Now that Mohamed Haneef, an Indian doctor based in Gold Coast, has been cleared of involvement in failed British car bombings, one would like to know how India’s right-wing media and political parties, who unleashed a campaign of vilification against the Muslim minority in the wake of his arrest, would react. The case against Haneef failed after red-faced Australian prosecutors admitted they falsely claimed in court that his SIM card was found in the burning car and inaccurately said he had shared a flat with some of the British bomb suspects. Australian police charged him with “reckless” support for a terrorist group. Haneef’s lawyer Peter Russo has called for the Australian government to apologize over the 27-year-old’s treatment.
Do not India’s right-wing media and political leaders owe an apology to Haneef and Muslims for their “reckless” campaign against Haneef as an individual and his community in general?
When the news of Haneef’s arrest came on July 2, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh remarked that he could not sleep after listening to the grieving mother of the Indian doctor arrested as an alleged terrorist. But the BJP leader and former Union Home Minister L.K. Advani took strong exception to the prime minister’s statement. Advani is the very person who undertook a countrywide tour fanning flames of hatred that led to the Babri Masjid’s demolition by a Hindu mob.
Taking his cue from Advani, a right-wing journalist called for putting in place extraconstitutional measures to track hidden terrorists (read Muslims) in India before it was too late. The worst was to follow. A host of television news networks formulated a calculated plan with an eye on Television Rating Points (TRP) to have a set of panelists insist that Indian Muslims were now well on their way to becoming terrorists. Imagine 200 million terrorists! Surely there is a better way to project India and its diversity.
Vote-bank politics and religious bigotry of the right-wing Hindutva brigade has spread the tentacles of fear, suspicion and deep anger in India. There is a strong need for restraining the media through appropriate media watchdogs like the Editor’s Guild and the Press Commission of India. Sensationalism pervades Indian television channels in the wake of criminal acts (read terrorism) with the anchors giving a communal spin that does not exist. Perpetrators of criminal acts are criminals whether Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs or any religious group. Why lay the sins of a few upon the doorstep of the entire community?
If some misguided elements choose to vent their anger at real or perceived injustice through unjustified and unacceptable violence, must all Indian Muslims be held accountable? Muslims of India do not crucify Hinduism or Hindus for terrorizing and killing thousands of Muslims for six months in Gujarat with the connivance the state Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Much to the relief of millions of its diaspora, the Indian government, probably for the first time in recent times, has stood up for one of its citizens. It is a welcome change. The Australian High Commissioner John McCarthy was summoned and “was informed of India’s concern over the circumstances in which Dr. Haneef is treated.
Haneef, who has no history of criminal record, was charged with “recklessly” providing a SIM card to his cousin. What is there in a SIM card? It is not a prohibited commodity. Anybody could easily obtain one. How difficult it is to procure one? No media has bothered to question the veracity of such an extreme action.
The boom in television news channels in India opened the floodgates for young anchors and reporters who, in their overzealous enthusiasm to generate more TRPs and instant name and fame are failing to observe journalistic norms. This is a danger to India’s democracy and pluralism.
— Syed Akbar Kamal is managing director of Community TV, New Zealand. Email: [email protected]
