attempt is celebrated as Holika Dahan and is the crucial part of the Holi festival.

Now it is obvious that such a character will utter only disparaging and disrespectful words about Lord Vishnu. If the movie shows the same, it can’t be accused of endorsing words of a villain and hurting sentiments on purpose.

When a writer composes dialogues for a negative character, it doesn’t reflect his own thinking or morality, but that of the character. And the writer can’t be accused of endorsing those views.

How rational and justified will it be to blame Salim Khan or Javed Akhtar for dialogues attributed to Gabbar Singh in the movie Sholay? Obviously, everyone will laugh at such an accusation.

This is a creative and literary aspect that VHP seems to have missed.

Kamal Hassan
Kamal Hassan in his upcoming Tamil movie “Uttama Villain”

But being a “regressive” and “conservative” organization (as it is often accused by the media and intelligentsia), VHP is only expected to behave this way. Of course, it doesn’t justify their demands, but there is an explanation of what makes them behave that way.

But what explains the inability of our “progressive” and “liberal” crowd, which accuses Goswami Tulsidas, the author of Ramcharitmanas, of endorsing views of a negative character?

In case you are confused what we are pointing to, try to recall how many times you have heard the following lines as an example of Tulsidas being misogynist, casteist, and elitist:

dhol, ganwaar, shudra, pashu, naari,
sakal taadna ke adhikaari.

The literal transition comes to – drum, villager, dalit, animal, or woman; these deserve corporal punishment.

Obviously such statement reflects misogynist, casteist, and elitist mindset. But does it reflect Tulsidas’ thinking because he wrote it?

In this case, our “liberal” intelligentsia almost behaves like the VHP by not caring about the context of the above quoted statement and to whom it is attributed in the book (a work of art, like a movie).

The statement is attributed to a negative character named “Samudra” (the sea) who had been acting all arrogant and rebellious against Lord Rama, refusing to cooperate with him when he wanted to travel to Lanka to save his wife.

According to Sunder Kaand in Ramcharitmanas, where these lines appear, repeated polite and respectful requests by Lord Rama for cooperation were falling on the deaf ears of Samudra. Soon after, Lord Rama challenged him for a duel if he stuck to his arrogant and rebellious stand.

Afraid of Lord Rama’s might, Samudra immediately surrendered, and among many things, spoke the aforementioned sentences trying to justify his own shenanigans and Lord Rama’s anger against him.

It is clear that a negative character spoke those lines under duress after displaying a twisted temperament. But for decades, the so-called liberal intelligentsia has been repeating these lines to “prove” that Tulsidas and Ramcharitmanas endorse regressive and casteist views.

While rightly blasting off VHP for their silly stand on Kamal Hassan’s movie, we hope that the same people also do some soul searching and introspect what makes them behave like the VHP when it comes to criticizing Hindu texts.

You can become an accidental member of BJP if you read The Hindu on mobile!

OpIndia Staff
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You can become an accidental member of BJP if you read The Hindu on mobile!

As surprising as it may sound, but the left-leaning media house The Hindu appears to be helping the right-leaning political party BJP in adding new members, or at least new mobile numbers, to its fold.

This issue was discovered and brought to notice by blogger Nikhil Narayanan, who saw a BJP ad while reading articles on the Android app of The Hindu.

He happened to click the ad, and he got a message, both on mobile screen as well as an SMS, thanking him for showing interest in becoming a member of BJP.


Essentially, his mobile number was shared with BJP without Nikhil agreeing to share it.

It is a violation of privacy as a user should be ideally asked to confirm if he or she wants the mobile number to be shared with a third party.

In his tweets, Nikhil clarified that only clicking the ad did not make him a BJP member, as he was expected to take a few more steps to complete the membership process, but this left him wondering if The Hindu was guilty of sharing his private information with an advertiser.

Mobile apps usually store a user’s private information, but they are not expected to share such details with advertisers or any other third-party without explicit consent of the user.

Either The Hindu is guilty of knowingly disregarding these privacy concerns, or they didn’t do due diligence before finalizing advertising partners and platforms (in this case, the mobile advertising agencies).

And as of BJP, it is good to reach out to people and increase your fold, but don’t thank them too early. Maybe someone has clicked the ad only out of curiosity!

