Soon after the BJP’s loss in the Araria bypolls, a video of some alleged RJD supporters, reportedly chanting anti-India slogans, went viral on social media. As reported by The Wire, without even confirming the authenticity of the video, it was picked up immediately by several news channels, which played it under the narrative that Hindus were unsafe in states where the BJP weren’t in power.
As a result of this, the media has received major flak from various political parties with a civil servant reportedly lodging a complaint against Zee Hindustan, which had featured a discussion around it with the headline: “After Muslim’s win, will Araria turn into a terror nation?”
In the viral video, the report mentions, the man caught in focus can be heard celebrating RJD MP Sarfaraz Alam’s victory over the BJP and chanting slogans such as ‘Bharat Tere Tukde Honge‘ (India will break) and ‘Pakistan Zindabad‘.
Channels such as Aaj Tak and Times Now picked up the video and ran it for their audiences, with a focus on how moments after the BJP’s defeat in Araria, anti-India sentiments were coming to the center-stage.
However, an Alt News investigation revealed certain discrepancies in the video, which were not verified by the above mentioned news channels.
According to its investigations, the video has no audio-video sync, and in two different time-intervals, has zero-audio levels.
These factors, and several others mentioned in the report, challenge the authenticity of the video that media channels, and Zee Hindustan in particular, broadcast-ed without backing, so easily.
The Wire report also mentions that the authenticity of the video was also questioned by members of the RJD party themselves, as well as the family members of those allegedly chanting in the video.
Reacting to Zee Hindustan conducting a discussion along communal lines on the basis of the video, Ashish Joshi, former nodal officer of Sachar Committee and Prime Minister’s 15 Point Programme for Welfare of Minorities, filed a complaint against the news channel with News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA).
I was aghast to see the blatant communal caption of the programme. It was also negation of what the Constitution of India stands for. There was clear prima facie case if violation of IPC sections.Ashish Joshi told The Wire
Speaking about media responsibility, in terms of this video, Joshi also said: “It is an extremely dangerous trend as media plays a very important role in dissemination of news and information of people. It is warping the minds of the people & is having an adverse impact on the Indian society. There have been so many cases of aggression & assault on minorities.”
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