NEW DELHI: On Friday morning, a day before Delhi gets a new state government, came the news that Holy Child Auxilium, a school in Vasant Vihar which is also the alma mater of Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani, was “attacked” by unidentified masked persons.
Since it was a school run by Christian missionaries, the secular ecosystem decided not to wait for facts and declare it as an attack on the minorities.
The first big celebrity to highlight the case was Arvind Kejriwal, who will become the Chief Minister of Delhi tomorrow:
https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal/status/566099097971470336
With his tweet, Kejriwal set the tone that this was a “communal” incident, though his tweet didn’t mention it explicitly.
And after that, as if right on cue, string of “usual suspects” started claiming that there as a “pattern” and Christians were being targeted systematically.
They included journalists, who solved the case before the police:
Congress politicians, who didn’t lose opportunity to attack Smriti Irani:
https://twitter.com/sanjaynirupam/status/566106994176585728
Muslim “activists”, who declared that India was already a fascist country:
and Christian “activists”, who blamed government for planting these attacks:
https://twitter.com/soniafaleiro/status/566111631047151617
But it didn’t take much time to prove that these assorted set of journalists, politicians, and activists were pushing a pre-decided propaganda.
To the credit of staff and management of Holy Child Auxilium, who too are Christians, they conceded that there was no “communal” angle to the incident and it looked a case of theft.
Some journalists too reported the truth, instead of spreading the paranoia and propaganda
https://twitter.com/AdityaRajKaul/status/566115505233080320
But even after clarification by police and school staff, many journalists and activists were still spreading the paranoia as if this incident was “communal” in nature.
Perhaps their motive was never to secure safety for the Christian community, but to work on a pre-decided message. Or as Goebbels had suggested – repeat a lie till it becomes the truth – and these usual suspects are known to repeat a lie thousand times.