A few days back, OpIndia had published a report calling out Aajtak news for slandering the Hindu festival of ‘Karwa Chauth’ by mentioning it in their headlines that a husband had severed his wife’s tongue on the day of ‘Karwa Chauth’.
OpIndia had pointed it out that despite the perpetrator and the victim both being non-Hindus, Aaj Tak had mentioned the Hindu festival of Karwa Chauth in describing the barbaric incident.
Now, Aaj Tak has updated its headlines, removing the controversial mention of ‘Karwa Chauth’ in it.
A day after the Hindu festival of ‘Karwa Chauth’, Aaj Tak News published a report with a controversial headline saying “On the day of Karwa Chauth, Husband’s brutality against his wife, severed wife’s tongue with a blade”. However, the incident was a barbaric case of domestic abuse where a Muslim man has beaten up his second wife and had severed her tongue.
The incident pertained to Saraiya village of Muzaffarpur, where a man named Mohammad Shafiq had severed the tongue of his second wife Meena Khatun.
Perhaps, in a bid to sensationalise the episode, news channel Aaj Tak maligned the Hindu festival of ‘Karwa Chauth’ by giving an egregious twist in their headlines to convey that a brutality was committed by a husband on the day of ‘Karwa Chauth’, the day when Hindu women generally fast for their husband’s long and healthy life. The inclusion of ‘Karwa Chauth’ in the headlines alluded that a practising Hindu husband must have committed the despicable atrocity upon her wife.
Heeding to OpIndia’s report and the criticism directed towards it for its blatant Hinduphobia of spuriously mentioning ‘Karwa Chauth’ in its headlines without it having any link with the atrocity, Aaj Tak has now dropped the reference to ‘Karwa Chauth’ in their report and updated their headline.