TV programme on ‘UPSC jihad’ offensive and in poor taste, says I&B Ministry
Date: 18 November 2020
Category: Hate speech: Verbal
The controversial ‘UPSC jihad’ episode of TV channel Sudarshan News’ show ‘Bindas Bol’, which sought to “expose” an alleged conspiracy to infiltrate Muslims into the Indian civil services, is “offensive, not in good taste and has the likelihood of promoting communal attitudes”, the Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has said in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court. Sudarshan News editor-in-chief Suresh Chavhanke attempted to show that Muslim aspirants are favoured in the exam as the government offers them benefits to the disadvantage of Hindu candidates. On 15 September 2020, a visibly alarmed Supreme Court stopped its telecast with these words: “This programme is so insidious. See how insinuating is the subject of this programme that Muslims have infiltrated the services and this puts the examinations of UPSC under scanner without any factual basis. Aspersions have been cast on UPSC. Such allegations without any factual basis, how can this be allowed? Can such programs be allowed in a free society.” Chavhanke’s entire show was based on the premise that a greater number of Muslim aspirants are taking the UPSC exam, thus suggesting an organised ‘infiltration’ in Indian bureaucracy. The final result of the 2019 UPSC exam was declared on August 4, 2020. Out of the 829 qualifying candidates, 42 were Muslims which is 5%. Only one Muslim candidate was in the top 100. Data from the last five years collated from the UPSC website does not show a ‘sudden’ rise in Muslim qualifiers but the percentage varies between 3% to 5%. In 2015, 36 Muslims made the cut out of 1078 qualifiers. In 2016, this number rose to 50 with an increase in recruitment to 1099. Out of the 990 qualifiers in 2017, 52 were Muslims and in 2018, the number fell to 28 as recruitment plunged to 759. Therefore, only in 2017 a little over 5% Muslim candidates qualified in civil service examination. At about 20:15 minutes into the show, the channel conveniently skipped 2018 in its data which would’ve shown a decrease in Muslim qualifiers compared to the previous year. Sudarshan News claimed that the age-limit for Hindu candidates is 32 and the same for OBC Muslims is 35. Backward classes among Muslims are eligible for the upper age-limit relaxation granted to OBC. However, Muslims are not the only minorities in OBC which also includes Hindus. To suggest that Muslims solely reap the benefits of OBC quota is erroneous. The channel also claimed that Muslims are given the advantage of more attempts to take the exam. Hindus can take the exam six times while Muslims get nine attempts, as per Sudarshan News. The UPSC notification does not give a religion-based restriction on the number of attempts. It merely states that every candidate shall be permitted six attempts except persons belonging to OBC, SC and ST categories and those with disabilities will be given nine attempts. It is also noteworthy that the six-attempt rule is applicable to general category Muslims. He played an interview clip where the interviewer can be heard telling the aspirant, “Your interview is not a normal interview. You should prepare yourself that your interview will not be conducted in a normal, average manner. The reasons for this are your age and religion.” As soon as the clip stopped playing, Chavhanke screamed a question to his audience, “Why is it said that your interview will be special? Is it because you hail from a particular community? Is this related to the community getting more marks in the interview?” The interviewer indeed made the statements aired by Sudarshan News, however, the channel played a clipped video. At 31 minutes, the interviewer added that very few Muslim candidates qualify for an interview. “We say this to almost everybody. This has both advantages and disadvantages.” He advised the aspirant to expect to be evaluated differently from others. The interviewer merely listed the challenges Quazi might face during his interview for his socio-economic background.
Sources:
https://thewire.in/communalism/sudarshan-news-tv-show-upsc-jihad-suresh-chavhanke-fact-check
‘37% of all hate speech on Facebook in India are Islamophobic’: Equality Labs report
Date: 18 June 2019
Category: Hate speech: Digital
Equality Labs, a South Asian American human rights and technology startup, has raised alarm on Facebook India’s lackadaisical response to violations of its standards in its report “Facebook India: Towards the tipping point in violence, caste and religious hate speech”. As per the report, at 37%, Islamophobic posts trump all other forms of hate speech in terms of numbers. It also found that 93% of all hate speeches on Facebook remain on the platform and are not removed or deleted. While hate speech almost completely remains online or is reinstated by moderators on Facebook, an increasing number of minority user accounts are being banned or removed entirely. 100% of these restored posts were Islamophobic in nature. 10% of Islamophobic posts were related to the Ayodhya violence and 6% of Islamophobic posts were specifically anti-Rohingya, with calls to violence similar to content that led to the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar. 5% were related to ‘Love jihad’.
Sources:
https://www.equalitylabs.org/facebookindiareport/#key-findings
OCI of author who criticized NDA regime revoked for ‘hiding Pakistani roots’
Date: 7 November 2019
Category: Discrimination
The Central Government of India has revoked the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status of author Aatish Taseer. “In May 2019, at the height of India’s general election, I had written an article for TIME that was critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The piece, one of two on the cover of TIME’s International Edition, examined his record in India and the atmosphere of Hindu nationalism. Something about the timing, the headline (“India’s Divider in Chief”) and the image of Modi sent his supporters into a fury,” the author wrote in an article about his revoked status. “My father was born in British India to a British mother and a father who became Pakistani when that country was created. And, within twenty-four hours of my piece being published, the BJP spokesman, Sambit Patra, seized on it to delegitimize me. Addressing a press conference, Patra said that the TIME story had been written by a Pakistani and “that nothing better could be expected from Pakistan.” “Time Magazine is foreign,” the PM said, “the writer has also said he comes from a Pakistani political family. That is enough for his credibility.” While the government did not initially reveal their motivations behind this action, they later stated their reasons for removing the OCI: “concealed the fact that his late father was of Pakistani origin.”
Sources:
https://time.com/5721667/aatish-taseer-india-oci/
TV anchor suggests Muslim viewer go to Pakistan
Date: 12/12/2020
Category: Media bias
Rohit Sardana, an anchor working for the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak suggested to a Muslim viewer asking him about Modi government’s response to the farmers’ protest that he pack his bags and leave for Pakistan. In a question posted during a Q&A session, a viewer by the name of Shaukath had questioned the BJP’s attempts to portray protesting farmers as Khalistani terrorists and had asked why the anchor’s leader does not arrest these people and put them in jail if that was the case. To this, Sardana replied that Prime Minister Modi was Shaukath’s leader as well, and if he didn’t accept that, he could pack his bags and leave for ‘next door’. He also suggested that the viewer had shouted “anti-national slogans at Shaheen Bagh”.
Sources:
https://twitter.com/free_thinker/status/1337299106532712448