As the Hijab row gets increasingly politicized, anti-Hindu English-language media (ELM) has jumped into the fray to provide cover fire to their political masters and divert attention from the Islamist agenda by turning the issue into a ‘Hindu majoritanism’ one in keeping with their Hindudveshi (Hinduphobic/Hindumisic) propaganda.

Taking a cue from their political masters, media houses have started their usual propaganda targeting their favorite punching bags Hindus and PM Modi. It is certainly not surprising that these media houses are now trying to turn the issue over its head and conveniently blame the majority by referring to Hindus in derogatory terms. Taking a lead in doing so were The Telegraph and The Hindu whose Hinduphobia has come to the fore several times earlier as well.

While Islamists resorted to violence against Hindus during the ‘protests’, The Hindu was seen depicting a hijab-clad scared looking girl being intimidated by Hindus. However, the truth is quite opposite of what the newspaper has shown. There have been multiple instances, videos of which have been shared on social media, of Hindus being attacked by Hijabi ‘protestors’.

The Telegraph used the term ‘maryadapurushottams’ (a sacred term for Bhagwan Ram) in an attempt to demean Hindus.

Then there was AAP-supporter news portal Janata Ka Reporter run by Rifat Jawaid that referred to Jai Sri Ram chanting Hindu students as ‘terrorists’.

OpIndia report on the matter read:

In this, pro-AAP blog Janta Ka Reporter referred to the students protesting against the burqa and chanting Jai Shri Ram as ‘terrorists’…

…However, soon after this thing gained attention, the portal changed the headline of the article from the previous one and made it “Hindu students.”

There has been a concentrated effort to defame Jai Shri Ram chant and many a times Islamists have referred to it as a ‘war cry’ of ‘Hindutva terrorists’. Many a times many Islamists have also claimed that they were ‘beaten up’ by ‘Hindu mobs’ and ‘forced to chant Jai Shri Ram’. However, many of these incidents have turned out of be false.

Jawaid is the former BBC Editor, ex-Managing Editor of India Today, and the present editor-in-chief as well as CEO of the portal. The same derogatory jibe was repeated by American Muslim academic Khaled Badyoun who later deleted his tweet.

Islamists are actually pushing for the burqa and not the hijab as was seen from posters that have been put up by them as also burqa-clad women during the ‘protests’. The image below explains the difference between a hijab, burqa, niqab, and chador.

Interestingly, this appears to be a repeat of the Taliban strategy that came up with a similar diktat as soon as it grabbed power. While the posters put up by it asking women to cover up read “According to Sharia law, Muslim women must wear the hijab”, the posters slapped across shops and cafes carried an image of the face-covering burqa.

Rais Pathan, member of the Central Waqf Council and Chairperson of the planning & finance committee of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, hinted at the communal angle being fomented by ‘secular’ parties while hinting that it was never about religion and tweeted how the demand for hijab had now evolved into the burqa.

Needless to say, there is a sinister design to malign Hindus with the media launching its Hindudveshi attack plumbing new lows of journalistic lows (not that we can expect anything better from them!). Importantly, there is a deliberate attempt to twist facts and present a picture of ‘Hindu intolerance’ as the media has often done. Attacking and purposely maligning Hindus to take the focus away from the Islamist agenda seems to be the strategy of the left-liberal Indian media.