The fact that Muslim content has become a marketing ploy in the news industry is one of the day truths that is being snuggled out of the Indian media. Why are the presenters who utter Anti-Muslim rhetoric in the news room and present the self fabricated news like sweets, so hostile to Muslims?. It stems from an accurate market scene. It is born out of the need to maintain market dominance and capriciousness of new Indian media activity.
As the social polarization becomes more of a political objective for the government, sometimes the news rooms become the working forums of Sangh parivar.
The time is not far away when people who have been deceived into believing the media to be the fourth pillar of democracy will turn into self-trial courts. The farmer’s protest reminds us again through the media ban from the protests. New hopes are born there about the second gold win of the Indian democracy.
During the 1990s the media was completely out of the government’s control. Corporate powers took control of such media. Therefore, at many critical junctures in indian politics since the 1990s, the media exposed it’s corporate character. Later, the news hit the market as a commodity for sale. People had to wonder amidst the excessive rush of news sellers. By the time,Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014, all the major newspapers and media networks were abandoned and went far behind from all their media roles and commitments. Most people will suddenly swallow the dirty news spread by the corporate media. Those who are reluctant to bear its intolerance are very few.
According to a leading research team, India is one of the countries with the highest market value for fake news. Says in a report published by BBC World, ‘more than 30 people have been killed so far in the incidents that spread fake news on social media’. Never before in history has the media had such an impact on people’s lives.
Demonize the Muslims as the violators and thereby ensure the radical unity of the majority of the country. The mission of current media is to symbolize India as a Hindutva-dominated country globally. The sufferings of the oppressed including Dalits and Muslims will not be breaking news more. Only when Muslims are acussed of crimes, such as murder, and sexual assault, theft and terrorism, then happen channel discussions about Muslims. Even if it is a lie, any news that demonizes Muslims will definitely be on the trending list. It will turn into hot news on the front page of Newspaper. Even the leading newspapers in Kerala are keeping and participating in this trend. At the same time, they try to cover up all the violence and crime unleashed by Sangh Parivar supporters and give birth to alternative ‘Breakings’.
Students opened up a peaceful protest against the citizenship Laws in Jamia Nagar and shaheen bagh. It was a popular student movement that lasted for days. Those protest voices were strong enough to remind us of the student agitation of the freedom struggle happened in 1990s. When the police started attacking the library rooms of Jamia Millia Islamia University, no media in India was willing to broadcast those moments, even when the international media reported that. No one verbally abused the police and government activities in the night channel debates.
Students with burning eyes and chests chanted slogans even as police fired obsolete tear gas shells. They did not even hesitate to cross campuses and open fire. The police violence in JNU and Jamia has passed one long year of time. Sharjeel imam, umar khalid and numerous others have been in fascist prisons for about one year. The JNU student sharjeel imam is a real fighter who set up the idea of Shaheen Bagh to India. The 930 page charge sheet failed by the police against them includes serious offenses including treason. Police alleges that umar khalid, a former student leader of JNU, is a terrorist who conspired to build a Muslim nation.
Numerous students including safoora zargar, sharjeel usmani, asif iqbal, devangana kalita, Dr, Khafeel Khan are all portrayed as enemies and traitors in the eyes of the fascist media. While the truth remains hidden, the media is trying to make the lies told by the fascist government, come true, again and again. Media did not see the protests against the government in all major cities of the country like Delhi and Shaheen Bagh. The news anchors acted everywhere as if such incidents were not happening anywhere in the country. Many journalists who spoke out against the government are still in prisons. Because they are Muslims and raised their voice for minorities, which is the biggest offence they have done in India.
The Delhi riot was a highly planned and horrific incident. The whole city was set on to fire. Even then , the media remained silent! Listen to the experience of Muhammad Chotu, who is staying in a refugee camp organized by the Delhi government in Mustafabad. On Feb.24, the rioters set fire to the Muslim streets and shot dead his elder brother, 58 years old Anwar. When Anwar tried to raise his head despite the gunfire, they beat him again and threw him into the fire. Chotu, who had taken refuge in the house of a nearby non-Muslim friend, could do nothing but watch his brother burn into death. Anwar had only two legs on his burnt body. This atrocity took place at Shiv Vihar in East Delhi. In the meantime, they tried to contact Law enforcers, but to no avail. The media was not ready even to write a column for them.
In fact, the media in India is going through some crucial stages. The current situation of the media is more complicated than the crisis of 1975 and 1977. At that time the media mustered the courage to move forward against the fascist tendencies of Indira Gandhi. But today the picture is different. Here at the same time the media is gaining government favor and dominance in the market. The current prime time debates are works to support the government’s political dream, ‘Hindu Rashtra’.
Now look at the ideologies of the media. Technically media companies run capital based businesses. In addition to publishing news honestly, it also has a market obligation to keep more demand and raise the profit line. Media mainly depends on advertising revenue. When it comes to public speaking, hate speech against Muslims and other minorities, it invites the attention of the majority community. So, they share more concerns about three talaq, Halal branding, kashmir, cow murder, Pakistan terrorism and introlance of five times adaans from the mosques. It will be transmitted far and wide without questioning the authenticity. People are injected with toxins every day without their consent.
Prime times on the anxiety of Love Jihad will have tens of thousands of spectators. Readers will run to taste it when the Indian Muslims appear on the screen who are consistently referred as extremist and ‘pakistani’. It portrays Muslims as a public enemy, accusing them with anti nationalism and Pakistan relations, thereby increasing the abundance of spectators.There will also be a natural growth in advertising revenue. Channels like Zee News, Republic TV, News 18 and Aaj Tak all are teaching people to hate Muslims and minorities. Arnab Goswami, Anjana om kasyap, sudheer choudari, Rohit Sardana who played the lead roles, have been making allegations day and night in the news rooms against them. Media will not discuss the plight of Muslims who have to live as helpless in society with the face of all these allegations.
Such plans of the media are not for just Muslims. Recently, Rhea chakraborty was hunted by the media in connection with the death of sushant singh. But when arnab goswami was arrested, the same media blamed the police system and the state government. The all ministers of Sangh parivar Condemned in that arrest. We have seen how 83 years old Father Stan Swami and The Human Activist VaraVara Ravu, who were jailed in Bhimag- Koragave case, were treated by the media. Stan swami is an old Jesuit Christian with Parkinson’s disability. He cannot even drink water without anyone’s help. The court was not willing to provide him with a straw. Media will not represent him. Because, this media manifesto is written for all those who pointed fingers against the injustice of rulers.
Not all Hindus are hostile to Muslims. That is what they want to be ‘secular’. The scene of unity in Indian democracy can be seen in all the films from the freedom struggle to citizen struggle. Not all media outlets are justifying the misdeeds of the Sangh Parivar or Modi government. This is a time when people are trusting the media at least a little more than ever before. Soul of democracy remains only in such media which promotes the contemporary freedom struggles for the return of india. This remains a hope for Indian.
