SC seeks Govt and PCI response on Media Coverage of Tabligi Incident

SC seeks Govt and PCI response on Media Coverage of Tabligi Incident

Syed Ali Mujtaba

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, Justices L Nageswara Rao and M M Shantanagoudar, asked the Press Council of India and Centre to place their response within two weeks about action taken against media communalizing the Nizamuddin Tabligi Jamat Markaz issue in March 2020. 

The case was heard through video conferencing on Wednesday, May 27. 

The court asked the Press Council of India (PCI) whether TV channels  broadcasting allegedly communally sensitive news did any violation of the Cable TV (Regulation) Act of 1995.

‘What action did the PCI initiated against certain sections of print and electronic media on allegations of communalization of the Markaz issue,’ the court asked?

On the allegations of circulation of Fake News by certain sections of print and electronic media on the Markaz issue, the Court asked the Press Council of India (PCI), whether it had initiated any action against them?  

The bench asked the Central government what measures it had taken to ensure that public isn’t instigated that may later become a law and order problem?

The court also asked the Central government to respond to the plea seeking a probe into the circumstances leading to the holding of the Tablighi Jamaat convention in Delhi in March.

The court wants to know whether the Markaz of the Tablighi Jamaat alone is responsible for the convention or the government has any role in permitting the foreigners in attending the function. When the government had the knowledge of COVID-19 spread, what prevented the government from stopping the convention?

Senior advocate,  Dushyant Dave arguing for the plaintiff said this is a grave issue impacting minority rights. It makes out an offence under the law.  This is a serious matter. It requires court’s intervention and appropriate action, Dave said.  

  He added; certain sections of print and electronic media indulged in communalization of the Nizamuddin Markaz issue. It circulated a lot of fake news, which was misleading and damaging the social fabric of the nation.  Why is the government silent?

The bench while ordering to implead the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) as a party respondent scheduled the hearing after two weeks.

Earlier, on Monday April 13, 2020, the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the petitions filed by the JamiatUlama-i-Hind and others seeking a direction to stop the media from communalizing the Tablighi Jamaat incident linking it to COVID-19 infection.

The Apex Court had asked the petitioners to impaled the Press Council of India (PCI) as a party to the case and had posted it for hearing after two weeks.  

The court at that time did not pass any interim order at this stage of the case without the Press Council of India (PCI) being impaled in the case. 

“We want to make solid long term measures about the news items as it is a question of larger reporting. Once we take cognizance of every thing,  people will then understand,” the bench then observed. 

The case then was also heard through video-conferencing.

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 Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com

Covid 19- Unfolding Myriad Soap Operas in India

Covid 19- Unfolding Myriad Soap Operas in India

Syed Ali Mujtaba

As we chug along from one lock down to other, there are myriad themes running parallel to the Covid- 19 that are unfolding before us like great Indian soap opera.

The first theme is the futility of the lock down to handle the rising Covid 19 cases.  After the end of lock down 4.0, now it is clear that this measure has totally failed to serve any purpose. The government effort through the lock down was to ensure the pandemic remains suppressed but never gave any thought how to control it in foreseeable future when the lock down ends.

Basically, what the government did was to put a pause button on the spread of Crona through tactics of lock down. It was not backed up by any sensible long-term measures to contain it. So it is expected that when the lock down is removed pandemic is bound bounce back and scale to its original peak trajectory and the government has not made any preparation using the lock down period.  

The government has claimed the lock down had saved between 1.2 to 2.1 lakh lives therefore its importance cannot be undermined. However, such claims have to be verified because it’s based on mathematical modeling which is more a guess work. Such figures are not accurate and are little reflection to ascertain the veracity of the lock down logic. The general assumption is when the pandemic gets over; the human toll maybe the same as it would have been without the lock down.

This implies that the government has squandered the precious time it gained from the lockdown to increase the health care infrastructure in the country. In our country except for Kerala, no other state is in a position to handle the worst case scenario of Covid-19 and in terms of preparation country is at same place where it was on March 25, the first day of lock down.

What was expected was the government should have utilized the lock down period for rapidly testing infected individuals, quarantine the suspects and trace and isolate their contacts to prevent the infection spreading further in the country.

However, even after fifty days government is ill prepared to face the pandemic head on. The Prime Minister on May 12 mentioned that our domestic source is manufacturing about “two lakh N-95 masks” per day. However, he did not mention whether it would be sufficient for the size of India’s population. Similarly he did not made public how much self-sufficient he has made the country in terms of personal protective equipment, testing kits, beds, ventilators oxygen etc. The fact is this government has placed India in an appalling situation which is heading towards a definite catastrophe.    

