Sudhir Chaudhary and Rubika Liaquat: Two brave journalists who minced no words while reporting on Delhi Temple Desecration

The Chandini Chowk temple vandalism has shaken the capital to its core. A scuffle between 2 people has led to the desecration of a 100 year old temple, intrinsic to old Delhi’s culture. In this regard, the journalists and intellectuals, who are usually too keen to preach equality and justice, are strangely concerned with keeping a “secular” and “politically correct” narrative. The “seculars” in the country are on the forefront to talk about alleged atrocities against the minorities, but when it comes to acknowledging violence against other religions, or desecration of their religious beliefs, these same individuals choose to stay mum. A refreshing change to this hypocrisy, are those few rare journalists, who do not mince their words just because the family and religious shrine affected belonged to Hinduism. Sudhir Chaudhary and Rubika Liaquat make are one of those few brave truth-tellers in the industry.

On the forefront of the non-hypocritical group is Sudhir Chaudhary. Editor-in-chief of Zee News and World is One News, his reportage on temple vandalism is going viral, and for all the right reasons. The report is not mincing words or even following the accepted norms of “political correctness”, but is a simple and crisp account of the situation on ground.

The report begins with calling out the outrageously hypocritical attitude of journalists and reporters, who, even after having been in close proximity to the location of the incident have failed to protest, talk about, or even mention the heinous act of aggression.

The report goes on to explain the situation wherein a group of men, who were indulging in substance abuse in a vehicle parked in front of the victim’s house. When the resident told the perpetrators to move their vehicle, a fight broke out between the 2 groups. Thereafter, the perpetrators, along with their group of friends entered the house of the resident and proceeded to beat him and his family, which included females too. Thereafter, the perpetrators started vandalizing the temple situated nearby with stones. Sudhir Chaudhary through his channel Zee TV showed the CCTV footage of the temple wherein the perpetrators are clearly visible vandalizing the temple and also conveyed the voice of the victims and their plight, which has been subdued as no media organization has gone to visit them.

This attitude of the intellectuals towards the situation is unhealthy and does not befit a democracy and as rightly stated by Sudhir Chaudhary, such “undesirable stories” have hidden the truth from the citizens. These journalists only want to report on the minority issues in the country, and anything faced by the majority is irrelevant to them.

This attitude of Sudhir Chaudhary is not new and in fact, is his established style of journalism. During the Kathua rape case, when the entire media was keen to communalize the horrific rape case and was maligning the name of Hindus at large, Sudhir Chaudhary was the one who exposed that the 4th accused in the case; Vishal Jangotra was in fact in Muzaffarnagar, the day of the ghastly incident. While the media channels were demonizing Hinduism in light of the incident, Sudhir Chaudhary was immersed in more productive activities. Zee News exposed the CCTV footage and photographs that indeed proved the individual was in Muzaffarnagar, a fact that has been ratified by the court as the individual has been acquitted.

In light of the ‘tukde-tukde’ slogans, Zee News led by Sudhir Chaudhary had been the one to report the anti-India slogans, on the basis of which a chargesheet had been filed by the Delhi Police against former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and several others. For this report, Zee News had to bear the brunt of the sympathizers of the ‘tukde-tukde’ gang, which included several politicians including Arvind Kejriwal and the intellectuals, who had claimed that the clip shown by Zee News was doctored, when in fact; it was completely genuine, as had been proved later by the CBI laboratory. Sudhir Chaudhary stuck to the truth at that time, as he has, time and again.

Another reporter of the same vein is Rubika Liyaquat, of ABP News. She is known for her outspoken and nationalist views on any issue in the country. On the Chandni Chowk temple desecration, Rubika Liyaquat has not minced her words and has unapologetically stated what it is. She stated, “I have said this time and again that the Muslim in the country is not a ‘dara hua musalman’”, as the seculars try to peddle. Calling out the hypocrisy of the intellectuals she stated that “this attack does not seem to be an attack on India and had it been the other way around, candle light marches would have been going on the capital”.

There is no better way to describe the hypocrisy of the media. Rubika Liyaquat is right on track. In the past also, Rubika has been a fearless journalist, talking about incidents in an unbiased manner, not what is “suitable to some”.

It is time that people stop playing the minority card to get away from such acts and own up to their actions, as any Indian citizen should. The hypocrisy of the ‘intellectuals’ and the ‘seculars’, who choose to remain mum over the atrocities, only encourages them. India is indebted to such journalists like Sudhir Chaudhary and Rubika Liyaquat who bring out the true picture to light, leaving viewers free to form opinions on the basis of the truth.