Is BJP replacing Newton in textbooks, or is Indian Express replacing truth with agenda?

OpIndia Staff
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Is BJP replacing Newton in textbooks, or is Indian Express replacing truth with agenda?

On 7th April, Indian Express via this article announced dramatically that “Akbar, Newton may make way for ‘local heroes’ in Rajasthan textbooks”. The article made claims that Saffronization of School Textbooks would take place at the behest of RSS. The article commented that “Akbar the Great, Pythagoras and Issac Newton would be nudged out”. The most interesting part was this story was run ONLY by Indian Express. Firstpost later curated this same report, but there were no other independent reports on this story.

The problem with the Indian Express story is, in its headline it says “Akbar & Newton may make way” and they reiterate this claim in the body. BUT, if we see the quotes of the Minister in the same piece, there is not a single quote mentioning  “nudging” Akbar or Newton or any other “foreign leaders”.

From a plain reading, it seems that the Primary Education Minister Vasudev Devnani only wanted to include Indian personalities like “Veer Savarkar, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Maharaja Suraj Mal and Mahatma Gandhi” in History books, who he feels haven’t been given their due in Indian Textbooks. He also says he would like to add “Aryabhatta, Bhaskaracharya” in science books.

Following are the exact words of the Minister, as per the report of Indian Express itself:

“Why should our children only learn about Akbar, the Great? Why not Maharana Pratap, the Great?, Our children are constantly learning about foreign rulers, mathematicians, scientists et al. Soon after I took charge, I wanted to rework the textbooks but I was told printing had started and making changes would cause a huge financial loss. This year, we will bring significant changes. In science books, we will include Aryabhatta, Bhaskaracharya. We have to build a feeling of of nationalism in our children.”

As you can see there is not a single quote where the Minister says he will remove Akbar or Newton. This is further established by reading this report in Patrika on the same matter. This report says 5 new chapters will be “added” on the famous characters earlier mentioned by us. There is no mention of any deletion of Newton etc.

All the facts of this case can be summarized as below:

1. Indian Express report is the only report on this issue

2. It claims Newton, Akbar & Pythagoras will be nudged out of text books

3. This claim is not backed by any quotes of the Minister, in Indian Express’s own article

4. This claim is not backed by any other media report

Based on the above, there is serious concern whether the Indian Express report is accurate, or whether they have added their own narrative to sensationalise the issue. It is more dangerous since, just last month Indian Express was caught with their pants down when they tried to communalise Kolkata’s Archbishop’s statement.

There is no doubt that Indian history books should definitely have chapters on great Indian leaders such as Veer Savarkar, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Maharaja Suraj Mal and Mahatma Gandhi. There is also no doubt that Indian education system in most places is in desperate need of revamp. There might be some who may express concern over inclusion of Aryabhatta, Bhaskaracharya in Science textbooks, but the fact is, the entire world has acknowledged many contributions of these stalwarts in the field of science. There are those who claim everything worthwhile was invented in Ancient India, while there are those who claim nothing ever came from there. Sadly, the truth lies in between the two, and there is no harm in propagating this truth.

We had asked an opportunity to enquire with the author of the Indian Express report, but we are still awaiting a reply.

UPDATE (10 April, 2015): 3 days after publishing the misleading article, Indian Express has now published excerpts from an interview of the concerned minister Vasudev Devnani, which confirms what we had pointed out. In the interview, the minister says: “I am not saying stop teaching Newton altogether but let us give due credit to everyone.”

This is exactly what we pointed out, that there was no proof that Newton will be nudged out or dropped, as the earlier report by Indian Express claimed. Strangely, despite this explanation by the minister to Indian Express itself, the earlier article has not been corrected by the publication.

Times Group makes a U-Turn on ‘Christians Under Attack’ narrative?

OpIndia Staff
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Times Group makes a U-Turn on ‘Christians Under Attack’ narrative?

In what seems to be a result of sustained pressure from Social Media combined with plain facts not supporting the narrative, Times Groups seems to have become the first MSM outlet to openly counter this “Christians on a hitlist” agenda driven narrative. It is especially important because the Times group itself was party to this message being spread across the country.

