The Hinduphobia of the mainstream media once again stood exposed when in a report highlighting the alarmingly high rate of child marriages prevalent among the Muslims in the state of Kerala, India Today used the image of a Hindu girl in what appeared as an attempt to mislead the readers.

The shocking statistics reveal the prevalence of child marriage in Kerala. https://t.co/g9PUT0Zkqd — India Today (@IndiaToday) March 15, 2019

The report published by India Today quoted a report of the State’s Economics and Statistics Department which provided the maternity data of the year 2017. The report claimed that the State has a large number of mothers, 22,552 precisely, below the age of 19 years. Out of these 22,552 mothers 17,082 were Muslims, 4,734 were Hindus and 702 were Christians. It is sufficiently clear from the data provided in the report that the problem of child marriage largely existed among the Muslim community as compared to the Hindu community. In fact, the number of underage mothers among Hindus was nowhere close to the numbers belonging to the Muslim community.

Yet India Today chose to use the image of a Hindu girl while reporting on a problem which existed on a much higher level among the Muslims. This act of apparent Hinduphobia angered the people on social media who called out India Today for misleading the people. Here are some of the Twitter reactions:

Some people shamed India Today for using a misleading image.

India today shame shame — Chowkidar Jitendra?? (@jituroyal8) March 15, 2019

Cc @ARanganathan72 the shameless hypocrisy of this desperate media house. — Manik Gupta (@ManikGup92) March 15, 2019

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Some questioned India Today for using the image of a Hindu girl while the numbers speak otherwise.

@aroonpurie why depict a Hindu girl when the number is Muslims cited by your own article is 3 times ? — #IndiaFirst Chowkidar ?? (@savitha_rao) March 16, 2019

People accused the media of defaming Hindu religion and not stating the truth.

मीडिया कितनी बदमाशी करता है। कम उम्र में मां बनने वाली 20000 लड़कियों में 17082 बच्चियां मुस्लिम हैं, और फ़ोटो हिन्दू बेटी का लगा दिया ताकि हिन्दू धर्म को बदनाम किया जा सके । — Chowkidar Dheeraj ?? (@Dheeraj4Hindu) March 15, 2019

It is often seen that certain section of the mainstream media does not miss an opportunity to demean Hindus by selectively reporting on the issues existing among Hindus while the same section of media conveniently ignores the ‘truth’ when it concerns the Muslim community.