In the Bilkis Bano v/s Lakshadweep-Maldives news coverage competition, the beaches beat out Bano by miles of ocean. However, Bilkis Bano’s victory at the Supreme Court did what no sand and surfing or snorkelling and swimming can ever do: it put news anchors Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami on the same page.
Well, well, well: I almost fell off my chair. Those who watch television news, know only too well, that these two gentlemen are the strangest bedfellas – ever. Squaring off on India Today and Republic TV at 9 pm five days a week, they take diametrically opposite positions on the same issue, 99.99999 per cent of the time.
On Monday, the unimaginable happened. The Supreme Court ruled that the 11 men convicted of rape and murder in the Bilkis Bano case, who had received remission of their sentences by the Gujarat government in 2022, would have to return to jail within a fortnight.
That night, on his show, Sardesai said that “… anyone with any ounce of humanity in them, if someone has been gang-raped and members of her family have been killed before her eyes, will you not seek justice…”
Around same time, Goswami was saying on his show, “I am extremely happy and relieved that the Supreme Court of India has sent the rapists back to jail where they belong for the rest of their lives…”.
And there was more: “ I felt violated… (when those men) were garlanded for being rapists…(it is) immoral and disgusting…” Goswami added, while Sardesai said, “(there’s) no place in a civilised society for rapists and convicts to be garlanded…”
Gosh, aren’t we “happy” that in a just cause, these two could agree? Wish it would happen more often.
Also read: Bilkis Bano’s path to justice had many obstacles. Even SC needed to correct its error
Mainly Maldives
We’re less impressed by the overall TV coverage of the Supreme Court’s verdict on Bilkis Bano. Other leading anchors like Navika Kumar (Times Now) or Zakka Jacob (CNN News 18) did not discuss this ‘scathing’, ‘stinging’ order by the Supreme Court (India Today). Vishnu Som did on NDTV 24×7 but Mr ‘Black &White’ Sudhir Chaudhary ignored it on Aaj Tak.
As for the doyen of Hindi news, Rajat Sharma spoke about the Supreme Court’s “strong words”, telecast opposition leaders’ views on the verdict, and then delivered his own: in future, no one should claim the BJP controls the country’s highest court, he declared. He offered no comment on Bano’s ordeal or mention the “barbarians”, as Preeti Chaudhary of India Today called the rapists. It’s disappointing that such an influential news anchor chose to remain silent.
We witnessed a similar coyness when the Supreme Court delivered its judgment on Monday morning. At the time, news channels were sunning themselves on the “powdery white sands…(in the) sun-kissed paradise..” of Lakshadweep—to repeat anchor Rahul Shivshankar’s poetic description of the islands (CNN News 18). They were promoting it as a tourist venue, one to rival Maldives after the “unprovoked hate” by three Maldivian ministers about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India (Times Now), prompted by a video of the Indian PM relaxing at a beach in Lakshadweep, over the weekend.
This promo of the PM and Lakshadweep was so utterly-butterly inviting, it’s no surprise the Maldivian ministers were consumed with jealousy.
When they were not basking in the beauty of the coral isles, the news channels were outside the external affairs ministry, New Delhi, for the hasty but brief visit of the Maldives High Commissioner, telling us that India had delivered ‘strong demarche’ to Maldives over the ‘abusefest’ (India Today) of ministers.
Some channels announced with much alacrity that celebrities had endorsed Lakshadweep as their next holiday destination while “thousands had cancelled trips” to Maldives (CNN News 18). Overnight, the spokesperson for Ease My Trip became a much sought-after TV personality – the online booking site had suspended bookings for Maldives. India Today claimed that the ‘global search’ for Lakshadweep had surged to a 20-year high and #BoycottMaldives trended everywhere, temporarily becoming the national motto.
And just in case the 517,887 citizens of Maldives didn’t appreciate just who they were dealing with, TV9 Bharatvarsh announced that Modi was the No.1 `global leader’ with a 77 per cent approval rating in the latest global survey.
Also read: Maldives is headed into dangerous waters. Its jihadist currents are a bigger threat than India
More Maldives, Ayodhya
It was in the middle of this ‘India-Maldives row’ (CNN News 18) that the Bilkis Bano verdict hit the headlines. “Convicts will have to return to jail…Remission quashed,” said (CNN News 18), “SC quashes remission for all 11 Bilkis rapists,” wrote India Today. Note, it calls them rapists in the headline.
Now switch to Times Now: ‘stand by’, it said for judgment when other channels had already announced it—perhaps the channel was figuring out what to say. “Gujarat not competent to give remission” was the eventual headline. “State of Gujarat not competent to pass judgment,” said Republic TV, in similar language, adding “Setback for convicts”.
Zee News and Aaj Tak reported the verdict but DD News announced it in a flash and then went to visit Vibrant Gujarat. India TV continued with news about Congress-AAP disagreements over seat-sharing, so did News 24. Republic Bharat was all religious over ‘sanatan dharm’.
Within 15 minutes of the judgment going public, news channels, besides India Today and NDTV 24×7, had lost all interest in Bilkis Bano and returned to the Maldives, Gujarat, or Ayodhya where ‘exclusive’ footage of the temple’s interiors were shown across channels.
In an interview with ANI, Union Minister Hardeep Puri brushed aside the Maldives issue: “I would not take it seriously…” he said. Yet here was broadcast news taking it more seriously than an important Supreme Court verdict.
Wonder why. As Arnab Goswami said, everyone should stand with Bilkis Bano.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)