Amidst the elections, journalism seems to have taken a backseat over propaganda peddling. In a recent incident, a few journalists belonging to the ‘neutral’ media were caught red-handed twsiting a statement by Uttar Pradesh CM yogi Adityanath during a public event. In his speech, UP CM referred to past comments made by BSP supremo Mayawati against Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav. In the speech Yogi Adityanath had said “Today people from the Yadav Community ask the BSP candidate on comments of Mayawati where she had said the without the constitution of Ambedkar, Akhilesh Yadav would be rearing buffaloes, how are they together on the same stage.”
However, some senior journalist, including the Wire’s Rohini Singh, had portrayed Yogi Adityanath speech in a skewed manner and attributed the comments to him, which were originally made by Mayawati.
Dear @rohini_sgh @PJkanojia, this is FLAT lie.
Yogi was quoting Mayawati's 2014 speeches to say- 'यादव बिरादरी के लोग BSP कैंडिडेट से पूछते हैं कि मायावती तो कहती थी कि अगर अम्बेडकर का संविधान नहीं होता तो अखिलेश भैंस चारा रहा होता, आज दोनों मंच पे कैसे"
Stop the Spin. pic.twitter.com/SaLxPbNMKk
— Ankur Singh (Modi Ka Parivar) (@iAnkurSingh) April 20, 2019
This blatant attempt to spin the comments made by a Chief Minister has serious implications. Journalists like Rohini Singh are not only misquoting CM Yogi’s statement but are also clearly trying to strike the caste lines and give a casteist color to Yogi Adityanath’s image by attributing these comments to him.
Rohini Singh and others who blatantly lied about the comments by CM Yogi could have spared a few moments to find out that the statement was made by Mayawati in 2014 and CM Yogi was simply quoting her comments.
https://twitter.com/iAnkurSingh/status/1119685290036088832
‘Neutral’ media has been called out a number of times for their outright hypocrisy and meek attempts to subvert important issues into favorable political narrative. Traditional media in India has historically been dominated by a group of select elites, result of a perpetual quid pro quo within the industry and the Indian government, which prevented people with an unbiased and independent view to contribute to major part of the news. However, with the advent of social media, monopoly held by these elite packs was soon dissipated to millions of Indians voicing their opinions through several platforms.
Loss of monopoly over media didn’t go down well with the elite groups who have now employed a different strategy, to peddle lies. However, they are being exposed by users over digital platforms most of the times.
After PM Narendra Modi, Yogi Adityanath has been on the crosshairs of the ‘neutral’ media. Media or as called by many ‘Lutyens media’ had emerged as a proxy force to manufacture narratives on every front. Backed by the ecosystem created by the Congress and Left-liberals in garb of civil societies over decades, this Lutyens cabal has always been ready to twist and mold the narrative to present a skewed and biased point of view.
With a barrage of unverified and fake news, the common man is the end victim who bears the real cost of these meek attempts. Usage of such sensitive issue to drive agenda which might exploit caste angles is highly distressing.
