The India Today group is one of the leading media groups of the country. From magazines to Hindi and English news channels, it has a huge presence and can shape the views of crores of Bharatiya citizens. A recent message published in Bhadas4Media website, which tracks the issues related to media in Bharat, has claimed that the bosses at India Today group regularly display their Hinduphobia.
The anonymous mediaperson has sent the following screenshot of the mail sent on the occasion of Holi by the Rehan Kidwai, who is the Sr. Vice President-Production at Aajtak News Channel.
The mail instructs his employees not to play Holi or attend Holi parties. Disregarding the fact that an organisation is actually dictating the personal choices of its employees, this would not be odd in itself if Shab-e-Barat too was mentioned, which fell on the same day as Holi. Although this is framed as advice, this is actually an order. Thus, iff an employee posts her photos of playing Holi on social media, she would have to certainly face the consequences.
The message from the mediaperson says that this is not the first time that bosses have given such instructions. It is necessary to follow such orders so that their jobs at Aaj Tak are secure. He further says that bosses would never be able to write mail for not celebrating Eid or Shab-e-Barat, even under same circumstances.
It is curious to note that Aaj Tak is usually put in the bracket of “Godi Media” or pro-BJP media by opposition parties. However, the current editorial line might just be a way to continue receiving the patronage it used to get in Congress rule. The persons running the channel are the same.
Take Rehan Kidwai again. On his twitter handle he has mostly retweeted Congress handles or other handles of people allied to Congress or other opposition parties. His tweets give the impression that he is probably more loyal to Congress than Rahul Gandhi is. When he tweets something himself , it is almost always something in support of Congress or opposition of BJP. Although, it must be noted that he tweets in his personal capacity.
The anti-Hindu bias in the media is deep seated and unlikely to go away anytime soon. Even in channels considered “pro BJP”, it is more a survival strategy than any commitment to ideology that makes them present political news in a certain manner. The owners and management of the media houses retain the same elitist, anti-Hindu bias.
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