The second theme is, lock down has not only battered the Indian economy but virtually pull down from where it stood in 2014 and it will be hard to rise up again to that level.

The government move of the lock down has created an economic and humanitarian crisis in the country. The livelihood and economic security of millions of people have been lost due to the lock down.  More than a hundred million jobs are lost during the period and it’s still counting. The government has provided little direct relief to those who have lost the job. About 90% of migrant workers have received no pay from their employers and the government has provided little rations for them to survive.

Those at the helm of affairs have shown no signs how to deal with the socio economic crisis which has occurred to due to lock down. The government seems to have no clue to prioritize the issues that are related to Covid-19. Their tall claims made by the government while announcing the lock down, stare at its face it’s all round failure glares with many looking at it in disdain.   

The third theme is that the lockdown has created the migrant worker problem in the country. It is estimated that there are about five to six crore migrant laborers engaged in various works in different parts of India. The lock down has left them in the lurch and they are forced to return back to their places with uncertain future. Their reverse migration is a story laced with poverty, economic hardship and denial of dignity of life all because of government hasty measure of lock down.   

The images of a man eating raw meat of a dead animal at a national highway, a man using his bare hand to drink split milk on the road while a dog was licking the same, a toddler playing with her dead mothers corpse on a railway platform are grim reminder how deep the rich-poor divide in exists in India.  

These migrant workers are in need of a national register for a meaningful socio-economic interventions but the government has no will to do any such exercise. The net result is the miseries of the migrant workers are increasing many folds under Covid-19. They are treated as rubbish by the people and the government alike and both are indifferent towards their sufferings.   

The fourth theme is the spread of communal hatred against Muslims in India under the shadow Covid 19.  This intensified after the lock down was announced in March and some members of the Tablighi Jamaat at its Markaz in Nizamuddin Delhi, tested positive for Covid 19.

Since then, Islamophopbic rant dominated the Indian new channels for several weeks. The various social media platforms were flooded with anti-Muslim, anti-Islam messages.  There were number of statements made by the BJP leaders accusing Muslims spreading Carona virus.  Among them, the most repugnant was from a BJP minister calling ‘Ramzade’ to Hindus and ‘Haramzade’ to Muslims. A  BJP MLA in UP publically announced not to buy vegetables from any Muslim vendors.  

The fall out of these comments was; some Muslim vendors and delivery boys were chased from the Hindu localities. Some Hindus even refused to take essentials from Muslim delivery boys accusing them of spreading corona virus.  Now even after two months of the call by the PM for "unity," he bigots have not stopped spreading hatred against the Muslims.  

The fifth theme is the arrest of the anti CAA protesters under the shadow of Covid-19. So far 1082 arrests have been made of those earlier engaged in anti-government protests. Many are booked under sedition laws for doing anti national activities.  Among them, there are students from Jamia, JNU and AMU universities besides other social activists. Many are women protesters that had organized peaceful protest against the CAA/NPR/NRC etc.

The police had taken advantage of the lock down situation and arrested some of these protesters in an unconstitutional way. Those arrested are not getting any legal aid because courts across the country are not fully functional. The communal politics behind these arrests are also blatant, as many of those booked during the lock down are Muslims.

The sixth in India’s myriad soap Operas under Covid 19 is China’s intrusion into Ladakh. About 15,000 PLA soldiers are inside Ladakh, infringing on India’s sovereignty at different locations. The Chinese troops are in the Galwan River valley, the Pangong Lake sector, and at the Demchok region. They have taken over the so-called Finger Heights and for the first time, a Chinese flag is flying on the hill features overlooking the Pangong Lake.

The negotiations to defuse the situation have totally frozen, with the Chinese side rebuffing India’s call for meetings to resolve the situation. Indian troops are deployed in the vicinity and it’s in eye ball to eye ball confrontation position.

Retired Lt Gen H S Panag PVSM, AVSM who served in the Indian Army for 40 years in an article has said,  ‘the country must hold the Narendra Modi government and the military accountable for the intelligence failure and the loss of territory, if any, that has taken place.’

In sum, the pandemic control effort of the government is a total failure. The central government instead of solving the problems has increased the threats exponentially due to lock down. The government’s callous approach to deal with the Covid 19 is reflected in its short term approach of containment without doing much for handling its long term fall out.  

As India’s myriad soap operas under Covid 19 lock down is still unfolding it is certain that whether we survive or die is no one’s business and the government only believes in retaining its grip on power by doing false propaganda and without addressing the core health care issues. 

The lockdown has taught us the lesson that till the pandemic leaves us, as individuals we have to take extra care and caution to avoid any infection as the government policies to control the pandemic is thoroughly insufficient.     

