In the wake of a Hindu tailor’s gruesome murder by two extremist Muslim men in Udaipur on June 28, NewsX declared that it would give “no more airtime to extremists” and “put India first”. It has aired several shows in the past week reiterating this commitment, complete with a running appeal urging the public to be “aware that at times like this, motivated foreign players, bot armies, and proxy social media accounts may try to run inflammatory campaigns”.
It should have added ‘TV news channels’ since the very shows that featured the public appeal ran “inflammatory campaigns” against prominent Muslim men and women such as journalist Rana Ayyub and political leader Asaduddin Owaisi. The TV channel’s anchors called them “Jinnahs of today” who “put hate first” and are thus allegedly out to divide India. As evidence, the anchors highlighted Owaisi’s purported statement that “Muslims targeted for only crime of being Muslim” and Ayyub’s remark “In India calls for Muslim genocide grow louder”.
