“@uttarakhandcops @Ashokkumarips thease guys are only prohibiting muslims to sell fruits in halduwani Rampur road in the name of corona virus, which can creat communal disturbance in our society . So I request u to take legal action against them under Section 153A, 295A. https://t.co/TSbOvvQtQd”
Date: April 6, 2020
This artefact goes to show the consequences of the media narrative against Muslims. This tweet has a video clip, along with the tagging of police officials, that shows a couple of men forcing a Muslim vendor to shut down his street fruit stall, as well as telling a passer-by woman to ‘inform’ them if there was a ‘Mohemeddan’ selling fruits. This goes to show how the media’s coverage of Tablighi Jamaat and the events that occurred after, went on to turn the spotlight, away from the Coronavirus pandemic itself, and shift it, to the characteristic of an individual’s religion. As such the public thought it justified directing anger, dissatisfaction and hatred towards a whole community, when in fact, during the conference at Tablighi Jamaat, there have been other gatherings across the country, which was not talked about. Asking vendors to shut down their stalls on account of their religion falls under discriminatory practices, and targeting a single specific community on religion also falls under the same. The type of news coverage without check enabled further vilification of the community as explored above with the advent of fake news and such, and goes on to generalize an entire community not only on traditional media but also on social media, where hashtags of #CoronaJihad trended. This artefact shows power of the media, and the consequences faced by innocent people when such power is used irresponsibly.
Such incidents were common all over the country. Interestingly, the courts later passed judgments criticizing the happenings during the incident, and the media narrative changed dramatically after these rulings. The next artifact examines the Bombay High Court’s ruling, and the shift the media narrative after this ruling.