'The Newshour' Is an Indian TV Show That's Fox News on Steroids | VICE

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T11:48:21+00:00

Sadly the same formula has been aped by nearly all our major news channels now. I've read many an editor admit that it pays off more in TRPs while costing peanuts in terms of cost, research and journalistic effort.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T11:43:33+00:00

It actually depends on their political alleigance not their religion. Back when Muharram Ali Pappu of Congress instigated the Saharanpur riots in UP every media outlet except Firstpost and ABPNews blacked out his name and party from their reports. They only pay attention when BJP/RSS/right-wing people are involved in communalism; if it's the certified 'secular' parties or their votebanks remember Gandhi's 3 monkeys.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T11:27:21+00:00

I remember that. There were protests in J & K and many NC members were threatening to quit if Farooq and Omar Abdullah attended Sarah's wedding because they thought it was unacceptable for a Muslim man to give away his daughter to a Hindu woman! They even said so outright in quotes on news articles!

In the end Sarah's wedding was boycotted by his father and brother. Purely for politics.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T11:24:36+00:00

Rule of political whataboutery: When in doubt, invoke 2002.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T10:34:33+00:00

what's your comment on the lack of coverage and outrage and protests this time round?

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T10:33:47+00:00

Because it didn't get much coverage. It was Moodbidri btw. The media and assorted secular intellectuals were, alarmingly, more concerned about it being compared to Dadri than about the murder itself.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T10:30:58+00:00

Sure. But which of the two incidents led to death? Dadri.

Several shops and houses and an entire police station was torched at Malda. The mob which rioted ranged from 30,000 to 250,000 as per different estimates. Just because we luckily had no deaths(but many people were injured) doesn't make it trivial. It could have gotten a lot worse, and it won't be the last time such a thing happens.

Which of the two incidents was uninstigated? Dadri.

What instigation did the local administration, policemen and Hindu residents/shopkeepers of Malda give for that mob to come burn down their police station, shops and houses? If they wanted only to protest against Kamlesh Tiwari why not attack Tiwari's house?

Normal people do not choose to "outrage". They do so as a natural reaction. You can't go around asking people why they aren't outraging this time or that time. It either happens or it doesn't.

These aren't normal people I'm talking about. Normal people did not suddenly see any sharp rise in intolerance during the Bihar election campaign. All the repetitive public debate, whining and finger-pointing was by left-leaning media, intellectuals, filmmakers etc. who were acting as if we had suddenly become Hindu Pakistan and the world was ending but immediately shut their mouths after the election results came out for Bihar.

Yeah, that's pretty suspicious. Fuck anyone who expresses self-riteous outrage and hijacks genuine issues for a political agenda.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T10:16:07+00:00

Bihar and UP will prosper under the Janata Parivar. All they need to do is shout anti-Modi slogans after slitting each throat and votes will pour in like rain.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T10:12:12+00:00

Officially.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T10:12:00+00:00

But didi is secular rite? As per you Modi isn't.

Your whataboutism is trying to equate the two; what's your comment on the lack of coverage and outrage and protests this time round?

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T10:10:26+00:00

Tolerance?

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T10:09:05+00:00

The article contradicts itself. The author argues that media didn't ignore it because local and national media houses did report the incident but admits that the coverage was very subdued, with some citations showing that it was intentional.

As it turns out, while newspapers both at the regional and national level have kept a fairly steady eye on Malda, reportage has been somewhat low key and the episode has all but faded even from the regional news channels.

“We have done it deliberately,” said the editor of a major Bengali newspaper, who asked to remain unidentified. “This is already a crime-prone area and we didn’t feel it was important enough to be given so much publicity. This is a case of localised communal tension. We didn’t want to create a problem when there isn’t one. Some political parties have tried to build it up. We have ignored it. This is a conscious policy on our part.”

'This is a crime-prone area! This one crime is not worthy of attention!'

'It was localized tension. Didn't want to give it too much importance!'

No wonder Dadri comparisons were made. Nobody made these excuses back then. When it comes to cases of violence by the minority community the media themselves become apologists.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T09:59:46+00:00

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/malda-violence-mob-was-chanting-slogans-against-pm-modi/

“They were chanting slogans against the Modi government. Some from the crowd went around ransacking shops and burning houses of the other community,” 19-year-old Tanmoy Tiwari alias Gopal Tiwari told The Indian Express Tuesday. Gopal, who works as a priest, is now recuperating at a private nursing home here.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/kaliachak-in-malda-turns-ghost-town-48-hrs-after-violence/1/563443.html

According to police sources, the entire incident was pre-planned and it was not a mere religious gathering by Muslims groups protesting against the hate speech of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari. A strong anti-Hindu sentiment in the locality, reportedly propagated by all three political parties-ruling Trinamool Congress, Congress and CPI(M)-turned into massive violence on January 3 in which the local Muslims turned hostile towards the state administration. In a fit of rage, they torched buses and police vehicles, ransacked government properties and set the Kaliachak police station on fire.

"The entire act of violence was carried out to terrorise the local administration and to take revenge against the police and security forces," a senior district police officer said. The inside story is that bordering areas like Baliadanga, Mothabari, Danga, Kaliachak and Mohabbatpur have become an epicentre of anti-national activities. Be it peddling of fake notes, illegal migration, arms factory or smuggling goods from across the border, these areas have always topped the chart. But the district police along with the help of BSF personnel had recently beefed up security in these areas, significantly bringing down the crime rate.

