Let’s talk about Muslim anchors in India’s Hindi news channels. Since the mainstay of their 24X7 news cycle is Hindu-Muslim conflict, it must be one of the toughest jobs for Muslim anchors of these channels to walk the moral-ethical tightrope. Rubika Liyaquat and Romana Isar Khan of ABP News and Sayeed Ansari of Aaj Tak are among the prominent names.
They literally have to host shows not only critical of their community but also indulge in ridiculing and shaming Muslims most of the times.
It must have been very tough for them to do shows during the CAA-NRC-NPR debate and on the Covid-19 pandemic when, throughout April, the focus of the coverage was on Tablighi Jamaat and Maulana Saad and the related hate crimes against Muslims. As we know, the central point of many of these shows is Muslim bashing. In any case, such issues have always been on the plate since 2014 with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) playing on the Hindu-Muslim binary.
Jamaatis Are Attacking India’s Spirit Against Covid-19
देश वायरस से लड़ेगा या 'जमात' से ?
देखिए #सीधासवाल
आज शाम 5 बजे@RubikaLiyaquat के साथ
LIVE: https://t.co/aalZl3onKM pic.twitter.com/t8vwQEhtzj
— ABP News (@ABPNews) April 8, 2020
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Also read: BJP’s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is actually a Kapil Mishra, but with Allah on his lips
Identity clash with citizenship debate
We noticed this trend during the anti-CAA-NRC-NPR protest movement as well. When journalist Rana Ayub, a columnist with The Washington Post, listed TV shows in her hall of shame list, two out of four shows were hosted by Rubika Liyaquat and Romana Isar Khan. The other two shows were hosted by Amish Devgan of News18 India and Suresh Chavhanke who runs Sudarshan News, a platform often caught peddling fake news.
It’s not like these anchors do shows only on communal and religious issues that demonise Muslims or perpetuate misconceptions about the community. Some of their programmes carry a secular line based on so-called vanilla topics.
But these Muslim anchors of Hindi news channels also conduct an interesting balancing act off camera.
The Twitter timeline of Rubika Liyaquat reads like a paradox. While tweeting about her shows and expressing her views on various topics, she also regularly posts verses from the Quran. In one of her tweets, she says – “Jihad primarily refers to the inner struggle of being a person of virtue and submission to God in all aspects of life.”
When wrestler Babita Phogat put out an overtly communal tweet and later on reiterated her stance, Rubika readily endorsed it. She was heavily ridiculed owing to her Muslim identity, and a morphed video of her went viral. One of the Muslim clergy challenged ABP News anchors over their communal coverage of Tablighi Jamaat. She has publicly announced that she had contributed to the PM Cares Fund after BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra nominated her. She retweeted a tweet in which she has been praised – “It’s commendable how being a Muslim she’s bashing those #NizamuddinIdiots who are supporting & defending their Maulana Sahab & the Markaj.”
Also read: Indian media is waging a holy war against Muslims. It acts like hyenas
Uncle Tom or Goffmanian framework?
One way of analysing the actions of India’s Muslim anchors and their treatment on social media is to look at the current phenomena from the anchors’ perspective. Another is to see it from the perspective of the news channels that they are part of or from the audience that they cater to.
Critics can brand them Uncle Tom or somebody whose role is similar to one being played by the Muslim leaders of the BJP. These anchors can be branded as Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi or Shahnawaz Hussain of the news channels. It can be said that their role is similar to the character played by Samuel Jackson in Django Unchained, in which the black slave employee Stephen is more rabidly racist than his master. For the news channels, the presence of these Muslim anchors is lucrative for business or its possible the anchors do what they do just for the optics of representation. Or having a Muslim anchor say something against Muslims reconfirms Hindu biases.
But this will be a simplistic analysis of an extremely complex and jumbled scenario that the Muslim anchors operate in. Let’s turn the gaze and try to see it from the perspective of the anchors.
It seems that they are actually living in a Goffmanian framework, in which they consider themselves more as performers who have evolved the art of impression management. They have to act according to the definition of the situation, which is shaped by the policy of the news channel and also by the dominant narrative. It is possible that they are acting because India’s audience, which has been attuned and habituated to communal content, wants them to act this way.
Also read: Tablighi Jamaat brought out Republic, Zee and Times Now’s fangs that Covid-19 had withdrawn
Caught between many identities
But that is not the only shade of their life. Their appearance on TV screen is only their performance on the front stage. They also have a backstage in their lives where they might be acting differently. Because they have to act according to the role defined by a largely majoritarian Indian media, they have to follow certain rules, without which there will be disruptions and their performance in the TV studios will be ruined.
