On June 28, a Hindu tailor was beheaded in broad daylight by two Muslim men in Udaipur’s Dhan Mandi area of Bhoot Mahal for putting social media status in support of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. While it is out in the open that two Muslim men entered the tailoring shop with swords and brutally beheaded the Hindu tailor, identified as Kanhaiya Lal, prominent media houses have once again tried to ‘secularise’ the heinous crime, since here too the perpetrators are Islamists and the victim, a Hindu.
After executing the murder, the two Islamists, who have identified themselves as Mohammed Riyaz Akhatari and another as Mohammed shared the video of the murder and even threatened Prime Minister Narendra Modi while boasting about their murder.
While the Islamists have admitted guilt in the brutal murder of the Hindu man, mainstream media resorted to their standard practice of downplaying horrific crimes, since here too the accused are members of the minority community. The incident was covered by almost all media outlets, but most of them took care to craft the headlines so that it wasn’t immediately clear that the victim, in this case, was also a Hindu and the perpetrators were Islamists.
Leftist propaganda portal The Quint reported about the incident both on its English and Hindi websites but was very careful in wording the headlines. They made sure that it was not revealed that a Hindu man was killed by Islamists.
Ultra-Leftist portals like The Wire and Scroll, going by the propensity to ‘secularise’ a crime whenever the perpetrators are Islamists, purposely did not mention in their respective report’s headlines that the victim, in this case, was a Hindu and the perpetrators belonged to the Muslim community, brainwashed with the belief of killing anyone they perceived of insulting their faith and their prophet.
Interestingly, The Wire’s report mentions the names of the perpetrators in its excerpt but not in the headline. People giving a casual glance at the headline would obviously miss out on the fact that the accused here are Islamists.
India TV headlined its report on the beheading of the Hindu man by Islamists in Udaipur today: “Udaipur tailor beheaded for social media post in support of Nupur Sharma; CM appeals for peace”.
The words Financial Express used for the headline were also carefully chosen. Given that the accused in this case was a member of a minority group and the victim was a Hindu, the ambiguous headline was probably chosen on purpose to water down the heinous crime.
Likewise, many so-called secular mainstream media outlets, including some vernacular ones choose to not mention in the headline that the victim was a Hindu man and the perpetrators were Islamists.
After going through the headlines of the aforementioned reports, it is clear how media houses have a propensity to water down heinous crimes, especially when the accused belongs to the minority community. One wonders whether they would have done the same if the religious identities of the victim and the perpetrators were flipped.
Kanhaiya Lal was murdered by Islamists for sharing a social media post in support of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. Nupur has been in the crosshairs of radical Islamists ever since Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair unleashed Islamists on her through his dog-whistling endangering her life, and even the life of those who stand up to support her.
The Udaipur Police have launched a probe in searching for the Islamists who beheaded Kanhaiya Lal in broad daylight in Udaipur today. The threats issued by them have horrified people living in the city. Moreover, their posts justifying their actions and call for death issued to the PM have disturbed the law and order situation in the state of Rajasthan.