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com

India-China Showdown looks imminent in LADAK

India-China Showdown looks imminent in LADAK

Syed Ali Mujtaba

India-China showdown in Ladak looks imminent. The current standoff is due to Home Minister Amit Shah's statement made during the debate on abrogation of Article 370 on 5th August 2019, where he made territorial claims over Aksai Chin. China that physically controls the Aksai Chin then objected to India’s Home Minister’s claim and raised its concern in the UN Security Council.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping who met Indian Prime Minister Narandra Modi at Mamallapuram, near Chennai on October 11, 2019  reported to have told Mr Modi to have a joint mechanism with Pakistan to settle the entire gamut of land boundary issues. The Indian leader then gave initial nod to such proposal did not made any forward movement on this.  

Meanwhile, the Indian side is going ahead with its plan of constructing road to have faster access to Aksai Chin that seems to be the reason that infuriated the Chinese.   

Now China wants to cut off all the Indian land access to Aksai Chin. It wants to push the disputed Line of Actual Control LAC, at three different border locations of Ladakh; Lukung Lake and Shyok & Chang- Chenmo River.

The Chinese game plan is to get into the Indian side of lake and rivers by by forcible making intrusion on the LAC with the motive to construct permanent military structures on the Indian side.

Since May 20, 2020, India and China are engaged in negotiations but their several attempts to defuse the situation have failed. The negotiations that were first conducted at the area commanders level and the at a higher level have failed to produce any result.  

In such situation, India and China both are engaged in eye-ball to eye ball confrontation, exploring military options to test themselves. Both the sides are increasing their military presence in the contested region and a war like situation has emerged at a few points in Ladak. Some of the locations are exactly the same spot where 1962 war with China took place. 

Now given military prows of both the countries any such confrontation is going to head anywhere is anybody's guess. China is 10 times financially and militarily superior to India. It can sustain a low intensity war for a long period of time. What it wants is to make India sweat out economically and politically and exhaust all its options and then call it to the negotiating table to cut a deal.

India has few options before going to the table. The first option before India is to take a legal course.  And for this India can go to International Court of Justice or United Nation General Assembly and seek justice. But so far India has shown utter disregard to the UNGA’s resolutions on J&K. It has prevented since last 70 years any outside influence to resolve the Kashmir issue. Now, after unilaterally abrogating Article 370 and making territorial claims over Aksai Chin and over Pakistan Occupied Kashmir can India get any legal protection from international bodies as it may demand to defuse the situation with China?

China will quash any legal course sought by India seeking protection from the international bodies because it holds the veto power along with other P5 countries in the UN Security Council. So, India has actually exhausted its legal options by abrogating the Article 370 and reorganizing the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.

Them India is left with diplomatic option and it can engage Russia and America mediate with China to defuse the situation. Even though President Triumph has offered to mediate between India and China standoff but it is sure for sure that Americans will never come to rescue of India because of the political situation prevailing in that country.

Russia may stick its neck into cutting a deal with China but it may demand from India the guarantee to leave the US camp and accept it as the only allay and all-weather friend.

Even if that happens will Xi Jinping listen to Putin and if so at what cost? Any such negotiation with Russia mediating with China on behalf of India may end up with India leaving its claim over Aksai Chin and Chinese withdrawal from the forward position as a done deal. Will India accept such a deal?   

Now in such case what are the other options left for India? Can India go to Pakistan and ask to strike a deal China, its all-weather friend? Such option cannot be ruled out as everything is fair love and war. In such case what will be Pakistan’s demand. Obviously it will ask for Indian side of Kashmir lock stock and barrel. Will India accept such a demand to defuse the military standoff with China?

So it is not in India’s interest to strike any deal involving any third party.  In such case, India has to choose between military confrontation and negotiation directly with the China. India also has to choose if it wants to fight the Covid-19 war or a war with China? It really is a Hobbesian choice for India.

At the moment, it is too early to cast any verdict in this unfolding war like situation. We can only wait and watch the developments as it unravels. Once all this is over, then it will be the time to do a cost benefit analysis of the abrogation of Article 370 and reorganization of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.   

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com 

Alarming Situation in LADAK must be diffused

Alarming Situation in LADAK must be diffused  

Syed Ali Mujtaba

The People’s Liberation Army of China is inside the 5 kilometre of the Line of Actual Control and is occupying the Indian Territory. The situation is alarming and either an all-out war or a hard bargain with China can defuse the situation.

At this moment, when India is fighting with the pandemic and our PM has the flattened 5 trillion economy, can India afford to go to war with China? Can our PM reinvigorate the sick economy in such quick notice and go for all-out war with China?  

