Secular imperatives decide how news is covered in Bharat. The horrific Hanskhali gang-rape and subsequent death due to bleeding of a minor girl has disappeared from front pages and prime-time news slots. The disgusting trivialization and denial of this crime by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee was reduced to the tagline ‘rape politics’ for a day or so, and has now been completely forgotten.
So decrepit and compromised has WB Police become that even courts had no option but to hand over this case to CBI for investigation, given that the son of an influential TMC panchayat leader is prime accused. For some, that straight-forward decision itself is a mark of progress, given how courts dragged their feet over the state-sponsored post-poll pogrom that swept across WB last year, and only transferred the most serious cases of rape and murder to CBI after the complicity of WB Police and admin became impossible to deny.
But there is another intriguing aspect of the Hanskhali case that has escaped attention, which yet again demonstrates the kind of diseased thinking that the idea of secularism has promoted.
What is the name of the prime accused in this case? As per Times of India, it is Sohel Goyali. Yet, almost all other outlets have reported his first name as Brajgopal! Actually, there are different variants of the last name too: Gayali, Goali, Goala.
Indian Express and Anand Bazar Patrika gave the name as Brajgopal Gayali, while some like LiveHindustan, News18 have reported it as Brajgopal aka Sohail implying the real name is Brajgopal while Sohail/Sohel is just an alias.
It has now emerged that the accused’s real name is Sohel, and Brajgopal is either an alias he uses, or it could even be an alias that media invented for him (yes, that is entirely possible in the murky world of Indian MSM). The accused’s religion has still not been revealed by media or authorities, though CM Mamata did state “this is not UP where I will act on Love Jihad” in her rant about why she thought the Hanskhali case wasn’t a crime.
This is what a Times of India report dated 11 April (archive link) said-
And this is how the TOI report dated 17 April which refers to two more arrests in the case, has reported the prime accused’s name –
Such subterfuge and is par for the course when it comes to reporting on ‘sensitive’ matters. While identity of victims of sexual abuse cannot be revealed as per legal guidelines, our media extends this rule to even hiding identity of perpetrators when it serves their agenda! This same selective shielding and selective witch-hunting mindset drives MSM, mostly ELM (English language media), to use the stock image/graphic of a saffron-clad Hindu sadhu when reporting a crime done by a Muslim occultist. The way article headlines are constructed varies vastly depending on the identity of the victim and accused.
Here are some more samples of this media dishonesty-
Woman gang-raped in Delhi, media hides name of key accused auto-rickshaw driver
Policeman Vilas Shinde Murdered by Muslim Youth, Media Hides Murderer’s Identity
Rampur molestation exposes media and secular-liberal hypocrisy
Two Muslims arrested for temple theft, Times of India hides their names while reporting
The Wire mentions ‘caste’ in fake case, forgets to mention religion when accused are Muslims
This chicanery is not limited to the secularists in media. One of the prime exponents of such dirty tricks is NCP supremo Sharad Pawar. He actually invented a 13th bomb blast when Mumbai was shaken by the 1993 serial blast. He was then the Maharashtra CM and falsely added the Muslim-dominated Masjid Bunder area as one of the explosion sites when talking to Doordarshan. He also misled public by stating that investigators had found that explosives used in the terror attack matched those used by a ‘Southern Indian side terrorist organisations’ – hinting at LTTE, to take the focus away from Islamic terrorism.