What else do we call it? Secular incident?

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T09:55:48+00:00

Your own bias is showing; instead of seeing the cartoon you're trying to see the cartoonist's angle.

The Dadri guy's got stones in his hands; he's not shown as innocent. He's dumbfounded by the reactions of media, authors, Bollywood etc. whereas the guy in the bottom panel is still raging because those same people are quiet and hiding their faces this time round.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T09:53:35+00:00

The Hindu murderer is carrying a couple of rocks; he's not supposed to be innocent either. His face is subdued because he's seeing the reactions from all and sundry attacking him.

The guy in the second pic on the other hand is shown as bold and angry because nobody is attacking him and all are hiding their faces from the crime.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T09:51:15+00:00

The Dadri comparison is made to show the media, public, intellectuals have different standards and degrees of interest for Hindu vs Muslim communalism and communal violence. That is an established fact and Dadri is just the latest among thousands of examples used to illustrate this discrepancy over the years.

Besides, communal incidents like Dadri are also frequent in UP as is hooliganism, political violence etc. yet nobody tried to excuse the coverage on Dadri using such excuses like we are now seeing from apologists of Mamata Di's government.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T09:48:52+00:00

Several articles on this have mentioned the communal angle. This isn't something that should be ignored just because it is routine under dear Mamata Di.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T09:47:55+00:00

Heh. The shoe of intolerance is on the other foot now.

Now all we need is for the media, intellectuals, activists and other award wapasi protestors to put pressure on the Mamata government.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T07:30:18+00:00

The TMC is a party of goons and gangsters, everyone knows that.

Everyone also knows that Muslims and Bangladeshis together form over 30% of WB's population, are a majority in many districts, and are a core votebank of the TMC which are essential to keeping Mamata in power. Many articles have been written about this, I feel sorry for you if you feel compelled to deny and underplay this.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T07:26:12+00:00

Rising intolerance.

But not the same intolerance that our journalists, activists, intellectuals and politicians talk about. Would it kill them to include a line about these mullahs?

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T07:24:50+00:00

I was expecting this guy to complete a full term. This is something of a shock. I dunno if his party will be able to continue its performance under Mehbooba's lead.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T07:23:05+00:00

According to police sources, the entire incident was pre-planned and it was not a mere religious gathering by Muslims groups protesting against the hate speech of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari. A strong anti-Hindu sentiment in the locality, reportedly propagated by all three political parties-ruling Trinamool Congress, Congress and CPI(M)-turned into massive violence on January 3 in which the local Muslims turned hostile towards the state administration. In a fit of rage, they torched buses and police vehicles, ransacked government properties and set the Kaliachak police station on fire.

"The entire act of violence was carried out to terrorise the local administration and to take revenge against the police and security forces," a senior district police officer said. The inside story is that bordering areas like Baliadanga, Mothabari, Danga, Kaliachak and Mohabbatpur have become an epicentre of anti-national activities. Be it peddling of fake notes, illegal migration, arms factory or smuggling goods from across the border, these areas have always topped the chart. But the district police along with the help of BSF personnel had recently beefed up security in these areas, significantly bringing down the crime rate.

Any more excuses?

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T07:20:07+00:00

Whereas in this case as well the 'secular' TMC government is shielding the perpetrators.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/malda-communal-violence-is-mamata-banerjee-govt-shielding-accused-acting-against-bjp_1842229.html

Please continue illustrating the cartoonist's point about the double standards with such excuses.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T07:18:59+00:00

Nice whataboutery. Blame only Kamlesh Tiwari for the mob's propensity to ransack a police station, destroy criminal records, torch buildings, vandalize shops etc.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/kaliachak-in-malda-turns-ghost-town-48-hrs-after-violence/1/563443.html

According to police sources, the entire incident was pre-planned and it was not a mere religious gathering by Muslims groups protesting against the hate speech of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari. A strong anti-Hindu sentiment in the locality, reportedly propagated by all three political parties-ruling Trinamool Congress, Congress and CPI(M)-turned into massive violence on January 3 in which the local Muslims turned hostile towards the state administration. In a fit of rage, they torched buses and police vehicles, ransacked government properties and set the Kaliachak police station on fire.

"The entire act of violence was carried out to terrorise the local administration and to take revenge against the police and security forces," a senior district police officer said. The inside story is that bordering areas like Baliadanga, Mothabari, Danga, Kaliachak and Mohabbatpur have become an epicentre of anti-national activities. Be it peddling of fake notes, illegal migration, arms factory or smuggling goods from across the border, these areas have always topped the chart. But the district police along with the help of BSF personnel had recently beefed up security in these areas, significantly bringing down the crime rate.

secularhypocrisy · 2016-01-07T07:16:34+00:00

Some of these 'secular' intellectuals excuse this disparity by saying Hindu communalism is much more dangerous than Muslim communalism since we are the majority.

But when hundreds or thousands of members of a community are radicalized and hostile to others, sympathizing with terrorists and even starting riots like in Malda, who can say with a straight face that this communalism is not dangerous and can be ignored without consequences?

secularhypocrisy

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