West’s Bizarre Coverage of India Ploy to Tarnish BJP Ahead of Elections
© AP Photo / Manish Swarup
Subscribe
Western media has been accused of exploiting India’s religious and political faultlines at behest of vested political interests.
The "biased coverage" of the Ram Temple consecration ceremony in western media has decisively proven that it is "anti-Hindu" and against Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) politics, experts have told Sputnik India.
French Indologist and author Francois Gautier, who has written extensively on the Ayodhya Temple issue since the 1990s, said that he was "very surprised by the negative coverage" of the Ram Temple consecration ceremony even in some French right-wing publications such as Le Figaro.
Gautier said that most of the French media condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the so-called "right-wing nationalism" in India, portraying the event as a "political cynical opportunity" in view of the upcoming national election in coming months.
"I attribute this to the French Indologists such as Christophe Jaffrelot, who are government-sponsored and have generally spread hatred about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Mr Modi. The same is true in other countries like the United States, were other India specialists, such as (academic) Audrey Truschke or (Michael) Witzel, are profoundly anti-Hindus," Gautier remarked, criticising Indologists for spawning narratives against the Indian PM in the US and Europe.
Gautier, known to be a backer of the 'Hindutva' philosophy championed by the BJP, accuses the west of harbouring an "unjustified hatred" towards Hindutva, and Hindus.
How Did American and British Media Covered the Ram Temple Consecration?
The consecration ceremony of Ram Temple last month, involving the placement of idol of Hindu deity Lord Rama in the Ayodhya temple, brought to closure one of the most emotive issues for India's 800 million Hindus as well as the Hindu diaspora across the world.
Presiding over the consecration, Prime Minister Modi hailed India's Supreme Court for delivering justice through its 2019 judgement which paved the way for the construction of the temple on a previously disputed religious site.
While the consecration ceremony has been broadly welcomed across India's political and religious spectrum as putting an end to a polarising multi-decade episode, western media organisations such as CNN have described the event as “dark day for India’s religious minorities".
Washington Post commented that with the Ram Temple consecration, "the vision of Hindu nationalism, the road map to Hindu supremacy, was fully unveiled".
In the UK, the state-backed British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) coverage on the Ram Temple has faced parliamentary criticism.
Western Media Wants India to Remain in a State of 'Perpetual Conflict', Analyst Says
Binay Kumar Singh, a senior fellow at New Delhi-based think tank the Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation (SPIRF), explained that the western media had a “vested interest” in keeping developing nations like India in a state of “perpetual conflict” by exploiting their “faultlines”.
"The Ram Mandir consecration is not only a matter of historical justice for a large section of India's population, but it is also a case of conflict resolution. Both the Hindus and Muslims decided to resolve the Ram Mandir issue through democratic means, which is by approaching the highest court of the land. The real idea is that dispute has been settled,” stated Singh, who has also co-authored a new book, 'BBC: True Lies', documenting the biased reportage of the British media giant.
“But the BBC and other western media doesn’t want the issue to be settled. They want to keep it as a live issue," he added.
The Indian analyst went on to warn that the "real aim" of western media organisations such as the BBC was to keep the Indian society in a "state of perpetual chaos and even incite a civil war of sorts"
"So, what they have been doing here concerns India's national security," cautioned Singh.
“They do this because they want developing nations such as India to remain economically and politically subservient to the west. The western media doesn’t want our countries to rise above the status of developing nations,” he explained.
Singh recalled that the BBC had been viewed as "anti-India" by a large section of population.
"The style of warfare is changing. The world is moving towards 5th generation warfare, which relies on a mix of social engineering and propaganda. So, the BBC is using such propaganda against India. It is not an act of journalism but an act of war. Such journalism must be tackled by invoking stringent legal provisions," the Indian think-tanker said.
