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9 Instances When TNM Tried To Whitewash Incidents Where Perpetrators Belonged To One Community

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The News Minute, is a rabid leftist and Dravidian Stockist portal that has often been found reporting half-truths and misleading information. The whitewashing of the Udupi video scandal is their latest attempt to victimize the victim and give and trivialize the horrific incident of 3 Muslim girls who had allegedly recorded girls from the Hindu community in their college bathroom. 

TNM brushed it off as an instance of ‘bullying’ and stated that the video was promptly deleted upon the victim’s confrontation. According to the article, the girls involved defend their actions as a mere “prank”.

Here are 9 instances in the recent past where TNM has gone above and beyond to portray one specific community as victims even when the real victim would have been someone else, most often a Hindu.

Instance 1 – Butchering Of Shraddha Walkar By Aftab

Last year, we all came to hear about the horrific butchering of Shraddha by her partner Aftab Ameen Poonawalla. Aftab had a serious argument with his partner Shraddha, and things took a horrifying turn. He used a sharp weapon to dismember her body into 35 pieces and even bought a fridge to hide them! What’s even more chilling is that he threw those gruesome body parts at 18 different locations in Delhi over the course of 18 days. To make matters worse, he tried to avoid getting caught by sneaking out in the early morning with 1-2 body parts in a plastic bag and dumping them in a forest. Yes, we all know what happened. 

As always, TNM hid the name of the perpetrator in a bid to secularise the gruesome incident.

TNM’s Editor-in-Chief Dhanya Rajendran shared an Indian Express article titled “A toxic and abusive relationship that ended in death” on her Twitter handle and she wrote the following caption, “Shraddha continued their relationship as Aaftab emotionally blackmailed her and said he would die by suicide if she leaves him. The level of entitlement such men have”.

Instance 2 – Giving Communal Colour To Petty Fight

On a different occasion, The News Minute allegedly attempted to spark communal tensions by sensationalising a minor altercation between college students that occurred in a little-known town within the Dakshin Kannada district. The article titled “Dakshina Kannada: Muslim man beaten up for speaking to Hindu woman classmate” claimed that Mohammed Saneef was allegedly attacked for befriending a Hindu classmate. However, the article didn’t mention anything about stalking or harassment. Instead, the police referred to it as a “love-related case.”

Interestingly, The News Minute seemingly made efforts to associate the students who assaulted Saneef with a Hindu rights organisation, even though there was no direct evidence supporting such a link.

Netizens pointed out this starkly contrasting reporting style of TNM:

Instance 3 – Justifying Crime Because Perpetrator Felt Disrespected

In March 2023, during Holi celebrations in Telangana, a man named Mohammad Shabbir set his ‘friend’ Anjaiah on fire after the latter playfully smeared Holi colours on him. The News Minute “reported” the incident while seemingly trying to portray the perpetrator, Shabbir, in a less negative light and subtly shifted the blame onto the Hindu victim. They initially wrote an article justifying Shabbir’s actions, claiming he felt disrespected and insulted, and doused Anjaiah in petrol before setting him ablaze. You can read our report here.

However, after outraged Twitter users called attention to this biased reporting, TNM modified the text of their report. A Twitter user named Sai called out TNM’s one-sided story, tagging Dhanya Rajendran, Editor-in-Chief of TNM, and asking, “Who writes copy like this? It almost sounds like a justification. Even by #TNMurasoli standards, this is terrible.”

After facing severe backlash on social media for their insensitive reporting, The News Minute (TNM) modified the content of their article without offering an apology for the initial version. The article was published on March 9, two days after the disturbing incident took place. The headline used by The News Minute (TNM) read: “Upset at being smeared with color, a man allegedly sets friend ablaze in Telangana.” In doing so, TNM appeared to defend the perpetrator right from the start, suggesting that the victim was at fault for smearing colour on Muhammed Shabbir during the Holi festival.

Instance 4 – Shifts Blame On Victim Again, Calls People “Hindu Mob”

In May 2023, an incident in Telangana involving a gas cylinder delivery agent named Lingam and Imran Ahmed came to light after a video of their altercation went viral on social media. Lingam, who was wearing a Hanuman Mala at the time, went to deliver a gas cylinder to Imran’s house. When Lingam asked for the empty cylinder, Imran’s mother refused to hand it over, leading to a heated argument between her and Lingam. Imran joined in and assaulted Lingam with chappals while insulting the Hanuman Mala.

Later, Hindu organisations, including the BJP, RSS, and Hindu Vahini, were informed about the incident and gathered at the scene, resulting in a fight where Imran was attacked by a group of men. However, media reports portrayed the attackers as a “Hindu mob” and overlooked the role of Imran and his family in inciting the tension.

However, media outlets like The News Minute focused more on portraying the Hindu group’s attack on Imran as the main story while downplaying Imran’s instigation and assault as a minor event. Phrases like “Hindu Mob” and “Hanuman devotees are perpetrators” were used in their articles, allegedly attempting to stereotype Hindu Hanuman devotees negatively.

It is to be noted that the entire episode of violence might not have occurred if Imran and his mother had followed the customary procedure and returned the empty cylinder. However, The News Minute’s article, edited by its Editor-in-Chief Dhanya Rajendran, made it appear as if the Hindu group attacked Imran’s biryani shop for no apparent reason.