Whatever we see of these anchors on screen is only their situated identity, the identity associated with the role they have been assigned by the news channels. They are bound by dramaturgical loyalty. While joining a news channel, they agree to become a member of the team and accept certain moral and professional obligations. Being a Muslim, they may take a more aggressive posture to prove that they are more loyal and not that type of Muslim that majority Hindus love to hate and demonise on a daily basis.
For Hindu anchors, hosting a communally charged show is a normal affair because they do not have to act differently backstage. They can be equally communal or secular in their home environment or in the club or among their friends and relatives. Their identity is not a burden for them. For Muslim anchors, their offstage identity could be entirely different from the role they play in the office for the ‘Hindu audiences’ watching them at home or discussing Muslims and their lifestyle in WhatsApp groups. Muslim anchors have to get rid of their situated identity while interacting with their Muslim family members and relatives. We can notice this contradiction in their social media behaviours as well.
For instance when Romana Isar Khan of ABP News tweets against the use of loudspeakers for Azaan, a topic of particular interest for rabid bigots on social media who repeatedly trend Muslims’ call to prayer while seeking a ban on the use of loudspeakers.
सब धार्मिक स्थल बंद है, मस्जिदों में भी नमाज नहीं हो रही है तो फिर लाउडस्पीकर पर अजान क्यों दी जाएं ?
नमाज,सहरी, इफ्तार के वक्त की जानकारी आसानी से मोबाइल पर उपल्ब्ध है
ये बेवजह का मुद्दा है
ना मंदिर में भजन हो रहे है,ना गुरूद्वारों में गुरबाणी, मस्जिद में अजान ना होना ही सही । https://t.co/6OQpboaAc5
— Romana Isar Khan (@romanaisarkhan) April 24, 2020
For these anchors, the TV studio is a stage and as spoken by Jaques in As you Like It: All the world’s a stage/ And all the men and women merely players/ They have their exits and their entrances; /And one man in his time plays many parts.
Muslim anchors in Hindi news channels live this Shakespearean dichotomy every day.
The author is the former managing editor of India Today Hindi magazine, and has authored books on media and sociology. Views are personal.
So the print prove tat there are religious journalist.
Dilip Mandal has indulged in armchair journalism. Instead of mentally manipulating about the predicament of these anchors or leaders he should have talked to them before hurrying to print. Having said that, the Muslims in public sphere do carry the burden of Muslim identity. How they are resolving it may hold the key to Muslim integration into the Indian mainstream.
The virus is a million times more ethical then this despicable rotten author who 24/7 in every single word he expresses is morbid hate.
Readers: Shekhar Gupta’s business model for his Print web site is out and out CLICK BAIT journalism. The more rancid — and straight from the gutter — the stuff he publishes the more eyeballs he thinks he can attract.
Please vote with your feet — and eyeballs — and take a solemn pledge NEVER to come here again. EVER.
Psycho dilip
So dilip mandal shall now give out religious certificates for who is a good Muslim and bad Muslim, who is victim who is not, just like he does with caste.
All you get with this article is that if any Muslim questions hard-line Islam and maaulvis he is not a Muslim and a modi stooge.
Dilip mandal is an animal. Print editorial joy lent have allowed such an article on the portal
As we know, the central point of many of THE PRINT reporting/articles is Hindu bashing
You guys forgot right to life, privacy and freedom of expression of concerned journalists mentioned above. what they do is their choice. Do you guys have evidence to support your claim or it just came from left communal watsapp University?
Excellent analysis..
NDTVs Ravish Kumar, Nidhi Razdan, Sreenivasan Jain, Rana Ayuub, Prashant Bhushan, Shehla, Jignesh, Barkha, Shekhar Gupta, Shankarshan, Siddharth Vardarajan, N Ram, Pallavi Ghosh, Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Harinder Baweja are like a corrupt family’s lapdogs.
And you are the Hindu leader of congress and it’s alliance.
A very ill conceived article. There are many Hindu anchors who are left leaning why not question them. News channels used to blindly worship & broadcast Sonia Gandhi for a decade. No body asked for a press conference with her then. Suddenly when Modi came to power they wanted interview. There was a time when ass hole like Zakir Naik used to spit venom on ethnic Hindu religion & used to convert ppl in the name of freedom of religion. No body questioned anything then. Only Hindu radicals are seen to be villains & Muslim radicals are thought to be innocent brain washed, victimized & religious. If being Hindu you bash your own religion & custom then you are liberal but being a Muslim you criticize your own customs then you become a sold person.