On 18th March 2015, Times of India, our country’s most popular daily, came up with this highly sensationalist headline: “ENOUGH, SAY WARY CHRISTIANS”. This was hot on the heels of the unfortunate gang rape of a Nun in West Bengal. Those were the days when “journalists” like Rana Ayyub used shoot and scoot tactics to communalise a rape, and blame RSS for it. To buttress its claim of “Christian persecution”, Times of India had then claimed that “In 9 weeks since December 2014, 5 churches have been attacked in Delhi, 2 convents broken into, One church gutted”.

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Now as investigations have revealed, most of the church “attacks” were a result of non-communal events like, short-circuit, drunkards, children throwing stones, petty theft and gamblers being ratted out by the church. Even the high point of this narrative, the Nun gang rape, was eventually found to be a crime by Bangladeshis. In the face of all these facts, Times group seems to have taken an informed U-Turn. On 6th April, Arnab Goswami, in Newshour trashed this media narrative.

Yesterday, Times of India published an article which basically goes against all their claims. While they did try to get into whataboutism by questioning the UPA record on attacks on churches, they also posted this infographic which shows the real reasons behind every “church attack”. This after just 3-4 weeks back, Times of India used these very “church attacks” to build a totally different narrative.

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It is certainly a positive start that finally MSM seems to have woken up and smelt the coffee that is brewing for so long, but can this undo the damage? Can only one publication trying to correct its course offset the propaganda of the entire MSM combined?

From Courts to Congress to BJP, everybody wants quota for Marathi films

OpIndia Staff
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From Courts to Congress to BJP, everybody wants quota for Marathi films

Last evening, news broke that Devendra Fadnavis led BJP Government in Maharashtra had issued an order that atleast one Marathi film should be screened during Prime-Time by Multiplexes. There was mixed response to this order, with some supporting the much needed thrust to regional cinema, while others opposing the Government’s intervention in the business of multiplexes. Be it brickbats or bouquets, BJP cannot stake claim to either of these.

In June 2010, the Bombay High court ruled that all single-screen theatres across greater Mumbai will have to screen at least 44 shows of Marathi films every year. “We cannot let the regional film industry be finished,” a division bench of justice FI Rebello and justice RV More said. The judgement also made the timings and the frequency clear: At least for four weeks every year, they will have to screen a minimum of 11 shows of Marathi films per week, between 12 noon and 9pm.

Then in August 2010, the State Congress Government went one step ahead and made similar rules for multiplexes. “Hereafter, it will be mandatory for all 27 multiplexes in Mumbai to give Marathi cinema prime time slots. The permission for new multiplexes will be sanctioned only if they dedicate a separate screen entirely to Marathi cinema,” home minister RR Patil said. This diktat sounds extremely similar to what the current Maharashtra Government has announced. Is it the same order being repacked?

This “reservation” for Marathi films in theatres is in fact a 47 year old story. In 1968, the Maharashtra Government, then under Congress rule, had issued a circular mandating movie theatres to screen Marathi movies for a minimum period of four weeks in a year. This circular although enforceable, was never really implemented until 2013, again during a Congress Government. This was when  the Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association raised their voices and went to court against this.

Public Opinion on this issue is still divided, as even some Bollywood stars with Maharashtrian roots, like Ritesh Deshmukh have welcomed the order:


On the other hand, clueless Congress spokespersons have begun politicking, without realising that this order is almost the same as the order passed under their Government


Multiplex owners have however given a guarded response reiterating that a similar rule already exists. Business head of Fun Cinemas Anand Vishal said “There is already a rule that we have to keep 210 shows for Marathi films through the day in one year. No one exactly knows the nitty-gritties of the new rule and whether it is inclusive of the existing norm. We are waiting for clarity on that front.”

(with inputs from @KartikeyaTanna)

Why Indian MSM is the smartest MSM in the world

OpIndia Staff
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Why Indian MSM is the smartest MSM in the world

Just to be clear, we were being sarcastic in our title, because it seems Indian MSM has a serious problem understanding sarcasm. This severe deficiency was shown twice in a day, when 2 news items were given a completely different meaning, only because of the lack of comprehension skills exhibited by Indian MSM.

The day started with MSM blaring out that Maharashtra state may go ahead and ban other meat too, after banning beef. The only basis of this was a statement made by the Government lawyer in a High Court. As reported by DNA, the conversation between the judge and lawyer:

Judge: Why have you banned only cow slaughter, why not other animals. What about other animals like goat?