I am sure our PM will be back with ‘Deshwasio’ phrase, asking the countrymen to bear the expenses ofwar and save the motherland. Will, the people say, "Heil, mein Führer!" and do so to please this ionic leader of India.  

Here I like to quote General Sam Manekshaw’s often quoted phrase that he told to Mrs. Gandhi when she broached the idea to go to war with China. The celebrated General told her point blank; ‘only a military man knows the India’s vulnerability against China in case of war, politicians have no clue about it.’ 

So our PM has to think over about deciding to go to war with China. Going about the military gap, this well fought war may not be short lived but it may put our sovereignty at stake.

As far as negotiations are concerned, the incursion by China is deliberate thought out plan, as it wants its pound of flesh from India on the negotiation table. In the negotiating table the Chinese side may either demand some economic benefits or political settlement with India to pull back its troops. 

Economic benefits is hard to fathom but it could be India entering  the Regional Comprehensive Trade Agreement or joining the one belt one road policy, both of these has been rejected by India.

The political settlement could still be a bad bargain for India. This has come out in open after the Modi-Li meeting at Mamallapuram, near Chennai on October 11, 2019. 

After this meeting the Chinese media reported that its leader had suggested Indian leadership to have a joint mechanism with Pakistan to settle the entire gamut of boundary question with India. The Chinese media reported that Modi had given a head nod to this proposal but did commit to any forward movement. 

As we all know this joint mechanism may bring into the territorial dispute of the J&K that has aggravated due abrogating the article 370 called and creation of Ladak as union territory. The fear is the kind of situation that is developing in Ladak will not give an easy exit route to India.

So the Modi government has to make up its mind, what bargain it may get in any such negotiation to defuse this crisis. At the heart of this situation is the Modi government’s move to reorganize J&K state.  If India may face loss, the   responsibility has to be fixed on the current government.          

Tail piece- I was witness to a discussion at a think tank in Chennai where a retired Colonel was narrating the land boundary dispute with China and Russia erupted which resulted into a bloody skirmish.  The Chinese side then used a special gun that killed 500 opponents in one fire. There was more blood spilled on the ground then water in the lake nearby.  I pray this never happens with India- China dispute.  

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com 

There is No Place for Muslims in the Paatal Lok

There is No Place for Muslims in the Paatal Lok

Syed Ali Mujtaba

Paatal Lok is an Indian Hindi-language crime thriller web television series which was premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 15 May 2020. The series is about a disillusioned cop who handles the case of an assassination attempt that has a web of plots and sub plots built around this crime thriller.

The nine-episode series is scripted by a team of writers with Sudip Sharma of NH10 and Udta Punjab fame in the credit line. It is directed by Avinash Arun Dhaware of ‘Killa’ fame and Prosit Roy of ‘Pari’ fame. This web series is generating rave reviews and has been declared as a classic.

Below the glitter and shine of the crime drama, Paatal Lok is an allegory of India’s social structure. This web series rips open the social stratification of the society that runs parallel to the main plot. Although the prominent layer of the series is the characters enactment in the drama, but below the surface is chilling commentary on the Indian social order. 

There are four groups unofficially classified as; Dhartal Lok, Paatal Lok and Swarag Lok along with the fair sex who constitute one plus three categories of people called as Patal Lok.

This imaginary classification has no resemblance with anyone and there is no malicious intention against anyone. However, the most conspicuous part in the Paatal Lok allegory is the near absence of Muslims in all the layers of Indian society. This may be due to constraints in the script but this social reality epitomizes the Muslim dilemma under the shadow of Carona pandemics that has shown mirror to many Indian realities. 

Dharatal Lok- Awareness about  deep caste trenches in Indian society is well known. People living at the bottom are identified belonging to the Dharatal Lok. It’s an odyssey for those living in Dharatal Lok as life gives them only two choices; either the hard rock or the rough surface. The people here are struggling to escape from these existential troubles but can only move from one hellish point to another.

This stratification is based on the current life in Indian society that’s quite visible in the turbulent times of Covid 19 pandemic. The images of migrant workers walking on the road are chilling our minds and bleeding our hearts.  The stark reality of the people belonging to the Dharatal Lok become more pronounced when the pandemic and the government has left them to fend themselves in the most uncertain times.

In the Dharatal Lok people belong to the low rung of the society. They are the edifice the modern India and survive by the dint of their labour. However, they are exploited lot and when tragedy strikes like Covid-19; they are left to unknown future.

The journey of the migrant laborers that we see on the TV screens is the people of the Dharatal Lok. Within this bunch of poor and hungry people there are up-teem characters. There are the low-caste Dalit-Bahujan mass, the lower OBC castes, the poor construction laborers, the marginalized social groups and of course the Muslims. All such groups are born in a rotten and treacherous social system whose lives are doomed. 

