When The New Indian Express (TNIE) hit stands on November 11 with the headline – “Killer Car Blast in Delhi’s Heart” – what we saw there was not ‘reporting’ on the Delhi blast but the angle was totally reframed.
We found the culprit.
Self exploding, killer cars.
Too bad that the ‘3 docs’ had to be acknowledged. pic.twitter.com/MzDQSCr6Ux
— Raghava Krishna | రాఘవ కృష్ణ (@Anviksiki) November 11, 2025
This is a familiar habit in the apologetic media space – be they Indian or of any other nationality – they neutralise terror by removing the human agent when the attackers happen to be Muslims. The story becomes about a “blast” or a “vehicle,” not about ideology, networks, or intent. A comfort zone headline that keeps readers emotionally distant, politically safe, and socially unprovoked.
Then there’s that strange byline add-on: “Powerful explosion near Red Fort sets off security alerts across the country ahead of Bihar’s final phase poll.”
Why tie a terror blast in Delhi to a state election hundreds of kilometres away? What does Bihar’s polling have to do with an IED inside a Hyundai? Unless the goal was to hint, without saying so, that the blast could affect votes, or to subtly cast it as part of the political calendar. So, did TNIE think that a blast just before the second phase of polls in a state far away from the national capital could reverse fortunes for any political party?
Either way, it drags a national security tragedy into campaign season optics.
And when the investigation revealed that the culprits included three doctors, the silence thickened. The facts were too inconvenient – educated, professional, Indian Muslim men accused of plotting mass murder. The narrative doesn’t fit the easy stereotype of the poor, misguided radical. So instead of naming, the headline hides. The car kills; the people vanish.
Language matters. “Killer car” is not just lazy writing, it’s editorial evasion. It lets everyone keep their hands clean. But terrorism is not an accident, and headlines shouldn’t pretend it is.
The blast near Red Fort wasn’t a story about a car. It was about conviction, ideology, and betrayal from within. The headline chose to look away.
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