If someone is reading this comment, the above article is of no use, hypothetical (news anchors are to read the news, hold debates and maintain peace keeping their personal opinion to themselves). Save the time by not reading it, that I mistakenly couldn’t.
What this article also projects is that if a criminal is presented before a judge of identical religion/community, the judge will be punishing the criminal with a heavy heart losing his/her identity.
We can never expect something good from you THE PRINT,you have been anti-India since you establishment,you are the one who always wants to ignite communal things.You are the most money minded .If they are all BJP spokesperson,what are you then you are only the puppets of the Indian Nationals Congress,who had helped you for establishment.We know so why you are so Anti-India,Anti-Muslim,Anti-Hindus.There is no doubt that all these things are done by you for cheap popularity,but the anchors about whom you have written like this,they have great channels who are much much popular than your and have very wide subscriber base.So talking about them will not even mean a thing to them.Be a good media house,not like abpaid one
I did not waste my time reading your useless article. Shame on you, in the foreground you accuse BJP of doing hindu muslim hate, and you are writing your article completely on this basis. Why do you feel CAA NCR NPR and Jamat is muslim bashing? When it’s just about those people who think they are above law and whatever they do is right. Change your sick mentality. Your thoughts are just as disgusting as you are!! Get a life which is worth living instead of licking Italian bitch’s ass!!
Shame on you the Print for doing Hindu muslim always
Dilip Mandal u better rename urself dilip dalal.. Because of u the Muslims are being conceived as outsiders. Tell me asshole does Hindus vote only for BJP. Are only muslims voting for congress, left, tmc, sp etc?
Ehen Hindus can criticise Hindus, then why cant you tolerate the freedom of expression of press, be it hindu or muslim, when they criticise the muslims and the ill practices in their religion.
Aise kuch bhi likkar bhot paisa kama liya na bhadve log…jaake school me sikho journlism ..ya fir itna hi problem hai toh pakistan shift hojao:)…saari leftist nikal jaygi
Why this …. When everything thing had a focus on clutter free news… You were almost on the right track of taking out real news from the social media and news channels and now will be labelled with the same tag….
I thought you had some spine to stand on the right reasons of news and journalism but once again you have failed the country. There are one thousand topics to build an opinion for…. WHY THIS?
Now things will have to wait.
Mr Mandal doesn’t realise that he’s written such a prejudiced article. I seriously question theprint’s credibility
Pathetic article…get some life…
Time to unfollow so called theprint
Nai nai nai…jooth bol ra hai
Communalists. The Print is “Anti India” it should be banned completely.
Most third rate op-ed writer i have come across. No coherency in the thought and development of idea. Doesn’t bring any arguments to support the main argument, most of his articles come across as blase and mostly passing.
VERY GOOD ARTICLE , MOST OF THE NEWS CHANNELS WORKING FOR MODI ? AND NOW MOST BJP SUPPORTER ARE BELONGS TO RICH AND SEMI RICH FAMILLY. MODI IS VERY HARD FOR POOR MIGRANT AND POOR PEOPLE OF INDIA ? EVERYTHING HE DECLARED IN THE NEWS CHANNEL BUT INFACT PEOPLE WILL NOT GET ANYTHING FROM MODI GOVT. MODI SUPPORTER ARE RICH AND INFLUANCED SOCIAL MEDIA,MEDIA,NEWS PAPER…………ACHHA DIN ANEWALA HAI ? RUBUKA KA ACCHA DIN CHAL RAHA HAI…MODI SUPPORTER ACCHA DIN CHAL RAHA HEI…
This intellectually weak but scheming writer has achieved his mission, to rile a bunch of readers. Just see, Sekhar is going to give him few more pieces to write nastier than this. It is all about getting the people to read and react which we are doing. I also wanted not to comment, but just asking others to ignore this guy in future so that he stops writing.
What the hell is this??? I can understand about politicians but now journalist and media is also divided in relegion…
Shame on you and your article.
I Have failed to understand why is it OK for Hindu news anchor to continuously criticize Hindus, but still claim to be Hindu, while it is not acceptable for Muslim Anchor to criticize Muslims and still be Muslim?
It is this kind of hypocrisy which prevents liberal Muslims to become community leaders, which is essential if we want to preserve secularism. Otherwise Muslim becoming more orthodox and voting as votebank with create counter mobilization of Hindus, which will be bad for secularism.
