This week has been all about a ‘slap’, a ‘push’ and a ‘walk’.
Did a ‘slap’ cause violence against foreign students at Gujarat University? Or was it the offering of ‘namaz’ by them?
Was West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s fall at her residence due to a “push from behind” and, worse, “foul play” (Zee News)?
And is that the Princess of Wales “smiling and walking” next to Prince William (The Washington Post) at a farm shop in Windsor?
Newspapers and TV news channels have tried to unravel the mysteries—and in doing so, perhaps have only deepened them.
Even as doubts remain over the authenticity of Kate’s latest photographs—and this new video in The Sun—her father-in-law, King Charles III, was clicked at a meeting in Buckingham Palace, “after false Russian media death claims,” reported Time magazine.
Nobody is crying foul here, thank God.
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Consensus on ‘slap’
Let’s begin with the ‘slap’: was it responsible for violence at Gujarat University on 16 March, when 20-25 people “stormed” (Hindustan Times) into the hostel that houses international students, while some offered namaz, injuring five, two of whom were hospitalised?
Sunday’s news reports didn’t focus on the slap, at all. The Indian Express mentioned it in passing, quoting a student from Afghanistan: “a verbal spat led to slapping…”
News reports were more concerned with the injured students, the vandalism by the outsiders. and the arrest of two people.
The reason for the attack? Students offering namaz in the hostel premises—although there is confusion about where the prayer was held. HT said they were praying in their rooms, TOI wrote in the ‘GU hostel compound’ while a still photograph in The New Indian Express showed them praying outside the hostel building.
In this video, we see men throwing stones, ransacking premises, and overturning two-wheelers while shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. We hear a foreign student yell, ‘This is unacceptable” and “(the police) are letting them (the miscreants) go… they are running away…”
The ‘slap’, however, drew the attention of Zee News. Its anchor told us that while opponents of namaz were speaking to the hostel guard and the authorities, a foreign student intervened and slapped one of them. The anchor added that the foreign students were responsible for initiating the ‘maar-peet’, and asked whether those who “started” the violence will also be punished?
The ‘slap’ had now been identified as a possible culprit. On 19 March, The Indian Express quoted a “senior police officer” who said the incident “turned violent when a foreign student allegedly slapped a local protesting against the namaz being offered in the hostel.” He added that local residents had previously complained about namaz at “the platform in the A-block (hostel) courtyard, which also has an inscription in Arabic.”
Some of the international media reported on the incident a little differently. Al Jazeera, online, said a ‘far right mob allegedly stormed (the) university hostel…” where prayers were held since there “is no mosque on the university campus”.
BBC.com interviewed foreign students like Noman from Afghanistan who told BBC Gujarati that “similar incidents” had happened before. “There is a lot of risk here for students from other countries,” he said.
The report added that this was not the first time there has been ‘tension’ over “Muslims offering prayers in India”. It cited the 2021 incident from Gurgaon where local Hindus disrupted Muslims from offering namaz, eventually getting the site cleared.
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Blaming the victim
In a volatile situation that involves India’s image abroad, Gujarat University Vice Chancellor Neerja Gupta would have been expected to soothe ruffled feathers. However, she waded into the controversy and fanned it further by adding a new dimension to the incident: in her statement on Sunday and in a subsequent interview to The Indian Express, Gupta claimed that namaz alone “cannot be the trigger for such a big incident.”
She said that the international students ought to be mentored better in local customs. “They eat non-vegetarian food. But Gujarat is primarily a vegetarian society. The dumping of leftovers can become an issue. If leftovers are dumped in the open, street dogs can create a menace.”
She also asked foreign students “to be culturally sensitive. From this incident it has emerged that there is still a need for cultural orientation.”
So, was she blaming the international students for the violence and for being culturally insensitive? Some leading newspapers believed so:
The Indian Express editorial on 19 March said that the victims appear to have been blamed: “the VC’s words also appear to rule out the possibility of an introspection on how and why the students were attacked.”
The HT agreed: “The (VC’s) peculiar response …is that the foreign students will be sensitised to respect the local culture. Sure, but a more urgent step is to sensitise the locals to the axiom Indians take pride in—atithi devo bhava.
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Fell or pushed?
Lastly, whatever happened to Mamata Banerjee?
Last week, The Telegraph (Kolkata) reported the chief minister “was hospitalised (at SSKM) on Thursday evening after she injured her forehead apparently after a fall at home”. How she fell was “unclear”. “Apparently, the chief minister was taking a walk in the premises of her Kalighat residence when the accident took place,” the report added.
However, Dr Manimay Bandyopadhyay, SSKM superintendent, aroused suspicions by saying the CM fell “…due to some push from behind.”
The Telegraph added to the confusion by saying, “A relative had alleged a “push from behind”—the relative went unidentified.
TOI also headlined its report with “some push from behind…”
Within 24 hours, the story was “given a swift burial,” according to The Telegraph. It said, “Bandyopadhyay clarified on Friday he had only meant Mamata may have experienced “a sensation of a push”. Whatever does that mean?
WION TV thought it might mean something sinister: “Was there foul play?” it asked.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)