Since Friday, 27th of May, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Spokesperson Nupur Sharma has been facing rape and death threats after her appearance on Times Now, the flagship television channel of the Times group. Egged on by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair and alleged journalist Rana Ayyub, Islamists have been threatening to behead her at the first available opportunity for ‘hurting Muslim sentiments’.
Reacting to the controversy over an appearance by Nupur Sharma on a ‘news debate’ on Times Now, the Times group decided to delete the ‘offending video’ and tried to distance themselves from the controversy instead of standing by the freedom of expression of their guest.
Taking to Twitter, Times Now tweeted that they don’t endorse the views of their guests. They also asked the participants in their debates to maintain restraint and avoid unparliamentary language.
Views expressed by BJP Spokesperson on Newshour@9 last night are her personal views. TIMES NOW does not endorse views of participants. We urge participants on our debates to maintain restraint and not indulge in unparliamentary language against fellow panelists. https://t.co/fZxRIGOcZB
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 27, 2022
From their reaction, it is very obvious that Times Now is worried about the backlash from Islamists over their ‘hurt religious sentiments’, and they don’t want any of their employees to face the same threats of beheading that their guest, Nupur Sharma, is facing right now.
However, the Times group hasn’t always worried about hurting religious sentiments and the backlash resulting from such acts. In fact, as recently as last week, the Times group was proudly mocking Hindus by posting offensive memes on Shivling in the print edition of Economic Times.
Even though multiple FIRs were filed by Hindus over the offensive memes about Shivling at the disputed Gyanvapi structure, Economic Times thought it is wise to reproduce those offensive memes in their print edition, a place where they will stay forever. Something that can’t be deleted like they deleted the video ‘offending’ Muslims.
Even after the outrage over the publishing of offensive memes, the Times group never thought it is worth their time to distance themselves from the memes, or even issue a token apology. They just ignored all the outrage and carried on. However, when it came to the hurt Muslim sentiments, they were very prompt in issuing a statement, deleting the offensive video, and by distancing themselves from their guest’s statement, threw her to the wolves.
This raises the question that why does the Times group think it is fine to abuse and insult Hindu sentiments, but when it comes to any other religion, they think they have to delete immediately and distance themselves from the ‘offensive content’.
