By Ranjona Banerji
That Times Now uses its platform to abuse Muslims and other religious minorities in order to support the BJP’s Hindu supremacist agenda is not new.
But evidently and this is certainly curious, there are some lines which someone somewhere in Times Now feels should not be crossed. Or more probably, someone in their legal team woke up from a long snooze.
Last week, in a “debate” on Hindu religious symbols being found in the Gyanvapi Mosque and subsequent court rulings, a BJP spokesperson made very offensive remarks about Islam. Times Now highlighted these remarks and the back-and-forth in a tweet to promote the show.
Mohammed Zubair of the fact-checking site Alt News, posted Times Now’s own clips on Twitter and called out the spokesperson Nupur Sharma for her bigotry and hate. As Zubair’s tweets were amplified, Sharma blamed Zubair for the death threats she was receiving.
This deeply upset Times Now “editor” and the anchor of the show, Navika Kumar, no stranger to spreading hatred against religious minorities and who had categorically not stopped Sharma during her diatribe.
Kumar tweeted that “no one has the right to threaten anyone” and that “death threats are unacceptable”. Fair enough. An honourable sentiment. Although Kumar is rarely bothered when Muslims get death threats from Hindus or indeed when they are actually murdered by Hindutva mobs.
Anyway, “death threats are unacceptable”. We all accept that.
But this is where the events of May 27 went a bit off the rails.
Inexplicably Times Now issued the following statement on Twitter: “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 in our debates to maintain restraint and not indulge in unparliamentary language against fellow panellists.”
The earlier tweet from Times Now promoting the show was shown as deleted.
Strange. Very strange.
Some cases were filed against Nupur Sharma. Zubair of Alt News also received death and other threats after Sharma blamed him, and that did not upset Navika Kumar at all. Death threats are perhaps sometimes acceptable?
Rahul Shivshankar, also “editor” and anchor of Times Now later put out this curt tweet: “If anyone has a problem with what Nupur Sharma has said, please approach the court. There is a due process. That is for the courts to judge. TIMES NOW does not endorse the view of any of its panellists.”
(Readers please note: I am not responsible for Shivshankar’s grammar.)
Evidently, some lawyers stepping in somewhere.
It is highly unlikely that Times Now’s senior management had any epiphany about stopping the spread of bigotry and hatred. If they wanted that, they’d have sacked their star anchors. Instead, they’re trying to cover their nether regions.
BJP fans on Twitter then went on twin rampages. The first was to viciously attack Zubair, who only retweeted Times Now’s own tweets. And then, to protect Nupur Sharma. In typical fan manner, they decided to support the eponymous editor of a toxic BJP propaganda website. Obviously for the Twitter world, she is better known than the spokesperson. It is unclear therefore whether these fans watch Times Now at all, or else they would have known that this Nupur Sharma is not that one.
Meanwhile, in India the monsoon is delayed, inflationary rates are rising, joblessness also rising, the prime minister is being promoted for lying and doing nothing. You know, business as usual.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia every Tuesday and Friday. Her views here are personal