Lawyer: It cannot be ruled out

Judge (jokingly): “That may lead to migration from the state. Don’t consider a ban on fishes though.”

It seems, the lawyer, just to avoid saying that Beef has been banned for religious reasons, replied in a possibly sarcastic manner, saying the Government may ban other meats too. This explains why the judge, instead of taking serious offence to such a statement, chose to remark jokingly that atleast fishes should be spared any ban. Now it is of course not proper to be sarcastic in court, but media took the words completely at face value and began saying: “Maharashtra Government may ban mutton, other meats”. It is also to be noted it was an open ended reply to a pointed question.


Oddly, Firstpost itself later realised its folly, and called it “a throwaway remark” by the lawyer ” because “it was not taken seriously by the bench itself”. Eventually CM Fadnavis himself clarified that they had no intentions to ban any kind of meat. This case may be borderline, but the next is seriously idiotic.

Last week Media gave a lot of attention to Gen V K Singh’s visit to Pakistani Embassy on the occasion of Pakistan National Day. This week, Gen V K Singh was fully immersed in saving Indian’s from Yemen, but the media had not given him adequate footage this time around. This prompted the witty General to make a snide, sarcastic remark on the state of Indian media:


Unfortunately, the sarcasm was totally lost on Indian MSM. Immediately, Hashtags began being trended and debates began being planned:

CB_W9sCWAAADYsv CB_Ym65UkAETqxH CB_Zh_0UIAIcm-G

 

Zaka Jacob, of IBN even went on to say that there was “no way to confirm that it was a remark in jest” but “he could have been more sensitive” and the “comment could have been avoided”. He also said “Gen Singh hasn’t understood how diplomacy works, what kind of language diplomats use” and that “maybe he is not fit to be diplomat”. We must say Zaka Jacob is quickly filling up the void left by veteran spinners Rajdeep Sardesai and Bhupendra Chaubey, because in his inane comments about V K Singh being insensitive, Jacob forgot a small fact that Gen V K Singh had personally gone to rescue all these Indians in Yemen. They say actions speak louder than words, but for Jacob, a carefully worded statement was more important than actual action on the ground.

 

Twitterati slam Aakar Patel for his idiotic article branding Hindus as terrorists

Guest Author
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Twitterati slam Aakar Patel for his idiotic article branding Hindus as terrorists

Aakar Patel, a writer who is famous for making casteist comments and stereotyping people based on their ethnic backgrounds, came up with yet another article that was trashed by Twitterati yesterday.

In the article, Aakar linked Giriraj Singh’s comments on Indian obsession with white skin to extremism and terrorism by Hindus. This twisted logic worked as a magnet as people on Twitter got attracted to the article. And it attracted reactions that it deserved.

Some of the top tweets exposing the silly and twisted logic of Aakar Patel were:


Most of these tweets reflected the disgust at the twisted logic and Hinduphobia that Aakar Patel proudly possess. The fact that the article was titled “Most extremists in India are not Muslim – they are Hindu” exposed the hatred that often hides behind the masks of liberalism.

And finally, this tweet summarily destroyed whatever arguments Aakar Patel pretended to make in his idiotic article:


– by @RusticBihari

AAP Supporters Having Trouble Finding Right Angle On Kejriwal’s Mass-Shooting

doubtinggaurav
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AAP Supporters Having Trouble Finding Right Angle On Kejriwal’s Mass-Shooting

DELHI — More than a week after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s deranged mass-shooting at a local mall, his most ardent supporters admitted that they are still as loss on how to draw conclusion about the horrendous incident.

“Sure when Modi strangled two billion Muslims in 2002, it was all acche din but a little mass murder, and media goes crazy!” tweeted  “Roflmao AAP” one of his manic excitable supporter on twitter, referring to Kejriwal’s shocking murder of 5 shoppers at city mall  on March 15.

Since the shooting, Kejriwal supporters across the country have tried hard to evade the issue address the shocking crime, with most of them severely criticizing media for disproportionate coverage of the incident.

AAP supporters
A massive hashtag, err, crowd gathered outside the office of a news channel showing the news on Kejriwal’s crime.

