The headlines made unusually grim reading, this week.
Consider Tuesday/Wednesday mornings’ Page 1 newspapers: ‘Communal clashes in 4 NCR dists…’ (Times of India), ‘4 shot dead by RPF man in hate crime on moving train’ (Hindustan Times), ‘Manipur status report on FIRs shows there is no law and order: SC’ (The Hindu), ‘Gyanvapi issue in court, Yogi says Muslim side should admit mistake of history…’ (The Indian Express).
Is this our idea of India?
Well, it’s certainly the picture of India we have seen since Monday – and it isn’t pretty. On television news channels, policemen can be seen marching as if going to war in Haryana’s Gurugram after the communal violence; there are the bodies of charred vehicles piled up, the remains of buildings burnt to the cinders, videos of stone-pelting. ‘Haryana on the boil,’states Republic TV, unnecessarily, Wednesday.
Rewind to Monday and TV plays the video of a man in police uniform, standing over the bloodied body at his feet in a train compartment: ‘Deadly firing inside Mumbai-Jaipur train,’ said NDTV 24×7. It’s a frightening sight — the claim that the Railway Police Force (RPF) constable is ‘mentally disturbed’ (India TV), the victim of “hallucinations’ (The Times of India) is no comfort, either.
TV news spent Monday replaying this story with minute details of the incident, creating CGI special effects of the shootings (India Today/Aaj Tak) and dwelling on the briefcase of the forensic team, which excited some reporters to no end — Times Now Navbharat, for instance.
It took the Tuesday morning newspapers – and social media Monday evening — to highlight one crucial fact that news channels had missed or chosen to ignore: three of the four men Chetan Singh killed were Muslim. While HT had the most detailed report on how the RPF jawan went from compartment to compartment looking for his victims, TOI published photographs of them.
Another (deliberate?) omission by TV news was revealed in The Indian Express online report Monday—it told us what the constable had “purportedly’’ said during the killing spree, recorded on a video by a passenger. It quoted the part that is clearly audible, concerning “Pakistan…” and an exhortation to vote for “Modi aur Yogi…”
The video, which first emerged on X (formerly Twitter), has since been removed following a government demand.
Why news channels missed these aspects is a question they ought to answer, considering that in the Nuh communal clashes, it is now naming some of the victims – Republic TV shared the autopsy report of Home Guards ‘Neeraj’ and ‘Gursewak’.
Also read: What is TV news doing in Manipur? Reporting what is known after ignoring for three months
Initial calm, then the claims
The same shyness to identify victims when they are Muslim prevented news channels from reporting on the death of a 23-year-old cleric of a mosque in Gurugram until late Tuesday – although there was expansive coverage from Nuh.
The violence in Badshahpur occurred Monday night/early Tuesday but surfaced late Tuesday on some channels. However, the attack on the mosque and the killing of imam was not mentioned until Wednesday.
Which is odd, given that in their initial reporting, news channels were responsible — and fair. We learnt of the trouble in Nuh first on Hindi news channels on Monday afternoon – even as the clashes occurred.
By Tuesday morning, newspapers had already headlined the story—it was the lead in TOI, which also reported that “sources in the police” believed rumours that “gau rakshak” and Bajrang Dal’s Monu Manesar, wanted by Rajasthan Police in the murder of two Muslim men, was part of the Bajrang Dal-VHP procession that set off the clashes in Nuh. It also reported his uploading a video on Sunday saying he would participate.
Manesar was the MIA star of the story—India Today caught up with him on Wednesday and of course he flatly denied any involvement while blaming Congress for the violence. Hindustan Times asked what is probably the most logical question: “Why is Monu Manesar not in custody?” Why indeed.
On television, a CNN News 18 reporter on Tuesday put everything into perspective — why had the administration allowed the rally to pass through a ‘Muslim area’, he asked.
India Today, too, reported the situation on the ground without frills, and cited the Manesar “trigger” that was thought to have set off the violence — “his communal videos could have been inciting,” said one correspondent.
And for a welcome change, the reporting was calm and collected on news channels like Aaj Tak, Zee News, and Republic TV/Republic Bharat, which are, often, fairly hysterical over such incidents of violence. There was no naming or shaming—“In the name of religion, who is responsible?” (TV 9 Bharatvarsh) is about as far as the ‘communal’ reporting went.
So far so good. But by afternoon, the calmness gave way to “Who is the mastermind?” (ABP News) and videos to indicate that the attack on the VHP-Bajrang Dal procession was “pre-planned”: India TV had a series of video clips showing gas cylinders, bottles, etc lined up ready for use.
Then came Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij and Chief Minister ML Khattar to claim that the violence was pre-planed and a “conspiracy”. “Who are the conspirators?” asked Republic TV immediately.
Even as this was happening, Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala was telling The Indian Express that the official management of the Shobha Yatra “was not at its best” with Nuh’s Superintendent of Police being on leave. Piquant, to say the least.
Wednesday, TV news showed us Rapid Action Force (RAF) boots on the ground, the VHP and Bajrang Dal protests, the press conference by CM Khattar and what Hindi channels like to call, ‘siyasi jung’.
In print, newspapers wrote editorials questioning the administration: “Nuh clashes show gaps in governance,” said Hindustan Times. While The Times of India’s “Killer on the Train” demanded reforms on railway security, The Indian Express linked the RPF constable killing four people and the Nuh communal violence; both, it said, “…point to the same sordid cycle of hate and impunity”.
And the media? Well, they gave us a pretty good idea of India…
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)