Even as the people in riot-affected Delhi pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, radical Islamists in Kerala celebrate by making audacious statements
On social media, one post read: ‘We don’t have to cut a sorry figure in Delhi as we did in Gujarat’. Several SDPI leaders and members are urging all Muslims to fall in line with the party as they have successfully managed to ‘teach Sanghis a lesson in Delhi’. A leader of SDPI, the political arm of radical Islamist outfit Popular Front, in a video, boastingly says: “It is being said that we were behind Delhi incidents. You must have heard about Rs 120 crore (funds given to units to organise riots in various parts of India). It is in the interest of the entire Muslim community to join forces with us.”
Some radical Muslim expatriates in Gulf countries who are active on social media have issued threats to film director Ali Akbar, a BJP leader, for supporting CAA. They said Akbar would be the next target for immolation.
Meanwhile, a PFI leader, addressing a gathering, said: “In Delhi we have proved we will not take it lying down anymore. But I want to warn the Sanghi’s and their police. If something happens against Muslims in Delhi, no Sanghi will live peacefully in Kerala. We will wipe out RSS.”
Adding fuel to the fire is the distorted reportage of the so-called ‘mainstream’ Malayalam media aimed at instilling hatred and fear in the minds of Muslims. The pro-Congress paper Malayala Manorama had mischievously reported Ankit Sharma as a victim of stone-pelting and no paper had identified Jaffrabad shooter. To save his life from murderous crowd, a reporter of the Jamaat-e-Islami media outlet Media One had to plead “I am a Muslim from Kerala; Spare us we are belong to a Muslim channel. Despite mounds of evidence, reporters of Asianet, throwing to the wind all canons of journalism, belted out biased reports, suggesting that ‘Hindu goons’ were mounting an anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi. Its reporter P R Sunil, a former SFI leader, made many outlandish and factually incorrect statements to project it as an anti-Muslim. His reporting received much flak from viewers across the state and outside. “In his enthusiasm to project it as a pre-planned Hindutva project to eliminate Muslims, he belted out a lot of factual inaccuracies aimed at creating fear psychosis among Muslims. Moreover, his whole attempt was to show Hindus in poor light,” said J Nandakumar, senior RSS leader. Nandakumar called upon the Centre to keep a close watch on revenues and funding sources of these Malayalam channels.
As more details of the riots started pouring in with the national media unraveling different dimensions of the conspiracy and the role of AAP MLA Tahir Hussain, the Malayalam media changed its tack and became overnight paragons of peace. As their narratives fell flat, some of them were forced to show the damages caused to the Hindu side without causing much annoyance to their Left-jihadi audience.
Nandakumar, the author of Hindutva for the Changing Times, says the media in Kerala is in the grip of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. In the book, he elaborates how Kerala media in collaboration with jihadi and Left outfits built an anti-India/pro-Pakistan narrative in the wake of the Pulwama terror strike.
Media outlets often tend to toe an anti-Hindu line because a lion’s share of their advertisement revenue come from Gulf-based businessmen. It is alleged that sometimes, money in paid to media outlets through hawala, which suits both the parties.
Discussion about this post