‘People from a certain section of society are abusing us,’ Rajat Sharma-led News Broadcasters Association slams Tablighi apologists

The Tablighi Jamaat has been a pain for governments, authorities and Indians at large since late March. The Health Ministry two days ago stated that last month’s Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi has pushed up the doubling rate of cases in India to 4.1 days from the estimated 7.4 days prior to them being exposed. Needless to say, the gathering has derailed India’s fight against COVID-19 by epic proportions.

Having wronged the country, the Tablighi Jamaat is now using its proxies and sympathizers to wage a war against all its detractors, particularly the media.

Only yesterday, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre to stop dissemination of “fake news” and take strict action against the media for spreading “communal hatred and bigotry”. To quote their petition, it said, “It is submitted that such reporting has triggered communal antagonism and has also perpetrated hatred, resulting in fissiparous tendencies gaining foothold, undermining and affecting communal harmony.”

Meanwhile, there is a sea of hatred being spread online by Islamic fundamentalists, who are leaving no stone unturned to demonize the media fraternity, only for legitimately asking questions of the Tablighi Jamaat and the disaster that they have effectively put the nation in.

Maulana Mahfooz Ur Rahman, the General Secretary of Maharashtra unit of AIMIM was recently seen explicitly issuing threats to media channels and editors like Rajat Sharma for asking questions of the Tablighi Jamaat. He further said that if their “good Muslims” were to return to their old ways, the media would be in for a big surprise.

A video posted by Sudhir Chaudhary yesterday showed a rabid Islamist, Ilyad Sharaffuddin openly abusing well-known journalists like Arnab Goswami, Amish Devgan and Sudhir Chaudhary. The deranged man was seen calling these journalists ‘dogs’ individually, and also called the top members of the BJP as ‘pigs’. Further, he was also seen lying, and saying that Hindus are as guilty as Muslims from the Tablighi Jamaat, since there were numerous people living in Ashrams and temples across the country. Of course, he did not name any.

The News Broadcasters Association, headed by India TV Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma has now come down heavily on such specimens of extreme Islamism (and lunacy) and has in no uncertain terms exposed the hateful lot.

The strong worded press release did not mince its words in calling out the bigotry and fundamentalist mindset of those issuing threats to the media, and it was nowhere close to being ‘politically correct’.

“News Broadcasters Association (NBA) views with grave concern the tendency among people belonging to a certain section of society resorting to abuses and threats against anchors and reporters working in news channels…There are videos circulating on social media in which some religious preachers are naming some TV news anchors and threatening attacks on the reporters of those channels. NBA strongly deplores this pernicious trend in a section of society and appeals to the government and law enforcing agencies to take immediate preventive action against such anti-social elements. NBA calls upon religious fundamentalists to desist from issuing open threats and making insinuations against news channels. Such activities are violative of the Fundamental Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression, as enshrined in our Constitution…News channels are available to all sections of society including the fundamentalists. NBA would like these leaders to come forward and clear their stand on the role of Tablighi Jamaat in spreading the Coronavirus.”

The Rajat Sharma led News Broadcasters Association is comprised of 27 broadcasters, and is representative of 77 news channels. It is beyond doubt clear that the association has taken fundamentalists and extremists by the collar for trespassing in their territory and teaching the media its job. The media can be criticized for a number of faults it has, however, the coverage of this pandemic has been done with great professionalism by almost all media networks. Therefore, it us unfounded on the part of deranged and rabid fundamentalists to abuse the media only because it dared to ask questions and expose the Wahhabi organization which many owe their allegiances to.