CJP complains against 3 shows of Times Now Navbharat The show aired on May 22 and had highly objectionable content

30, Jun 2023 | CJP Team

Citizens for Justice and Peace has sent three complaints to the News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) against three shows aired on Times Now Navbharat, the Hindi news channel of Times Now Group, which has been incessantly airing objectionable and hateful content on national television.

These three complaints are against shows aired on May 22, two are debate shows and other a news report. All three have objectionable content and such content is aired on the news channel almost on a daily basis.

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1. Debate on Madrassas

The debate show is called “Rashtravad : मदरसों पर नकेल, नहीं चलेगा विदेशी फंडिंग का खेल ?” was based on a survey carried out by the UP government on Madrassas in the state and last year’s data which allegedly found that 8,841 madrassas were illegal and that the Government shall proceed against 4,000 madrassas in the state. The host said that the madrassas are receiving foreign funding and some madrassas do not have proper paperwork to reflect such funding.

During the show, the host questioned why Muslims need to study in Madrassas in the first place. He questioned the mushrooming of madrassas in the Indo-Nepal border area and doubted their legality. One of the speakers, belonging to VHP said, “In the border areas, madrassas have mushroomed and there the children are being imparted education on terrorism and they are brainwashing the children and they are being taught about jihad”. One of the speakers, a Muslim scholar Haji Rangrez asked the host and others to name at least one madrassa where children are being brainwashed into terror; however, the host however shut him down and did not wish to further discuss on this.

Clearly, the channel was trying to push this narrative of the madrassa or all madrassas being a/the centre of illegalities. The presentation of the debate, by repeatedly showing the students reading Namaaz at a madrassa. At one point the host shows data of some people from Muslim community linked with terror outfits, who once studied in these madrassas (presumably).

The complaint pointed out that “The intention of the show was very clear, to show that madrassas receive dubious foreign fundings and they are set up along the border and the children are brainwashed and are trained to become terrorists. The channel allows such speakers to come on their debate show time and again to express such extremist and baseless views to target the minority community and then the channel takes a stand that they do not endorse the views of the participants.”

The complaint may be read here

 

2. ‘Operation Mazaar’ show

In the show titled “धामी सरकार का ‘ऑपरेशन मजार’, ‘गजवा-ए- ह िंद’ की सा जश के कससे जुडे तार?”, a reporter on ground was reporting on mazaars in Uttarakhand. The title of the show itself indicates how problematic its content must be. Basically what the title implies is that the allegedly illegal mazaars are linked to the conspiracy of ‘Gazwa-e-hind’.

Through the show, the reporter tries to formulate a link between the dargahs/mazaars and the increase in Muslim population across Uttarakhand and specifically, “Dev Bhoomi Haridwar”, by using objectionable terms like “mazaar jihad” and “land jihad”. Throughout the show, questions like

‘Mazaar Jihad’ ka mastermind kaun? (Who is the mastermind of mazaar jihad?) ;

Devbhoomi me ‘Mazaar Jihad’ sajizh kiski? (Mazaar jihad in the land of gods. Whose conspiracy, is it?) have been raised.

The complaint states, “If the intention of the channel was to simply report on the government report and show a ground report, the same would have been only fact based and the show would not have resorted to any kind of name calling of a specific and marginalized section of the population.”

The complaint also points out that ironically The Times of India  which is part of the Times Group carried a news report from Uttarkashi showing how posters threatening Muslims to leave Uttarkashi were pasted across town and the channel shows content which practically facilitates such anti-minority activities.

The complaint further states, “One cannot overlook the direct impact this kind of media reportage is having on the lives of people, specifically the Muslim community. This broadcast was on May 22 and in the first week of June, tensions started brewing in Uttarkashi. Posters were pasted on Muslim shops that were forced to shut down threatening them to “shut down their business and leave the town before a ‘Mahapanchayat’ to be held on June 15 or else face action.” In some places, shops belonging to Muslims were vandalised with black cross marks on the shutters.”

The complaint may be read here:

 

3. Debate on Controversial statement

The third show is a debate on a statement made by Hasan Madni whereby he said that whoever talks about a Hindu nation is a traitor. The complaint states that the “show had themes of a divisive discourse that furthers a communal (intra-community) divide throughout its narrative and did not try to mask this motive that mitigates against the basic principles of fair and neutral journalism. This was evident in the choice and content spouted by not just the participants in the “debate” but also unfortunately displayed by the host of the show, actively participating in the communal diatribe, justifying the establishment of a religious (Hindu) nation and even going to the extent of saying that India has always been a Hindu nation.”

The two participants cherry-picked to represent the Hindu community were not saints, philosophers, or scholars but religio-political entities whose provocative formulations and reactions to arguably a similarly positioned speech of a MLA from the Samajwadi Party political party, Swami Prasad Maurya escalated the issue at hand to dangerous levels of public discourse. There was a point during the show when the Hindu monk, Mahant Raju Das, demanded on commercial national television that Maajid Haidari prove his secularism by saying ‘Jai Shree Ram’, the host made no attempt to stop him from spreading his communally divisive ideology.

All three complaints point out the violations by the channel of the Code of Ethics and other guidelines issued by the Authority from time to time. Also attached with the complaint was a document showing how vitriolic is the reportage of the channel on a daily basis.

The complaint may be read here:

 

Related:

ANOTHER COMPLAINT TO TIMES NOW ON POLARISED DEBATE OVER MADRASSA SURVEY IN UP

TIMES NOW NAVBHARAT USES ‘MAZAAR JIHAD’ IN A SHOW, CJP SENDS COMPLAINT

NBDSA: CJP ESCALATES COMPLAINT AGAINST TIMES NOW NAVBHARAT’S ‘ZAMEEN JIHAD’ SHOW