A planned narrative in times of a pandemic
A civilised society looks to care for every single individual and protects them with all the means possible in turbulent times but a morally dead and rotten to the core society adds woes to the misery of people which is happening in the times of a pandemic in India.
At the onset of coronavirus while every country in the world is reporting on COVID based on case by case basis, India is the only country setting an example by reporting COVID-19 news based on religion. Indian media houses are making a mockery of themselves and their country by communalising COVID.
The media is merchandising Islamophobia to cover the miserable planning of the Indian government before India was set out for a lockdown on the 24th of March 2020. The lockdown which saw mass exodus of migrants in which many died and the government and its paid media in order to divert the attention did the easiest thing possible – pinning the blame on muslims.
On April 6th 2020, Zee news uttar pradesh uttarakhand tweeted, “Four people from Tablighi Jamaat who were tested positive have pelted stones on the medical team”.
The police have refuted the claim by stating, “You are spreading false and misleading news when neither a medical team nor any ambulance has been pelted with stones in Firozabad district,” the Firozabad police tweeted from their official handle. “Delete your tweet immediately.”
The tweet was later deleted by zee news, however the facebook post and the article was still left live. As of April 08th the facebook post has more than 7000 likes, 2000 shares and more than a 1000 comments.
The very next day on the 7th April 2020, ANI followed the lead by posting the below tweet, the claim was further exposed by the Noida police.
Noida Police tweeted: “@ANINewsUP people who had come in contact with the positive case were quarantined as per laid procedure. There was no mention of Tabligh Jamat. You are misquoting and spreading fake new
Further adding fuel to the fire Smita prakesh, who heads ANI re- tweeted: “Be safe noida.”
Meanwhile, knowingly or unknowingly, even media outlets like The Quint are contributing to the ongoing islamophobia. Quint posted the article titled: “COVID-19: More Than 4,000 Cases in India, Death Toll at 109” dated 6th April 2020, wittily using the picture of a man with skull cap being tested for COVID.
Quint played a very subtle yet a powerful narrative of islamophobia.
It is not just the tweets or articles which are being used to disseminate or sell the unreliable narrative of Islamophobia, the renowned news channels like the times now and hindu have gone one step ahead and come up with posters depicting muslims as the one’s spreading COVID across India.
While the India today group came up with a poster with a skull cap to be identified as a Muslim. After the reverberations from the readers, India today group has now redid the cartoon by removing the skull cap.
On the other hand The Hindu showed an extremely distasteful cartoon on March 26th 2020, depicting corona in the muslim attire. After a huge backlash on Twitter Hindu has later apologized and refashioned the cartoon removing the islamic clothing portraying the virus.
One may ask what is wrong with false reporting?
With the Indian media not doing their job of narrating the truth and with charade prevailing, attacks on Muslims in the Name of COVID-19 Surge Across India. People sought to act like vigilantes in various parts of India where they are seen abusing Muslims, shutting down Muslim businesses and asking small vendors with carts to not enter into the streets to sell in turn exhuasting muslims mentally, psychologically and financially.
The Nuremberg Trials were done for those media people in Rwanda who incited a mass genocide, Indian media is treating the minority Muslim community as its fodder.
By doing so, the Indian news media makes a farce of itself in front of the world. Indian Media needs reform. Media needs accountability, not regulation.
Does India have any law which can hold the media accountable?
How can you take action? Write to the press council of india at pcibppcomplaint@gmail .com.
(writer is a US-based technology entrepreneur and is actively involved in community activities. She tweets @LuvAminaKausar. The views are personal.) www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad, Gujarat based website.