Print media seems to be like a dog, which keeps barking behind, and when the person sees them they vanish like those scared dogs, i feel pity for its reporters and sucker editors of mushroom headed communists and Mus..ms.
Never going to read print again after such rubbish content.
ThePrint is an anti-national media. It encourages anti-national authors and jernos.
The author and The Print are lining up for the next Pulitzer award.
U are a big non sense. U are worse than someone whom you criticize for Ur benefits
How can you publish Castiest Mindset!
Every Indian now know very well how much Anti India and Anti Hindu propaganda is being carried out by this third class category The Print Media… Better you close your shops here in India go somewhere in any Islamic countries…
Shame on the print. Soon they will tell region of things like shirt and pants.
This mondals are real craps. Doing more harm to this country. These pseudo intellectuals are more dangerous than corona or cancer. Accept it that Modiji is the best friend of muslims. In a sense his activities have awaken the muslims. Modiji is taking them as human beings. When others use them as mere vote bank. Modiji’s act will make this community concious of their standing as well as position in today’s world. Others took them for granted and allowed them stay where they had been. A politically correct immoral act. I personally believe that if hands of cooperation are extended instead of hate the community will be benefited to a long extent.
Very much shocked that The Print accepted such articles who target News Anchors on religious grounds. I had never heard term “Muslim Anchor” what is that ?
You are pelting stones at your own religion (i.e. Journalism).. You can disagree with there opinion but news like this will weaker your views… I will suggest you to delete this news and share some good/bad news with facts and figures..
Mosad succeeded in killing many Palestinian influences, poets etc with the help of Palestinians who worked them for money. So in any community there are black sheeps!
One of the worst article I have ever came across. Do you even know what you write ? Who your audience is ?
The Print is getting it’s business model correct. Get a few trolls masquerading as journalists. Let them write articles on topics that are divisive. Such articles will naturally generate traffic, website hits and comments. Show these numbers as equivalent of TRPs. Get more funding from investors, build value and finally either sell off to another set of investors or go public. Way to go Shri Gupta.
Shameful article by a shameless man given space by a shameless platform ..can imagine the difficulties and challenges faced by the anchors named ..More power to them
Try as much as you can but you will nevere succeed in your filthy propoganda.
And reporting about tablighi jamat and maulna saad is not hate crime against muslim but supporting them surely is a crime against nation.
Mandal seems to be of the view that people should hold views on issues as per their religious orientation. Does this only apply to Muslims? Or others too? Any number of non Muslim anchors who have been critical of CAA, or the approach to Tableeghi Jamaat. By his logic, that is also abnormal. Such a mindset, is subversive. It is dangerous for a secular country, that we have the likes of Mr Mandal who hold such bigoted and regressive views.
Don’t publish this type of material? The Print should apologize. I am a regular reader and shocked.
Dilip mandal author of this article is a Communal Bigot , dividing Journos on Religion lines , shameful and disgusting . Rubika & sayeed ansari shuld file a case against this .
भाड़े के टैटू हो तुम the print क्या तुम अब सांप्रदायिक सौहार्द नहीं बिगाड़ रहा हो?
So this means that ravish Kumar and Rajdeep Sardesai are the mouthpiece of Congress or AIMIM.
Now EVM machine PM is running India, Modi is a king not public servant ? most News channel and Anchors are not presenting proper News rather always running behind the opposition leader If New Govt come in india with fare election then stop these news channel and put them iniside the jail and punish them . strong law must needed for News and media because they are playing with indian citizen’s life ? our life spoiling by them ?………..temple open early morning to worship our lord ..but news channel ,anchors are open their studio to worship MODI GOVT ? day and night worship centre for MODI GOVT….all nonsense work going in india right now.
And THE PRINT is like unofficial media handle of Congress and Left Liberals !!
This Mandal can write the most atrocious piece of crap, and manage to get it published in ‘The Print’. He has this weird, perverted and rabid communal idea that all Muslims by rule should violently, virulently and vocally oppose the NDA dispensation, in order to remain a Muslim. In the reverse any one supporting this government is not a Muslim, and should be excommunicated.
I wonder Sekhar’s agenda by platforming such a pervert.
It is a non-issue. If anchors who are nominally Hindu, or buddhist, or jain can conduct programs which are critical of Hinduism, why not Muslim anchors conduct programs critical of Muslims? Why does this writer view this matter through communal prism. I wonder who is more communal – the common man, or the liberals like this writer?