These voiceless people live without any hope. Their social and personal life is suggestive of the fact that they are passive participant in the continuing saga of human exploitation. They are most condemned species that are left to survive on their own or are destined to die in ignominy.

In the Dharatal lok exist the real India. These segregated characters have more egalitarian outlook. Their social order is an epitome of unity in religious diversity. Their poor lifestyle and exploited situation cut across the religious divide. People here remain united due to common bondage of economic hardships. Here the folks do not see Muslim with contempt but have a comfortable bonding with them. Their situation does not change, no matter, which political party holds the power in the country.

The people in the Dharatal Lok constitute almost half of the Indian population. They are the biggest vote bank for the political parties.  Victims of social malice and injustices, people of Dharatal Lok are most gullible lot. They fall an easy prey to those who show them the dream of changing their lives.  

The Muslims among them have little choice and find solace in the political parties that promised them security of their life and property.  They have not got anything apart from such tokenism and their lives have never changed. As such Muslim have little role in the Dharatal Lok.    

  

Paatal Lok- The social structure in Paatal Lok exists in its brute nakedness of wretched caste hierarchies, feudal structure and the crude patriarchal domination.  Here society is segmented into caste groups’ families and kinship groups. The vociferous diversity in the Patal Lok are under four broad categories of castes system and within them numerous subdivisions based on varna, jati, jat, biradri, and samaj etc.  There is purity and pollution complex with high caste associated with purity and low with pollution. The pure maintain a corona distance with those alleged to be impure or pollutant.

In the dog-eat-dog world of Paatal Lok, the different groups are demanding share in the power and resources of the country. The people in the Paatal Lok are highly politicized. The categories are in horde to be relevant to the demands of democracy. They exploit any primordial loyalties to acquire voting muscle and jump into the electoral fray as a separate category demanding benefits for their group.

As competition grows, political, social, and economic issues are hotly contested among the people of the Paatal Lok. They do not refrain from committing savagery upon other human being. The discrimination of Dalit’s and the Muslims are pet themes in their life discourse.  

The people in the Paatal lok are most communalized lot. They make use of religion and nationalism as a tool to achieve their own social progress. In this scheme of things, Muslims are no doubt important but are in a cruel way. Their utility is seen to be in terms of engineering the communal riots against them. The eventual killing of Muslims first alley the sense of insecurity and then forge unity among them and in combination give them electoral returns.

Muslims in the Paatal lok are at the receiving end. They are caught between the devil and the deep sea. They are in the bind to either go for their security of life and property or protect their identity. This hard reality makes any further progress of the Muslims impossible as they are unwelcome people in the Paatal Lok.

Swarg Lok- The people in the ‘Swarg Lok’ are highbrow English speaking folks. They belong to the capitalist class with tons of money. The corporate honchos, who may be five percent or less than that of the population, control over seventy five percent of wealth of the country. They live in palatial bungalows; have high lifestyle with their own civility and sexual liberties. Here the individuals here are ranked according to their wealth and power. They represent a class of people to whom poverty can never dare to touch. They are so high in the social echelons that the people of Pataal Lok or Dharatal lok can never sneak even into their outer rings.    

The people of the ‘Swarg Lok’ indirectly control the power in the country. They fund the political elite and after saddling them in power draw rent from the investments made on them. Such people have little connect with the people of the Dharatal lok. They deal with them though those in the Pataal Lok but without getting their hands dirty. The people of the Swarg Lok have tussles for power between their own class groups but such rivalries do not come in open and have their own rules and ethics to deal with.

Muslims here again have no place in the Swarg Lok. It is an exclusive domain of the majority religious group. There may be few like Azim Premji of Wipro and Yusuf Khwaja Hamied of Cipla who belong to the Swarg Lok but they are incorporated into this group as Budha was  done in pantheon of lord Vishnu. Their Muslim identity has no relevance to the social structure of ‘Swarg Lok.’  

Status of Women in all Loks- In all three layers of the social strata, the position of the women is somewhat similar though their lifestyle may vary in each Lok.  In terms of self-esteem, the position of women in Dharatal Lok is better than the other Loks. This is because of their share in the economic generation and in terms their bonding role in the family system.  

In all the three Loks, males control the key resources, such as land or businesses and women do not have proprietary over the material wealth. The women are tied to their male folks and only have crass utility in all the three Loks.

The women in all the categories are victim of the patriarchal male hegemony.  As wives, she is dependent on her husbands, as daughter she is dependent on her father, as sister she is dependent on her brother.  The bonding between the male and female are superficial, one-sided and in most cases it is only for comfort and care of the men folk.  

