• Indian media misinterprets the motives of rioters and attacks post-Sheikh Hasina
• The Indian media wrongly makes it seem like a genocide is taking place in Bangladesh with lies and misinformation.
Within hours of the departure of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the Indian media jumped on the occasion to push their nationalistic anti-Muslim agenda onto the surface of attention. It must be remembered that India was a close ally of the Awami League throughout Bangladesh’s history and therefore a close ally of its leader, Hasina. During the elections in January, Sheikh Hasina arrested tens of thousands of rival opponents amidst a cost of living crisis. Both the UK and US even called the election not credible, free, and fair. India at the time, however, welcomed Sheikh Hasina’s return to power, and India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, was one of the first to congratulate the prime minister. So why is India so quick to help prop up a dictator and government in Bangladesh who have a track record of human rights abuses?
The truth of the matter is that India has been a close ally to Bangladesh since its founding, with the Awami League founding party having strong connections to India. After Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh, the first country she went to was India. The fact that India has allowed her to stay when other countries, like the United States, have revoked her visa is a sign of India’s kind-heartedness towards its once-time ally. The reality is that the presence of Hasina in India may not just be out of India’s good will, but rather could potentially be used as a tool to re-lead Bangladesh soon if a government comes into power that is not aligned with Indian interests.
The Indian media frenzy
Within hours of Hasina’s escape, Indian media outlets perpetuated that Hindu minorities were being targeted by ‘Islamic forces’. From articles to videos to rounds on social media, the misinformation and exaggeration of events by the Indian media were resolutely overwhelming.
The Mirror Now, an Indian media outlet owned by ‘The Times Group’, posted a video on YouTube titled ‘Attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh? Mass murders, killings by mob’. The footage in the video showed violence, with arson attacks on houses. Al Jazeera has claimed that two of the people have been identified as Muslims. The entire story is misleading, as local Bangladeshi media said that one of the houses being targeted by protesters belonged to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father, and there were no reports of mass murders or killings in this incident. The video posted by the Indian media outlet also claimed that ’24 people were burned alive by mobs’ and ‘minorities are at the centre of attacks’. The reality is that all of these claims were unsubstantiated and not picked up by local media or shown on the video.
Since the start of the ousting of Hasina on Monday, Al Jazeera has independently verified that only two Hindus have been killed since Hasina’s ousting. One is a police officer, and the other is an activist for Hasina’s political party, the Awami League. Both killings are likely not to have been religiously motivated, as the Indian media perpetuates them rather politically.
The Times of India report that outlines India’s institutional islamophobia
The Times of India released an article claiming that Jamaat-e-Islaami, Bangladesh’s biggest Islamic party, had ‘brought down sheikh Hasina’s government’. This claim was unsubstantiated, as the majority of the protesters who brought the old regime down were not a part of Jammat-e-Islaami, nor were most of the organisers. The claim outlines the blatant scaremongering and deepened islamophobia within the Indian media and highlights that the audience they pander to is composed of these traits. Even if it were the case that an Islamic party were to have been in charge of Bangladesh, it does not necessitate that a problem would arise, but unfortunately, multiple areas of the Indian state, including its institutions, and a good chunk of its general populace are led to believe otherwise. The Times of India also released a report claiming that ‘More then one core (10 million) refugees are likely to enter West Bengal soon’. The outlet was quoting a senior leader of Modi’s BJR party, Suvendu Adhikari. The reality is that although instability has grown since the removal of Hasina, like after almost every revolution or overthrow of any old regime, the magnitude of chaos is not as high as it is being portrayed. There are not millions of Bangladeshis marching to the border of West Bengal to move into India, nor is there an appetite to do so.
The ANI News Agency is laying the groundwork for an Indian intervention
Asian News International (ANI) is an Indian news agency that garners millions of views and has 100 bureaus in India alone. After Hasina’s removal, they quoted an Indian leader as saying the uprising was ‘orchestrated by enemies of Bangladesh’. This is also unsubstantiated, as the uprising was supported by many segments of people within Bangladesh, from the main opposition, the BNP, to the millions of other supporters of other political parties. The uprising was realistically a revolution, and the nature of how it was done is a testament to that. In the future, at a time of international turmoil when international laws and lenses are focused on other areas, it’s possible that with claims like these that Bangladesh is now run by ‘enemies’, it’s possible that mainstream media outlets will perpetuate such a narrative to their people to justify military intervention to regain the influence it once had in Bangladesh. Although this is just a mere speculation, seeing how the mainstream media and leaders of India have reacted to Bangladesh, it is not as far-fetched or distant from reality as it may seem.
The reality of the attacks on Hindus
According to local Bangladeshi news, there were indeed attacks on Hindu households in 20 out of the 64 districts in Bangladesh. However, Al Jazeera reached out to these sources and found that attacks on Hindu houses were not religiously driven; rather, the attacks were to do with political affiliations. This verifies that a lot of the claims from the Indian media are a twisting of reality to suit the agenda of the autocratic government of Narendra Modi.
