By Quamar Ashraf
Farmers issues dominated this week’s media discourse even as some papers slightly touched upon the communalisation attempt in the garb of fund collection for proposed Ram temple in Ayodhya. While the Union budget understandably did not evoke any interest, Urdu advocacy got considerable space this week.
3 key perspectives in coverage of peasants protest
Focus of editorials and articles broadly remain on government’s ploy to quell protest, swelling gathering at protest sites and BJP IT cell, setting of narrative around nationalism following tweets by foreign citizens by BJP IT cell, mainstream media, BJP leaders and ministers. Besides, a couple of edits and articles on journalists arrests mainly mentioning Qamar Agha, Rajdeep Sardesai among others were also carried out in different papers.
Stir turning into people’s movement: The swelling gathering in Ghazipur and Singhu borders clearly showed that the “agitation has a popular support”, observed M Afzal (Inquilab February 1). Next day (February 2), the edit stated that “the people began to understand that the farm laws are in the interest of some corporate houses”. On the same day, the paper covered former Samajwadi Party MP Choudhary Bijendra Singh’s rally in Aligarh with the headline, “farmer protest has become people’s movement”. The Munsif (February 4) carried the edit with same headline. Etemaad, Siasat, HE, HS and Sahafat too published edits/articles broadly on the same line even as they suggested government to pay heed to the farmers’ concerns.
Ploy to quell protest: The ploy to quell the protest in the garb of Red Fort’s siege by miscreants during tractor rally failed after the farmer bodies swiftly distanced themselves from the violence. The BJP applied the “tested formula of divide and rule” during the 26 January violence but it did not work, wrote Shakil Hassan Shamsi in Inquilab (January 30). The AEM article “From Babri Masjid to Red Fort” (January 30) by Jabeen Nazan pointed out to “a pattern in the storming of Red Fort”. She criticised media for “cunningly ignoring many pertinent points” related to the violence. The article underscored, “The press worked responsibly in US by building public opinion against the anti-democratic forces but the Indian media blindly backed the Modi government.”
Narrative around nationalism & foreign citizens’ tweets: The “war-like fortification” drive and banning twitter accounts of farm leaders triggered international outrage world over with environment activists, US vice-president’s niece and pop-porn stars tweeting the “repressive measures” of the government, (AEM edit, February 6). Inquilab edit (February 6), however, raised “concern on tweets by foreign citizens”, suggesting meddling in the affairs of “smaller countries can go uncontested, but it is unacceptable in India’s case.” RSU edit, however, suggested that the Modi government should not have responded to the tweets. Then, Inquilab, RSU and HE carried special articles on the issue besides playing out statements by political leaders and rights activists on the use of “iron nails, barbed wire and boulders to intimidate the protesting farmers”. However, such reports also set ‘foreigners conspiring to weaken India’ elixir. The edits in HE (February 3) and RSU (February 4) stated that protest rights cannot be muzzled, saying the government resorted to “unethical methods”.
Nothing for Minorities in Budget : As expected, the 2021-22 Union Budget offered nothing new to the Muslims even as Mukhar Abbas Naqvi hailed allocation of Rs Rs 4,810.77 crore – an increase of Rs 805 crore from previous budget (Siasat February 3). Shakil Hassan Shamsi (Inquilab February 2) emphasised on implementation of schemes while several community leaders express dissatisfaction over the meagre amount for the marginalised sections of society. In its first reaction, the Jamaat-e-Islami said that the budget failed to empower purchasing power of poor and create demands stating that the schedule caste/scheduled tribes, who accounted for merely 16 per cent of the country’s population, was almost 10 times of that the department of minorities who accounted for about 21 per cent of India’s population” (Sahafat 8, February 3).
Rerun of Rath Yatra communal situation : Muslim organisations raised objection on the fund collections rally for proposed construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya and wrote letter to Prime Minister rein in the communal elements who are attempting to spoil communal atmosphere (Urdu Times, February 3). The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind took lead on it. All the newspapers alternatively carried the stories in report forms. Certain groups are “systematically promoting hate, polarization and violence in the country” on the pretext of fund collection for the temple (Inquilab 7 February). Notably, members of minority community were targeted at several places during the fund collection rally. This is the attempt to polarize the society on communal lines ahead of Bengal assembly elections (Etemaad, February 7).
Advocacy for Urdu: Several edits/articles were carried out for promotion of Urdu language, prominent among them is a report carried out in Siasat where US-based psychiatrist-cum-philanthropist Dr M Qutubuddin proposed actionable suggestions, calling for boycott of schools not having Urdu curriculum. He suggested parents should take the issue seriously and impart the language to their children to instil in them love for their history, identity and religion. In this regard, Ibrahim Aatish article (ST, February 6) suggested Urdu-speaking people to get rid of minority psyche saying Urdu is lingua franca of India and connect north to sought. He observed some sections in Southern India speak Urdu well but only on stage but in public they show hesitancy in using the language.
Author’s view
The pathetic part in all the above-mentioned issues is that rarely any edit/article presented any solid facts. Statements, verbose and repetitiveness are rampant on all these issues. Except a few reports, mostly edit/articles only based their arguments on the popular narrative on the subjects. Pathetically, some articles RSU carried but did not do justice with its audience by presenting poor statistics.
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The author, currently a media analyst, has worked for several English dailies. He can be contacted on quamar.ashraf@gmail.com
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Papers/Portal scanned: Inquilab, Siasat, Munsif, Etemaad, Sahafat, Rashtriya Sahara Urdu , Hamara Samaj, Hindustan Express , Mera Watan, Sach ki Awaz ,Siyasi Taqdeer , Urdu Times, Mumbai Urdu Times, and The Wire Urdu.