Following India’s win at the Champions Trophy against New Zealand, a celebratory rally in Indore’s Mhow led to clashes, stone-pelting and arson on Sunday night, resulting in heavy police deployment in the area.
While speaking to the media, Indore Rural SP Hitika Vasal said, “After the match, a few people had taken out a procession. A few of them had burst crackers outside the masjid after which an altercation broke out between two groups of people, leading to stone-pelting.” The police has filed five FIRs in the case and arrested 13 people so far.
Though the SP had appealed to citizens to not spread rumours relating to the incident, mainstream TV news media seems to have missed the memo.
On channel after channel, anchors alleged a conspiracy behind the violence, seemed to question Muslim allegiance to India, skipped details of the incident, and generally implied that some people, read Muslims, were not happy with India’s victory at the Champions Trophy. The incident comes weeks after sections of the broadcast news media, in the wake of Congress leader Shama Mohamed’s remarks on Rohit Sharma, tried to portray the opposition party as anti-national.
What most channels also missed was the version of those present at the mosque. Speaking to the media, Mohammad Javed, the imam at the Jama Masjid in Mhow, said that the rally passed the area while devotees were offering Taraveeh prayers as part of Ramzan. Javed alleged that a firecracker was thrown inside the mosque which triggered an altercation.
This is not the first time TV news has stoked communal frenzy to suit a certain narrative – and it’s unlikely to be the last. A report on the communal violence that devastated northeast Delhi in 2020 says “anti-Muslim prejudice” was a “running thread” on TV news channels around the time.
Here’s what the channels said about Mhow.
Zee News
Despite no police confirmation of the identity of the perpetrators of the violence in Indore, Zee News declared it through the headline of a report uploaded on YouTube: “Masjid se nikli bheed ne jala dala Indore! (A crowd exiting the masjid burnt down Indore).”
The news channel also fanned the narrative that people were allegedly miffed over celebrations. “Jeet ke jashna mein nafrat ki chingari? (Spark of hatred amid victory celebrations?)”, read one of the tickers during the same telecast. A voiceover said, “Bhari sankhya se aate hai, narebazi karte hai, patthar phekte hai… (These people come in large numbers, do sloganeering and pelt stones)”, implying that only a particular group of people indulged in these activities.
Meanwhile, one of the headlines that flashed during the telecast flashed, “Jamkar hui dono taraf se narebaazi (Both sides did heavy sloganeering)”.
Times Now Navbharat
Reading out a bulletin, Times Now Navbharat anchor Deepika Yadav rhetorically said, “Lagta hai kuch logon ko team India ke jeet ka jashn logon ko bardasht nahi hua (Seems like some people could not tolerate the celebration of team India’s victory).”
Barkha Sharma, another anchor, threw open her debate on the same note. “Badi hairani ho rahi hai mujhe…hamari team jeeti hai, kinko pet mein dard ho raha hai? (I am deeply shocked…Our team wins and who are these people who cannot digest this?).”
If this dogwhistle wasn’t enough, a mention of extrajudicial action was casually thrown in. “Jeet ke jashn par patthar fekne walon par bulldozer? (Bulldozer for those who pelted stones at celebratory rally?)” read a ticker.
The Supreme Court had in a November 2024 judgement laid down strict guidelines while hearing petitions seeking directions to stop demolitions of properties belonging to suspects.
Republic TV
In a monologue before his primetime debate about the Mhow violence on Republic TV on Monday, anchor Arnab Goswami asked why “some people” hurl stones and burn vehicles and shops. He then answered his own question: “Because some people cannot accept an Indian victory as an Indian victory.”
He repeatedly questioned why “some people” celebrated when the Indian cricket team lost against Pakistan in the ICC Champions trophy in 2017 while drawing a conjecture that the “same kind of people” were responsible for the recent incident in Mhow. Republic TV’s ticker even pronounced the channel’s verdict on the incident, that it was an “attack on national pride”.
Arnab asked if we should tolerate “such people” who are Indian but with Pakistan in their heart. The rest of the debate was littered with Goswami’s repeated provocations such as “Paki-lover”, “Aurangzeb mentality” and “go back to Pakistan”.
ABP
On her show Mahadangal, Chitra Tripathi said the presence of stones meant there was a conspiracy while a firecracker could have been “spontaneous”.
“Achanak se sutli bomb phek diya hoga. Spontaneous ho sakta hai. Kisine chidhane ke liye pheka ho. Patthar kahan se aaye? Woh toh sajish hai na? (A firecracker might have been spontaneously thrown [inside the Jama Masjid] to perhaps tease. Where did the stones come from? Isn’t that a conspiracy?”).
The discussion gradually veered away from the Mhow incident and strangely tumbled into a debate where Tripathi asked AIMIM Delhi general secretary Haji Mehardeen Rangrez, “Agar aapko ‘bura na mano, Holi hai’ kehke rang laga diya… Usse kya ho jayega aapka? Woh apne tyohar mein aapko bhi shaamil karna chahte hai. Kya dikkat ho jayegi isse? (If someone applies colours on you on Holi, saying, ‘Don’t feel bad, it’s Holi’, what’s wrong with that? They want to include you in their festival. What problem would you have with that?)”
This inane discussion on Holi went on for the rest of the five minutes of the 10-minute debate, supposedly meant to be on the Mhow violence.
News18 India
Before his show Aar Paar, Amish Devgn said that with India winning at the Champions Trophy, some people are setting a hate agenda. “Holi ke rang mein aur Champion Trophy ke jeet ke bang mein, koi nafrat ka agenda set kar raha hai (Amid Holi cheer and India’s win, someone is trying to set an agenda of hate)”, he said. “Champions ki jashn, kise napasand? (Champions celebrations, who doesn’t like it?)” read the ticker.
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