Commentary
(New York Times - representative image)
Is it a mere co-incidence that reports by global publications such as BBC, New York Times and CNN mentioned ‘upper caste men’ as accused in the alleged gangrape-murder case in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district but wrote only ‘men’ as accused in a similar case in UP’s Balrampur district where accused are Muslims?
While any casual observer of the global publications writing on India already suspects that their coverage is significantly pro-Muslim in that it invariably paints Muslims as victims of a Hindu aggression and almost never reports violence committed by Muslims, the coverage of recent rape-murder cases in UP in these publications confirms the suspicion.
The report has been written by Jessie Yeung, whose Twitter bio says she is ‘digital producer’ with the publications and covers Asia Pacific, and Esha Mitra, whose Twitter bio says she has previously worked with The Hindu and Deccan Herald.
Now, let’s see the coverage of New York Times. Titled ‘Woman Dies in Delhi After Gang Rape, Fueling Outrage Again in India’, the report has been written by Hari Kumar and Emily Schmall.
Now, let’s take a look at BBC.
While the accused in Hathras case are mentioned as ‘“upper-caste men”, the accused in Balrampur case are just “two men”.
Besides the failure to identify the perpetrators in Balrampur case as Muslims, the reports also make a commentary on the Hindu caste system, abolished by law in 1950.
Here’s CNN: