People's Democracy

WE have faith in the media alone. But for the media, many more of us would have been butchered by now….…

This was Rasool Khan, a social worker in charge of running the Jhuapura relief camp for the victims of Gujarat genocide in Ahmedabad, expressing gratitude to the exemplary role played by the national media in general during the carnage. In the same breath, he makes a scathing attack on two largely circulated Gujarati dailies - Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar. He says "they have criminally incited the general public against the Muslims with totally false and concocted stories. They are murderers. Please see that some action is taken against these dailies."

Four minority men have filed an FIR against both these dailies under sections 153(A), 155, 295, 295(A) of IPC. The complaint details the coverage in these dailies on February 28, March 1 and in the subsequent period.

After Narendra Modi and his saffron police force, the victims see these two dailies as the most culpable players in the genocide. One look at their coverage makes you agree with them.

The February 28 issue of Sandesh carried photographs of the burning coaches of the Sabarmati Express with the headline "Fifty Hindus burned alive" above its masthead. It also had a gruesome spread of colour photos of the corpses. But more dangerously it put on the front page a totally false story which was also denied by the police immediately. It wrote that 10 Hindu women were abducted by the Muslim mobs from the train and taken away. The story read "Two of the women's bodies were found with their breasts cut off. Another dead body of a girl, also in a terribly mutilated form, had been found. After being raped and mutilated, the body of the woman was set on fire with petrol. Is there no limit to the lust ?"

It continued to name the village in which these bodies were supposed to have been found. This was a totally false story carried on the front page with prominent display.

However, it served the purpose of blood-thirsty saffron goons. On February 28 itself, the mobs targeted the Muslim women with far more brutality than what was described in the false story of Sandesh. A women's fact-finding team has reported that the mob was carrying apart from swords, petrol bombs and gas cylinders- the copies of Sandesh newspapers. A few days later the newspaper retracted the story. But, the damage had been done. In the entire Gujarat carnage, women and children were brutalised in a manner and intensity as never seen before.

Not just on the first day, but during the entire period both these dailies reported in a most communal and criminal way. On March 7 Sandesh carried a report with a headline that suggested that Indian Muslims returning from Haj piligrimage could be a potential terrorist threat to Hindus. The headline was "Possibility of Attack with the Help and Abetment of Terrorists -Danger to Hindus! Frightening Scheme of Attack by returning Hajis"

Gujarat Samachar had a screaming headline describing Jhuapura relief camp as a "mini-Pakistan".

Though there had been complaints against these dailies, no action or even warning is forthcoming from any worthwhile quarters. The Press Council of India has issued a general warning to the media against any malicious reporting with an intention to outrage religious feelings. But it is clear, there seems to be no impact on such dailies bent on acting as instigators of violence against Muslims. (N S A)