Firstpost at it again. They have successfully converted an apolitical news to a sellable political controversy.
Here is what happened:
Zeeshan Khan (22) applied for a marketing job to Hari Krishna Exports Pvt Ltd on Tuesday via email. Within 15 minutes, he received the reply: “We regret to inform you that we hire only non-Muslim candidates.” Khan and his friends put out a screenshot of the mail on social media and it went viral. By Thursday, he was trending on Twitter. (Source: TOI). So basically a Muslim youth was denied a job offer by a PRIVATE firm that allegedly hires only Non-Muslim candidates. Now the head of a firm can be a bigot, homophobe, sexist or racist. These are personal traits and have got nothing to do with the government. If tomorrow a gay man is denied an offer by a Homophobe company director of a private firm or a South Indian is denied an offer by a racist North Indian Managing director of a Delhi based firm, should we all come out in hordes and start blaming Modi? Simple rules of logic say no.
So what is Firstpost trying to do? Why are they converting an apolitical news to a primetime political Masala. The reason is simple. They are simply pursuing their pseudo secular agenda by sending out a message “Muslims are treated unfairly in this nation”. I have Muslim colleagues at my workplace and never have I seen them getting mistreated by their team mates, leads or higher management for being a Muslim. When they goof up at work, they get reprimanded like myself or anybody else. But this is India and anything that shows the second religious majority of India as a victim is a potential political controversy. “A roadside ruffian slapping a passerby” is sold as “Hapless Muslim attacked by Hindu bully in Modi’s India”. Add a generous dose of RSS, VHP and a veiled attack on BJP, a sure shot online viral post is ready to be served. Because of this very attitude of the newswallahs, 2002 Gujarat riots, Ishrat Jahan encounter, Batla house encounter have been discussed, re discussed, over discussed, debated and argued gazillion times. And the mere mention of these incidents makes the Muslims act orphaned. ‘1984’ which was an orchestrated homicide strangely isn’t discussed so frequently.
Screeching journalists will invite spokespersons of different parties tonight on their show. “Are Muslims a stepchild of this nation?” will be discussed. Branded liberals will shake their heads in despair about the political hooliganism done by BJP. Someone will start discussing Sakshi Maharaj and Ghar Waapsi and the core issue of blatant racism of an individual will lay forgotten. What a loss.
To conclude I’d say Muslims in India should stop paying heed to the news traders that victimize them. India is an equal opportunity provider to everyone regardless of their caste or religion (The reservation thing holds true of course). They need to give the prejudiced and half-baked articles a little break and let reasoning take the driving seat. They need to be more positive about their lives and the lives of those, they share their country with. They need to read more about people like Azeem Premji, A R Rehman and APJ Abdul Kalam. And the Newswallahs should understand that articles like these only fan the communal cinders. This will make Muslims feel more alienated and hate their governments more. What are you trying to do here? Planning a civil unrest?
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