Dead Elephant Ploy
Maneka’s Gift to Anti-Muslim Media
Syed Ali Mujtaba
ANTI-MUSLIM propaganda refuses to die down in India. After
the Tablighi Jamaat, Muslims of Malappuram district of Kerala have become the
target of communal propaganda for purportedly killing a pregnant elephant
apparently died of eating pineapple laced with explosives.
According to forest officials, the wild elephant had left the
forests of the Silent Valley in Palakkad district and wandered into the nearby
village in search of food and reached Mannarkkad, where it found the
cracker-stuffed pineapple. When the pachyderm consumed the pineapple, an
explosion stuffed in it went off badly injuring her. The elephant was left in
searing pain and eventually died standing in a river.
The tragic incident actually happened in Mannarkkad, in
Palakkad district and not in Muslim majority Malappuram district which actually
is about 54 Kms from Mannarkkad.
But a BJP leader and the ‘godi media’ were prompt to link the
incident to the Muslim majority Malappuram district. The entire event was
communalised with thousands of Hindu zealots using their twitter handles to
spread Islamophobia. Once again an anti Tablighi Jamaat-like atmosphere was
created in the country.
The anti-Muslim canard owes it to the BJP MP and former Union
minister, Maneka Gandhi, who made a nasty comment on her twitter handle
@Manekagandhibjp about the incident. Holding the entire Muslim population of
the Malappuram district responsible for the animal’s death, she tried to vilify
the community.
“Mallapuram is known for its intense criminal activity especially
with regards to animals. No action has ever been taken against a single poacher
or wildlife killers, so they keep doing it. I can only suggest that you
call/mail and ask for action”, she commented on the elephant’s death in a
tweet.
Later, Maneka Gandhi repeated the same lines while talking to
the News agency, Asia News International (ANI). She portrayed Malappuram as
India’s most violent district. “It is a murder, Malappuram is famous for such
incidents, and it’s India’s most violent district. For instance, they throw
poison on roads so that 300-400 birds & dogs die at one time,” she told
ANI.
Maneka’s comment has a political perspective. The BJP is
gleefully carrying on its head this burden of Nehru dynasty which has no
relevance to BJP politics. So, her comment is sure to turn the heads of her BJP
and RSS masters. They would recognise her hidden talent and reward her for the
same. This lie of the former BJP MP was to bell the Muslim cat and hog the
limelight.
As soon as Meneka Gandhi’s comment was made public, the “Godi
media” including Times Now, Republic TV, Zee News, India TV, Dainik Jagaran,
Hindustan Times, News18, First Post as well as many Hindi and English news
outlets lapped it up without verifying geographic location of the incident.
To add spice to the story, the Godi media started
demographically profiling the Muslim dominated Malappuram district. What it
obliquely pointed was the Muslim majority district is a thorn in India’s Hindu
identity. This is not the first time the media did this. Some time back, it
projected Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh as a terror factory and a center of Indian
Mujahedin.
The other aspect of media’s ingenuity was that like the
Palghar episode where Sonia Gandhi’s name was dragged into the killing of two
Sadhus to create a ruckus, similarly the media lapped up at the Maneka Gandhi’s
comment to tarnish the image of Muslims. Like lynch mob, the anti-Muslim
anti-Islam hate media factories targeted an entire community.
A Twitter handle named ‘Sumit for You’ with more than lakh
followers said, “Muslims in Kerala killing elephants. They are jealous of
elephants now. Shame Malappuram, the jihadi ISIS…”
Another tweet was: “Indian Izlamists have a particular hatred
for elephant, cows, and monkeys because these are symbols of Hindu faith
system. The brutal murder of the pregnant elephant in Kerala’s Muslim majority
Malappuram district is perhaps part of this same hateful mindset.”
The Malappuram district, since its inception, has been
vulnerable to xenophobic, Islamophobic remarks, rants, of the Sangh
Parivar. The demographic features of
Malappuram make it seductive for anti- Islam and anti-Muslim propaganda. And
now, when Maneka Gandhi, without a bit of shame, propagated a lie, the fault
lines of the district’s demographic profile got criminalized.
Nevertheless, the killing of the elephant is an inexcusable
offence, and the killers must be punished. But it is also important to know the
whole gambit of the news without anti-Muslim anti-Islam propaganda.
There is no mention in the media discourse of the nature
verses human conflict going on in the Western Ghats. Animals come out of their
natural habitat in search of food as it happened in this elephant’s case while
humans eager to save their food from being poached devise ways to protect them
from the animals. They use barbed wires and other such things to fence and
protect their morsel from being eaten by the beasts. This dimension of animal
verses human conflict has never been highlighted in this elephant killing
episode.
Animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi and the ‘Godi media’ wore
filtered glasses to start anti-Muslim, anti- Islam rants without understanding
the nuances of the human relationship with the nature in this part of the
world.
Now, without sounding unsympathetic to the animal, a counter
to the fuss made about the pregnancy of the elephant by raising the question,
did the elephant killers had any clue to the beast’s body till its autopsy
report was made known.
Now, if this is linked to the pregnancy of Jamia Millia
Islamia student, Safoora Zargar, who was arrested for her role in leading the
anti-CAA protest. The question is where would be the human compassion, with elephant or human. What comes out clearly from
this elephant story is that human compassion for the fellow humans is scorned and
compassion for a beast is flowing.
The tailpiece is: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has
assured strict action would be taken against those involved in the killing of
the pregnant elephant in Kerala and culprits will be brought to justice.
_____________
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be
contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
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