Instance 5 – Udupi Video Scandal

The Udupi video recording horror where 3 female Muslim students video recorded their Hindu classmates in the washroom of the institution secretly. There are reports of this happening for over a year – read more here and here. 

The News Minute as mentioned above played the he said-she said card and reported the horrendous incident as a “prank” and whitewashed the whole issue to make the perpetrators look like victims especially because of last year’s Hijab controversy in the region. 

Instance 6 – Bulli Bai/Sulli Deal Issue

The Bulli Bai and Sulli Deal controversy emerged in 2021 and 2022 when a group of teenagers created an app on GitHub, posting publicly available pictures of Muslim women and seemingly “auctioning” them. While these images were not meant for actual sale and were publicly accessible, they still caused indignation and humiliation among the Muslim women whose pictures were involved.

While the distress caused because of these actions especially since it relates to the misuse of images on the Internet is understandable, it needs to be acknowledged that the teenagers’ actions were foolish and ignorant, not fully comprehending the potential consequences of their actions. This action can be placed under the category of a “prank”, a disgusting one at that. 

The response from the Muslim community and their ideological supporters was deemed excessive. The teenagers involved in the incident faced extended periods of imprisonment, and the incident sparked worldwide anger about Islamophobia and the perceived oppression of Muslim men by “Hindu fascists.” As a consequence, the teenagers were labeled as Hindu terrorists, and the entire Hindu community faced scrutiny in connection to the victimisation of Muslims, particularly Muslim women.

Dhanya Rajendran, who is currently defending TNM’s stance on the Udupi case as a “prank”, previously advocated for trafficking charges to be applied to the arrested teenagers involved in the incident.

This would have resulted in the teenagers facing jail time for offences related to prostitution and flesh trade, despite their actions involving publicly available images on an app. In addition to this, she exposed the identities of the accused teenagers, including an 18-year-old girl.

A few more instances where TNM tries to paint one particular community as supreme and peace-loving:

Instance 7 – Justifying Alleged Land Grab By Waqf Board

In September 2022, TNM published an article where it attempted to establish that the village of Thiruchendurai belonged to the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board, rather than the rightful landowners. According to the report, the Waqf Board sent a letter to the Registration Department with documents claiming ownership of the entire village and requesting a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for any land registration in the area.

As the news created controversy, the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board decided to “temporarily allow” property-related transactions in the Tiruchendurai village. The TNM article quoted the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board Chairman, Abdul Rahman, who asserted that their records show the Waqf Board owns 389.03 acres of land in Thiruchendurai.

TNM further corroborated the Waqf Board’s claims by stating, “TNM also verified the Gazette Notification number 570 to confirm that the land had been registered as Waqf property on June 27, 1956.”

Instance 8 – Denying The Existence Of Love Jihad 

The release of “The Kerala Story” created a buzz, discussing topics that were previously avoided by the ‘Left-Liberal’ intelligentsia of Lutyens Delhi. The News Minute (TNM) published articles attempting to present an alternative narrative to “The Kerala Story.”

TNM published an article highlighting communal harmony stories from Kerala as an alternative to the movie, but it was criticised for trying to ignore the truth behind “Love Jihad” and brushing it aside with other stories. The article in TNM failed to engage in a real discussion about Love Jihad as a social issue. The practice of using love as a means for proselytising by Jihadists is a well-documented reality.

Malappuram, once a Hindu-majority district, saw demographic changes over time, with Muslims now comprising over 70% of the population. Factors contributing to this change include the Moplah rebellions and the invasion of Tipu Sultan, which led to the deaths of many Hindus and the destruction of Hindu temples. The Hindu population in Malappuram declined due to these events, leading to it becoming a Muslim-majority district. Instances of forced conversions to Islam and Love Jihad have been reported in Malappuram. TNM’s response to “The Kerala Story” only appeared to divert attention from the issue of Love Jihad and deny its ugly existence in India.

Instance 9 – Peddling Half-Truths About Halal Certification

In April 2022, The News Minute published an “explainer” on Halal Certification showcasing it in a positive light by stating that it guarantees hygienic and non-toxic food prepared according to Islamic law. However, the article whitewashed the impact of imposing Islamic practices on non-Muslims and justified the act of blowing into food.

The article ignored several problematic points about Halal and these include:

  1. Imposes Islamic hegemony over non-Muslims, as non-Muslims have no choice but to consume meat slaughtered in the Halal way.
  2. Halal slaughter is considered cruel, as it leads to slow death for animals, unlike Jhatka slaughter.
  3. Halal effectively discriminates against non-Muslims in the meat industry, leading to monopolization by Muslims.
  4. The practice of Halal is seen as misogynistic, as only Muslim men are allowed to perform the Islamic prayer during meat cutting.
  5. Halal certification is often issued by organisations with alleged links to supporting terrorists and jihadists, inadvertently funded by non-Muslim consumers.

The consistent pattern in these “news” articles is the evident bias shown by TNM towards a specific community, where it seemingly downplays heinous crimes and refuses to acknowledge the underlying ideology driving that community’s actions. This has raised curiosity among netizens regarding whether The News Minute will continue to assert itself as an objective “news” portal or openly acknowledge its alignment as a mouthpiece for the leftists, Islamists and the Dravidian stocks.

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