By CJP Team
On August 14, 2024, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) filed a complaint with the Independent News Service Private Ltd (IndiaTV) for their news segment titled “Coffee Par Kurukshetra: बांग्लादेशी हिंदुओं को कौन बचाएगा?”. The said segment, which had aired on India TV on August 7, 2024, was based on the significant turn of events that took place in Bangladesh recently. As one is aware, on August 5, the neighbouring country of Bangladesh saw a turn in their government with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigning and leaving the country on Monday in the afternoon and Army chief Waker uz Zaman stating that an interim government will take over the power in the country. Before the filing of the complaint, on August 9, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took the oath of office as head of Bangladesh’s interim government, and raised call to protect the Hindu minority present in Bangladesh as well as restoring peace in the country.
Soon after Hasina had left the country, jubilant crowds waved flags and danced in front of cameras. Videos showing tens of thousands of people surrounding government offices and residences in the capital Dhaka started coming up on social media. People could be seen entering the official residence of ex-PM Hasina and stealing things from her house, which included fishes, utensils, clothes, etc. However, the celebratory protests also took a turn for the worst as videos of people vandalising an imposing statue of Hasina’s father, independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in Dhaka, attacking the head with an axe also emerged. In the days following the ouster of Hasina, multiple incidents of attacks on the Hindu minorities had also surfaced.
The complainant had raised the present complaint with the broadcaster as while it is understandable that the unpredictable situation prevailing in Bangladesh as well as the history of violence against minorities in the country would lead to people being apprehensive regarding the safety of Hindus and Christians, a false sense of panic was being created by certain people in India through propaganda that was contributing to the chaos. It is essential to highlight that even though the theme of the ‘Coffee Par Kurukshetra’ show on IndiaTV was to discuss the situation of Hindus in Bangladesh, the discussion kept diverting to the Muslims of India wanting to eradicate the Hindus in India so that they can convert India into an Islamic nation. In short, the discussion which could have been regarding ensuring protection of minorities in the neighbouring countries as well as in India was manipulated into spreading fear and causing alarm against the Muslim takeover of India.
The said “charcha”, of which Pradeep Singh, Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay and Shantanu Gupta were a part of, misused the activities taking place in Bangladesh to cause unrest in India and to build a narrative of an impending Muslim takeover of India. The host of the show Saurabh Sharma had repeatedly used the word “Jihadi” to denote the Bangladeshi Muslims, and encouraged the conspiracy theories of Muslims changing the demography of India to take over the country and make it an Islamic nation. Every opportunity was taken up by each of the speakers and the host to encourage misconceptions against Muslims, by speaking about the alleged agenda of “Ghazwa-E-Hind”, “Jihad”, “Madrasa”, “Shaheen Bagh”, and “Waqf Board”.
This story was originally published in sabrangindia.in. Read the full story here.
