“Amazon Web Drama Draws the Wrath of India’s Hindu Nationalists,” is how the blatantly biased, U.S. based New York Times covered the ongoing uproar in India against anti-Hindu web series Tandav. After massive furore on social media, at least two criminal complaints have been filed against the makers of the trashy show, apart from the I&B Ministry summoning top executives of streaming platform Amazon Prime for them to explain the entire fiasco and why such blatant demonisation of Hindus was allowed on their platform.
This has got the New York Times – a liberal pamphlet all riled up.
How dare, after all, a seemingly fascist government go after Indian Islamists and their comrades to fix accountability for them indulging in anti-Hindu activities? The entire New York Times piece is nothing but a sorry account of how Indian liberals are being ‘ratcheted’ by a “Hindu Nationalist government” led by none other than Prime Minister Modi.
The New York Times opines that the massive outrage against Tandav is being driven by the fact that the web series is just too close to reality, which is not going down well with Hindu nationalists in the country. “The opening episode looks almost like a newsreel. It cuts from farmer protests to student protests to police killings — all events that have happened in recent months under the administration of Narendra Modi, India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister,” it says.
Major streaming services like Amazon and Netflix are increasingly finding themselves caught in the middle as India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party ratchets up the pressure on some of the country’s most successful artists. https://t.co/QGIZ3AVig2
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 19, 2021
The American newspaper also noted how ‘comedian’ Munawar Faruqui was sent behind bars for what they called an alleged cracking of joke against Modi’s right-hand man – Amit Shah. That the comedian denigrated Hindu deities were given a convenient miss by NYT. Meanwhile, speaking on the rightful sacking of the GoAir pilot, New York Times said, “The pressure extends into other walks of life. An Indian airline pilot and decorated military veteran was fired from his job this month after tweeting that the Prime Minister was “an idiot.”
The New York Times report also said, “In the past few months, officials belonging to Mr. Modi’s party have ratcheted up their pressure on some of the most successful artists in the country. Critics see that pressure as an effort to quash views that question Hindu nationalist ideology, which seeks to turn India into an overt Hindu state and push non-Hindu minorities to the margins.”
The New York Times article epitomises best on how liberals have been losing a game of setting the narrative, in which they excelled until recently. Importantly, outrage by Hindus has ensured that the government begins taking action against all anti-Hindu elements who are enjoying a free run under the shroud of cinematic freedom. Unfortunately for liberals, they cannot evade the government and punitive action this time around, after having it too good for way too long.