In all the three Loks, women are a passive spectator in the male dominated society. In Swarg Lok she is a compromising entity, in Pataal Lok she is a battered wife and in Dharatal Lok she is an economic utility. Restriction and restraint in every aspect of life is common to women in all the Loks.

The position of Muslim women is no different from the women of all the Loks. The good part is the gender binding supersede the communal binding and women in all the Loks are Eves first than being Hindus or Muslims.

These four segments overlap yet standalone individually in the social stratification of the Indian society. The four Loks retain human beings perpetual existence without any victory or defeat. In this cycle of Karma and dharma the wheels of society are turned on the basis of these three plus one Loks. Such allegory of India’s social stratification is just imaginary and has no resemblance to anyone and whatsoever.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com

Why do Indian Media Detest Muslims So Much?

Why do Indian Media Detest Muslims So Much?

Syed Ali Mujtaba

Indian Muslims always get a bad press and the blame is put on the community for not doing anything spectacular that may give them positive coverage. This is a hackneyed narrative that is going on since independence against the largest minority of the country. Muslims has been on the receiving end, searching souls, looking for faults within themselves which aren’t there because the fault lines are the media that has tarred the entire community with a black brush.

Why do Indian media detest Muslims so much? Before getting into the media coverage of the Muslims, one need to understand the nature and character of Indian media and the role it plays in shaping the society.

One needs to begin the story from 1990s when the media got out of government control and the corporate cartels started controlling this communication network. There was a plethora of media outlets that sprung up in no time and all were controlled by the business establishments.

These corporates media establishments had twin objectives, one to make profit and second to be on the government side to protect their own larger business interests. On the profit side, media has two sources of revenue, one subscription and other advertisement. The advertisement is dependent on the subscription and subscription is the readership or the viewership. So if the profit has to be made, advertisement has to be solicited and this can be only done if the subscription based is increased phenomenally.

And that’s where the content became the king in this business. The content is decided on the impact factor of the news that can fetch large subscription and as a result the corresponding revenue through the advertisement.

It’s here the negative news contents has a huge role to play because of its impact factor to enlist huge subscription and huge advertisement.  In this paradigm negative content related to Islam, Muslims, Islamic Jihad Kashmir and Pakistan are the most selling news items. This is because it generates a large number of subscriptions among the Hindu majority community and since it pertains to Muslims, they willy-nilly get sucked into this vortex.   

The basic criterion of the media is to search stories that can have an impact factor to get large readership/viewership and that can translate into revenue generation. Such malpractice in the media is now going on for some time and has become a widespread phenomenon across the media platforms and all kind of media outlets subscribe to this journalistic model to get good financial returns.

The negative profiling of the Muslims in media normally runs stories on; Islamic Jihad, love-jihad, nikah halala, triple talaq, Muslim personal law, beef eating, Tablighi jamaat, besides usual stuff like anti- Kashmir, anti- Pakistan to fetch huge subscription and advertisements.

There are other reasons why Muslims get a bad press in India. Ever since the incumbent government has come to power in 2014, there is a well-planned and finely crafted political project to increase anti-Muslim environment in the country. This is to gain political benefit and here media’s help is sought to execute such game plan.

As a result, Indian media is now reduced to government propaganda machinery. Anything that a devious mind can conjure against Muslims is fabricated and blown up out of proportion by the Indian media. This is to create a panic among majority community that may lead them to hate Muslims, and at the same time instill fear among the Muslim community for being targeted through communal violence.  This serves well the government’s narrative that Muslim bashing by the media will consolidate the Hindu vote bank.     

Since anti-Muslim narrative has all the juice and pulp fiction to regiment the majority community, majority of the media outlets have teamed up together with an open display of bigotry abuse and hatred against the Indian Muslims. This also keeps them in the good books of the government as it helps in promoting the Hindutva agenda which is essential for the political survival of the ruling dispensation.

The Cobrapost.com expose in 2018, brings true picture of media- Hinduvta collaboration to communalize the society for political gains. The undercover agents of the cobra-post website approached the top media houses and offered them huge sum of money to publish/ broadcast Hindutva contents for communalize the society to gain political mileage for the ruling party. The expose revealed that all the media houses agreed to engage in campaigns to induce communal discord in the society and were willing to polarize the society on communal lines, so that it can fetch political dividends. 

The media coverage of Tablighi Jamaat members stuck at Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz in the last week of the March is a classic example of media government collaboration in building hate Muslim campaign. Instead of lambasting the government for not testing the foreign Tablighi members at the airport, the media went hammer and tongs attacking the Tablighi Jamaat and the Muslims holding them responsible for bringing the corona virus in the country. 

