The G 20 summit is being held currently in Buenos Aires. Powerful nations like the USA, Germany, and Japan etc. are making their presence felt in the area. Our own Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, also arrived in time for the mega-summit and was given a warm welcome by one and all. From leaders like the US President Donald Trump, to even the likes of Saudi crown prince, Prince Mohammad bin Salman, everyone seemed elated with PM Modi’s presence at the summit.
However, not all seem to be pleased with Narendra Modi’s arrival. An Argentine TV outlet, who was giving captions to the visits of all the foreign dignitaries, gave a bizarre caption for PM Narendra Modi’s visit, which was not only racist but also vulgar. Reported initially by journalists like Patrick Gillespie, this following image was in Spanish, which means ‘Apu arrived’:-
Argentine TV outlet @CronicaTV displays this racist image with the headline “Apu Arrived” as India Prime Minister @narendramodi arrives in Buenos Aires for the #G20. pic.twitter.com/oNqZVpS4E5
— Patrick Gillespie (@Pat_Gillespie) November 29, 2018
If this wasn’t enough, they even posted the following image, which is a prelude to an erotic song ‘Ringa Ringa’ in the controversial Oscar winner ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ :
However, if one closely looks at Cronica TV, we will notice that it is just not another channel. Going by its preferences, as well as its opinion on the leaders arriving at G 20 summit, we learn that Cronica TV is not only a repeat offender but also looks like a distant cousin of NDTV and The Wire when it comes to insulting globally accepted leaders.
Apart from Narendra Modi, even leaders like Recip Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey and Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, haven’t been spared either, as they were welcomed with the following messages:-
https://twitter.com/CronicaTV/status/1068146701918240768
Me vuelvo loco pic.twitter.com/sWPKUr72m9
— Facundo Pedrini (@facu_pedrini) November 29, 2018
In the tweet against Erdogan, they stereotyped him as Onur, which is a character from the famous book ‘One Thousand and One Arabian Nights’, while Paul Kagame was welcomed with the following address ‘There is No Auction’, a clear attack on his humble origins.
Needless to say, this invoked the ire of Twitter users in both India and abroad, who trolled the channel left, right and center. Following are some of their tweets in protest against such a condemnable action by Cronica TV:-
Besides, if one looks back at Cronica TV, they have been equally insensitive in the past as well. Known for its otherwise left-liberal stance on any event in the world, Firstpost was however unequivocal in its criticism of Cronica TV, and also revealed a fact that they had broadcasted the suicide of an ex-policeman ‘live’ on the national television, as shown below :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcsPFSRjcAo
To quote an excerpt from their report, ‘If you are a journalist covering an event as serious and important as the G20 summit, what should you absolutely not do? Argentinian news channel Cronica TV has answered this question by covering the G20 summit in Buenos Aires is probably the most frivolous and racist way possible.
Cronica TV also decided that it would be hilarious to use the music from the song Ring Ring Ringa from the movie Slumdog Millionaire as background music for the arrival of the head of government for the summit of an international forum of 20 countries. Cronica TV even flashed the words ‘Chiqui Chiqui Chiqui’ across an image of Modi to mimic the music of the song. Only the Argentinian news channel may be able to answer why it resorted to this cheap gimmick.”
To be honest, Cronica TV’s insult of Narendra Modi, though atrocious, is not entirely surprising; given the treatment, our own channels have given him. However, the way they’ve been trolled for the same suggests that such barbs will not be taken lying down by anyone.