The Telegraph, the far-left propaganda website, is at its usual worst again. In a report on the Battle of Jadavpur titled, ironically enough, “Babull at Jadavpur University”, the newspaper concluded that the Union Minister was equally responsible for the violence at Jadavpur despite the fact that he was a victim of unprovoked violence.
That the report refers to Babul Supriyo as ‘Babull’, as if it is supposed to be clever, is trivializing of a matter that’s extremely serious. The least any media outlet is expected to do since they don’t even bother staying true to facts anymore is that they treat serious issues seriously. But they appear to have abandoned their pursuit of it as well.
The Telegraph, it appears taking a dig at the BJP leader is more important than adhering to conventional norms of journalistic integrity. If a media outlet isn’t even competent enough to gauge the severity of the matter at hand, then one wonders if they are competent enough at anything at all.
People need to understand at this point that The Telegraph is more of an advocacy group than an actuam media organization. During the elections, its editor had claimed in an article removing Narendra Modi from power was the only hope for India’s redemption. This is not how a news organization functions or is supposed to function.
The editor’s inherent biases tend to flow into its pages. For instance, the alleged newspaper equated the abrogation of Article 370 with ‘Partition‘. The Partition was a very dark episode in Indian history, a genocide of Hindus occurred at the time. Hindu women were raped brutally in front of their families. Children were left orphans. Blood flowed in the streets like water. And The Telegraph thought it was clever to equate the integration of Jammu & Kashmir with the rest of India to it. And it was all after ignoring the fact that the state has been far more peaceful than it has ever been in decades.
On another occasion, the newspaper portrayed activists demonstrating in favour of the abrogation of Article 370 as those protesting against it. When a newspaper has such terrible editors, its content will is fated to suffer.
If The Telegraph concerned itself more with journalistic integrity and chose to ally itself more with Truth instead of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), its standards will without a doubt improve drastically. But it appears the editors of the newspaper will be more willing to accompany Frodo Baggins to Mordor than that. In the meantime, journalism will continue to suffer. Perhaps, The Telegraph can find its spine in Mamata Banerjee’s purse.