What could have been a story directed against government’s inefficiency to make efforts to contain the virus at the entry point, a slander campaign against a particular community was started in the media. The media instead of showing any sympathy towards the Tablighi Jamaat members’ ignorance of the presence of Corona virus i8n their midst attacked them of hiding as terrorists inside the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz in New Delhi.

The media did not question the government why it did not evacuate the Markaz members when it knew its Corona linkage as early as March 18? Why it prolonged the evacuation to March 29? The media did not asked the government why it allowed congregation at the Hindu temples as late as March 20 and has been questioning the Markaz for organizing the congregation on earlier dates.

Instead of standing by the side of journalistic ethics, the media chose to demonize the Muslim community for the congregation organized by the Tablighi Jamat. It was a well thought out plan, where subscription, advertisements and building of government’s vote bank were all involved.

There was a pathological preoccupation and obsession with bigotry against Islam and Muslims in the India media in coverage of Tablighi Jamat news. This vociferous tirade against Muslims by the media made the Tablighi Markaz, synonym to Akal Thakat and some equated Maulana Saad with Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.  

Such media bashing of the Muslims lead to a huge fall out at the societal level. It is for the acts of the Tablighi Jamat in Delhi, Muslims all over the country were targeted, abused assaulted on streets at several places in India. Many BJP legislators openly asked Hindus to boycott Muslim vegetable vendors and not allow them to enter their locality.  Such blatant stoking of communal polarization was condoned by the media attacks that conveniently ignored reporting the injustices being done to the Muslims.

The negative profiling of the Muslims is assiduously done to create a sense of unity within the Hindu community for political millage. It is being done to create maximum impact on the readers and viewers mind. These were done with an eye on ‘us vs them’ elixir, the magical political formula that wins election.

The media is a party to the execution to such well thought out political plan. The strategy is to develop a common enemy in name of Muslims and to foment a feeling of insecurity among the Hindu elements so that the ruling party’s becomes their savior and their vote bank is protected.

In doing so, the media knew it well the impact factor of the anti-Muslim news story and the value of such negative reportage can make them rich.  While doing so media also very well knows that Muslim side do not have any wherewithal to resist such attack against them. This is because the organs of government that can come to the Muslims rescue are pro government and since the anti-Muslim propaganda will give political benefit to the ruling government, they watch the media’s blatant display of hatred against the Muslims.  

This is a wake-up call for the Muslims in India to rise up against the media and government’s collaborative efforts to give them bad press.  In the battle against the ‘Godi media,’ Muslims have to stand up, unite and forge alliances to launch media projects in the country. In the age of TV media, social media, and whatsapp networking groups any such fight cannot take place till the Muslim community do not have their own media.

But so far, Muslims have miserably have failed to set up any strong media platform to counter such humiliation by the so called ‘Godi media.’ It is high time for the Indian Muslims to come forward to create elite group of like minded people who can respond to the anti-Muslim propaganda done by so called ‘Godi media.’

The Muslim elite group and the like minded non-Muslims may sit in conjugation, and confabulate and chalk out plans how to increase their share in the media market of India.

There is need Muslims with resources can join hand to set up a major media house and respond to the anti-Muslim hate mongers media outlets. There are problems in doing so, but there is a space in which Muslim-owed media can still operate in the country. If such media outlet is professionally run by the trailblazers of truth and investigative journalists, such a media platform will definitely make an honest and meaningful impact on the Indian society.  

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com

Live with Coronavirus: Final Takeaway from PM’s Address to the Nation

Live with Coronavirus: Final Takeaway from PM’s Address to the Nation

Syed Ali Mujtaba 

Every Indian had a few questions on his/her mind while tuning in to their TV sets at 8 pm on May 12 to listen to Prime Minister Narandra Modi. But unfortunately, in his 34-minute address to the nation, he failed to address key queries haunting an average Indian.

The questions were: Will the lock down be extended further? What the government has achieved in the three phases of lock down in containing the Covid-19 and what are its future plans? What steps the government is taking to revive the economy? What efforts are being made to mitigate the plight of the migrant workers? What instructions he will give to de-communalise the society? What is his advice to the Islamophobic media?

His silence on the issues confronting the nation spoke thousand words about his intent while his indifferent to the problems made him a pygmy in the eyes of the countrymen.

The Prime Minister told the nation that the lock down 4.0 will come into effect from May 18, but this will be different from the previous ones. Going by his broad hints, the new set of rules and regulations to be made public before May 18 will be more relaxed than those application to earlier lock downs.

The Prime Minister gave no details about his achievements in the 49 days of lock down except that 2 lakh PPE kits and 2 lakh N95 masks are being manufactured in India daily. The Prime Minister did not reflect upon the medical preparedness achieved during the days of the lockdown nor about the ways and means to cope with the growing Covid-19 cases.