“Not that it matters, but Media has been deliberately spinning this wrong way, not surprising considering it is financed by Adani, Ambani, Jindal … oops did I say Jindal… please scratch that,” was the vehement response of “Aap ki Pretatma”.

On further prodding she suggested media could cover it in a more crazy balanced manner, for instance, how the mass murder was just a further demonstration of Kejriwal’s passion and perseverance.

Noted media personality Pagalika Bose seemed to concur. In one of her characteristic tweets she asked, “Are we missing the bigger picture here folks, might it be that mass murder of hapless citizens is the new cool now. Cheerio!”

Her husband BuyMyBook Sardardkasai was similarly conflicted, “One CM shoots and kills 5 citizens in cold blood, another CM forced me to sit on footboard of bus, never trust politicians is the message, I guess, and on this thought good night.”

Back to Kejriwal’s supporters, even though the overwhelming majority has dismissed this as a distraction, there have been some dissenting voices, “Prejudiced Arnab”, has hinted to something darker, a conspiracy involving Amit Shah, Adani and the living fossil from MDH ad. However our attempts for explanations were cut short by his attempt to bite our correspondent.

Even after the video of Kejriwal surfaced, in which he is seen as taking oath to continue committing such  heinous acts until “desh badalne pe majboor ho jaye bc” (in his own words), none of his supporters are ready to admit that there might just be something wrong with Kejriwal. More worryingly there have been excited murmur among Kejriwal supporters to “Go Kejriwal”, one supporter on being asked confirmed this insisting, “At least he is doing something”.

Note 1 : This is satire

Note 2 : This is not original, is shamelessly plagiarized inspired by this article from onion

Neemuch riots – How Media reports when Hindus are under attack

Gaurav
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Neemuch riots – How Media reports when Hindus are under attack

In an unfortunate incident, on the eve of Hanuman Jayanti, some communal violence took place in a nondescript district of Madhya Pradesh. In Jawad town, in Neemuch district of Madhya Pradesh, some Hindus who were part of a procession celebrating Hanuman Jayanti, were attacked by some Muslim groups with stones.

The situation spiralled out of control and there were reports of arson, in which shops and vehicles were set on fire. Eventually police imposed curfew in this town, a Curfew which has today gone into its third day. Incidentally, Sonia Gandhi visited this very district just a few days before this incident.

There has been near total silence in Mainstream media about this incident, with TV channels not giving any coverage whatsoever. Online media did carry some reports, but they were extremely vague in nature. We post a few of them here:

Zee News: “where stone-pelting between two communities left at least 20 people injured”

Business Standard: “incidents of arson and stone-pelting involving members of two communities”

Both the above news reports were based on PTI reports

New Indian Express: “…when some miscreants pelted stones..”. “Police said members of a specific group hurled stones at a religious procession”

Times of India: “Some miscreants on Friday threw stones at a procession”

The Hindu: “Some miscreants on Friday threw stones”

The above reports were based on IANS reports.

In all the cases, no media report was willing to name the “specific group” or “community” although it was pretty obvious.  Not only is the form an content starkly different, even the vociferous chest-beating and the prime time debates are missing. Such is the coverage given, that most people are noticing this story a good 3 days after the actual event. This needs to be contrasted with the reportage in case of various “Church Attacks”:

DailyO published an “opinion piece” by Rana Ayyub declaring that the rapists of a Nun from West Bengal were RSS backed.

Entire media and even politicians, labelled a robbery in a Delhi school as an “attack”, when even school was denying the same.

Indian Express deliberately twisted the words of an Archbishop to give the Nun-Rape case a communal angle.

India Today claimed that people arrested for the attack on a Mumbai church were from the Right Wing. They were actually local gamblers.

The issue is not here about which religion is bad or good. The issue here is, why is media hesitant to name one religion, while the other religion is dragged into any kind of crime, when no evidence exists. Is this by deliberate design or a genuine mistake? Can mistakes be repeated so often, that too erring only on one side? All this added to the constant narrative that we see in Main stream media, makes one wonder what the real agenda of media is.

The correct way though, would be to report each incident on its merits. There will no doubt be some communal incidents, and some may be law and order problems. But it seems media is desperately trying to build a narrative, and is ready to paint any event with lies and deceit so that it fits into the jigsaw puzzle that they have designed.

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