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‘Journalist’ who was part of anti-Modi BBC documentary objects to Sudarshan TV using the word ‘mulla’, TV ‘corrects’ it to ‘kathmulla’

Mulla, which means a Muslim teacher teacher, was assumed to be a slur by The Wire journalist Alishan Jafri and various other Muslim celebrities as well as politicians.

On March 7, The Wire journalist Alishan Jafri accused Sudarshan News of using derogatory language against Muslims on national TV. He quoted a tweet by Sudarshan News where the channel used the word “Mulla” for Muslims. The Sudarshan News report was about Muslims who participated in a Holi program but did not allow the report of the channel to apply colour to their forehead.

In his tweet against Sudarshan News, Jafri said, “Despite the Supreme court’s warning, Sudarshan news is openly using hateful and derogatory slurs against an entire community on national TV.”

Alishan Jafri is a journalist who writes for The Wire, The Quint, British state-run media BBC Hindi, Article 14, NewsClick, Qatar state-run media Al Jazeera and other platforms that are famous for anti-Hindu and anti-India rhetorical. Jafri was part of the now-banned BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the British broadcaster falsely accused PM Modi of orchestrating the Gujarat Riots of 2002.

CMD and editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News, Suresh Chavhanke, questioned Jafri’s intensions and added the dictionary meaning of the word ‘Mulla’. In his reply, Chavhanke said, “Do you people consider the word ‘Mulla’ derogatory? Are you getting rid of this word just as you did with the word ‘Jihadi’? You should release your dictionary. Wire madarsa’s dictionary will not be used at Sudarshan.”

OpIndia decided to look for the meaning of the word ‘Mulla’ ourselves. While Google showed the same result as added by Chavhanke, as per the Rekhta dictionary, the word Mulla has multiple meanings. For example, a Muslim teacher who teaches young children, an Imam of a Masjid, a scholar in Islamic studies, and more.

Alishan Jafri’s propaganda in BBC’s documentary

The second episode of the banned BBC documentary on PM Modi started with Alishan’s short monologue where he claimed that calls for genocide against Muslims are on the rise in India. He propagated that while anti-Muslim activities are on the rise in the country, PM Modi does not act on such incidents.

Other Muslim celebrities, politicians also dogwhistled against Chavhanke

Other than Alishan Jafri, other celebrity Muslims also dogwhistled against Chavhanke accusing him of spreading hate on Muslims.

Radio Mirchi’s RJ Sayema asked Supreme Court of India to take note.

One Nisar Siddhiqui accused Sudarshan TV of using language of ‘lafange’ (hooligans).

RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha also asked the Supreme Court to take cognisance that Sudarshan TV used a word to refer to Muslims which is widely used by Muslims themselves.

Sudarshan TV ‘corrects’ itself

Following the backlash, Sudarshan TV then ‘corrected’ itself and said that the term ‘mulla’ should now be read as ‘kathmulla’.

Kathmulla refers to a ‘fake Mulla’ or an Islamic teacher who is not well-versed with Islamic studies.

Kathmulla definition

As per Rekhta, Kathmulla is an unqualified religious preacher or a bigot.

This further triggered Alishan who then tagged Twitter Safety for the same.

It is not yet clear why The Wire’s Jafri would want Twitter to intervene.

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OpIndia Staff
OpIndia Staffhttps://www.opindia.com
Staff reporter at OpIndia

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