He did not even speak about the number of thermal testing kits made available to the public nor did he give any detail about its imports from China. He was silent on whether they will be manufactured under his flagship scheme ‘Made in India’, and if so, when?

The most important thing our Prime Minister said was: “we have to save ourselves from the novel Corona virus and also move ahead at the same time”. This was all about his future plan to deal with Covid-19.

The Prime Minister, on the 49th day of the lock down, was telling the nation to live with the enemy and yet move on with their lives. The same way as some people would suggest when rape becomes inevitable, enjoy it!

As regards the revival of the economy, he announced a financial package of Rs 20 lakh crore which he said was 10% of India’s GDP. Even though he elaborated that this financial package is meant to focus on farmers, laborers and middle class’s development, eyebrows are raised on the actual figures that will be delivered to the people.

Some analysts have deconstructed the announcement of Rs 20 lakh crore packages. They are of the view that only 4.4 lakh crore will actually be made available to the public.

Breaking down Rs 20 lakh crore, the analyst say that the government has already announced 1 lakh and 67 crore package first and then 8.4 lakh crore shortly after the lock down. This together makes about 10 lakh crore.

Now, with the remain 10 lakh crore, some 6 lakh crore has already been committed earlier but has never been disbursed. So, in such a case, what is left in the end is about 4.4 lakh crore.

Now, with this amount the PM gives the mantra of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ or the movement for making India self-reliant. He boasted that India’s self-reliance goals will be based on five pillars; ‘economy, infrastructure, technology driven system, vibrant demography and demand’.

Such claims have become a laughingstock in the private circle. One high spirited guy made an apt comment, “It’s all gas, and no fog.’

India is struggling to achieve self-reliance goals for more than 70 years. In 1990, when the country’s economy was in deep trouble, the policy of liberalization was introduced to pull the country out of the woods.  Now, is this ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ of PM Modi an attempt to take the country back to pre-1990 era? This is the question in many minds.

As in the previous addresses, in the fifth address to the nation, the Prime Minster said nothing about dealing with the Covid-19. Now, he is not talking about war and victory, but he wants the countrymen to live with the enemy and protect themself. This is a change of strategy from the one he had announced the first lock down on March 24.  At that time, he declared a war on Covid-19 and centralized the power in his hands.

Invoking Disaster Management Act he reduced the state governments to non-entity and undermined the federal structure of India. On a high of power, the PM, on March 24, 2020, while announcing the lock down from midnight, had said Mahabharata war was won in 18 days, he would defeat the Corona virus in 21 days. A few days ago, he asked the countrymen to do the clapping and beating the tin to defeat the virus.

When nothing happened after the 21 days of lock down, he no longer talks about winning the war. He extended the lock down to another 19 days saying ‘Jaan Hai To Jahaan Hai’ literally means life is first priority, if life is saved, everything else (read economy) will fall in line.

As he announced the second lock down, the PM was full of confidence of leading the nation to victory against the unknown enemy. That’s when he asked the people to light candles switching off electric bulbs to experience a transition from darkness to light.

There was a change of strategy in dealing with the Covid-19, when the 40-days period came to an end, and the country was subjected to the third lock down.  Now, for the first time, the state governments were consulted to deal with the containment of the Corona virus.

Our PM completely forgot about winning a war against the virus and delegated all the responsibility to the states to deal with the pandemics. He now talks about having ‘Jaan aur Jahaan’ both, hinting at the importance to life and revival of the economy at the same time.

However, still being the C-in-C of the nation, he did the third gimmick when he asked the Air Force to shower petals from the helicopters at hospitals to cheer up the front-line warriors of Covid-19. This was being done at a time when famished migrant workers hit the road on their way to their homes, many traveling long distances on foot.

As the Air Force choppers flew past them, these battered and bruised mortals cursed the rulers who have no empathy for them even at a time when it’s a matter of life and death for them.

It was the time when liquor shops were opened to fill the coffers of the cash-starved states. With this, thirsty crows made bee lines at the gates of the wine shops with utter disregard to the pandemic safeguards.

To this, a holy spirit reacted saying, ‘When you elect a joker, circus is a logical consequence. And that’s literally what happened during the lock down 3.0 when all the norms of isolation and social distancing were thrown to the wind.

Now, while announcing the fourth lock down, our PM seems to have realized that the Corona virus cannot be simply wished away. And apart from saving themselves, the people have to move ahead with their lives. Hence, he seems to have opted to relinquish his role as a savior of the country that he tried to don while announcing the first lock down.

In the war against Corona virus, our C-n-C has jumped from the mudguard to the rear guard, securing a position for himself that ensures that he would be the last to die.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com