“Why is JNU an issue?…. Inka canteen mein udhari hai.”
-Kunal Kamra, ‘Pakistani’ comedian.
“You are more dangerous to this country than Maoist terrorists.”
– Arnab Goswami, ‘Actor,’ Times Now.
This is a direct quote made on a prime time show by Arnab Goswami directed towards former JNU student Umar Khalid. Fast forward to August 2018: two men attempted to shoot and kill Umar Khalid near the Parliament.
In February 2016, JNU was a hot topic for every media house. An arts and cultural event organised against the judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt and turning attention to the issue in Kashmir turned into a matter of ‘national security.’
ABVP members protested against the event. Allegations of students raising ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans was the top news story of the day. The video in question turned out to be doctored, but the damage was already done. Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid, among others, have been charged with sedition over the course of this incident. Character assassinations were underway on various prime time shows, terming protesters ‘anti-national,’ citing the doctored videos as evidence. Rajnath Singh, with zero proof, alleged that JNU students had the backing of Hafiz Saeed.
Over the course of this incident, various student groups clashed.
Najeeb Ahmed, a first year MSc Biotechnology student from JNU, went missing on October 14 2016, after a reported scuffle with ABVP members. His disappearance sparked protests around various campuses.
Times Now ran with the story when the false report of him joining ISIS came out. At the time, doing so this helped spread the fake rumours to smear Najeeb Ahmed’s character. They still haven’t gotten rid of the video as was directed by the Delhi High Court.
Under pressure from the backlash they received, Times Now did remove other articles on their website but they can still be searched for and the highlights of this particular article too attempt to paint him as a radical who deserved what he got.
Najeeb is still missing and the CBI was allowed to terminate the investigation late last year.
The media has played a big role in sensationalising incidents and helped fuel this violence. A lot of mainstream media houses, owing to their political backing, get away with reporting the most absurd of stories and misreport stories to spread their political propaganda.
Times Now has also been involved in purporting various other stories. For example, the story of conversion rate cards had already been debunked at the time it ran on the channel. Considering the resources that Times Now has, it is absurd to believe that they did not know about the story’s credibility, and I think the only reason it made it to the prime time show was to marginalise sections of our society and later further the agenda of issues such as those in JNU being a matter of national security.
Times Now isn’t the only corporate media house to run these stories but it certainly is one of the biggest. The aim of this article is to highlight the fact that even after the Delhi High Court’s order, Times Now still hasn’t completely gotten rid of the stories that painted Najeeb as some sort of terrorist. Mainstream media manipulated an issue to the extent where it turned deadly. Unless strict action is taken against such news agencies, they will continue to misguide audiences to serve their master’s agenda.
It is time we as a collective take a stand to deplatform individuals who have for years been spreading misinformation and reaping benefits. We need to boycott such individuals and channels. Advertisers should be persuaded to pull their advertisements from such shows.
Special mentions to Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar who have gone head over heels to fit Arnab’s shoes.