In all democratic countries, it is common to have one or two major left-leaning media outlets that end up clashing with the nationalist right. Given how propagandist the left can be, it is quite common for the left to get called out. The Hindu for example gets called out many times by the netizens, very often for obvious reasons.
Read more: Why The Hindu newspaper should consider renaming itself to “The Han Chinese”
What however is not so common is a diplomatic mission calling you out. And guess what, this rare event has just occurred. The Hindu just managed to rub the Russian Embassy the wrong way.
The Hindu publishes ‘invasion’ quiz
The newspaper published a quiz called “#TheHinduNewsQuiz”. The question was- “Which part of Ukraine is already annexed by Russia in a previous invasion of 2014?”
And then there were four options.
- Crimea;
- Kharkiv;
- Lviv;
- Bakhmut
Russian Embassy’s angry reaction to the quiz
Russia is already facing a lot of Western propaganda over growing tensions with Ukraine. And the Russian Embassy didn’t take The Hindu quiz very kindly. So, it had something to say to the newspaper. The Russian Embassy tweeted, “Dear @the_hindu, tell us more about “the previous invasion”. We haven’t heard of that.”
Dear @the_hindu, tell us more about “previous invasion”. We haven’t heard of that 😮 https://t.co/67IxHLjjfL
— Russia in India 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbIndia) February 1, 2022
The Hindu deleted its tweet later, but the screenshot has been shared widely on social media. So, the full picture is pretty clear.
Russia denies invading Crimea
Crimea was annexed by Russia following a referendum in the year 2014. However, the Western media disputes the referendum and often describes the entire episode as an invasion of Crimea. It calls the annexation as well as the subsequent occupation of the territory by Russia illegal.
The reality is that Crimea’s Parliament had voted to secede from Ukraine after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by pro-Western protesters. The Crimean Parliament deemed it necessary to protect the right of the Crimean people to speak the Russian language. This was followed by a referendum in which over 95% of voters reportedly voted in favour of Crimea joining Russia.
The entire episode had started as a result of ousting of a pro-Russian President in Ukraine by the West and should have ended after Crimea voted in favour of uniting with Russia. But Ukraine and Western powers, namely the EU and the US had disputed the referendum. Thereafter, the US and the EU imposed unilateral sanctions against Russia due to which the Russian economy has been suffering for almost eight years now.
After Biden came to power, the US once again started Ukraine propaganda and, the matters are currently heating up about which you get to read on an almost everyday basis.
However, India had taken a different stand back then. Then National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon had even said, “There are legitimate Russian and other interests involved and we hope they are discussed and resolved.”
India had opposed Western sanctions against Moscow. Government sources were quoted as saying, “India has never supported unilateral sanctions against any country e.g Iraq or Iran. Therefore, we will also not support any unilateral measures by a country or a group of countries.”
Not the first time for The Hindu
This is not the first time The Hindu has embarrassed itself. Earlier the publication ran full page advertisement of CCP, after the Galwan valley standoff.
On December 9 last year, a headline appeared on the front page of The Hindu. It stated, “Rawat, 12 others killed in T.N. chopper crash”. The rank of an Army Officer stays with him forever. And the officer should always be addressed by his or her rank, call it a strict rule or basic decency but it applies to everyone, including journalists.
Read More: For The Hindu, India’s first CDS is just ‘Rawat’ but Pakistan’s Qamar Bajwa is ‘General Bajwa’
The Hindu got used to national bashing but this time, Russian embassy has bashed the publication. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, if one day other countries too, start destroying the propaganda propelled by The Hindu.
