Large-scale violence erupted in the JNU campus last night where hundreds of masked men entered the campus, attacked students and faculty members with sticks and rods. The university administration released a statement saying that the students who opposed the registration in the new semester attacked the students who were registering and wanted to study. It is alleged that Leftist students, protesting against the marginal fee hike in JNU were opposed to students registering for the new semester.

Several more evidence has surfaced which indicates that it the Left that had unleashed violence in JNU. Firstly, the JNU statement made clear that the violence started with Left students opposing the registration process. Then a video surfaced which showed JNUSU President allegedly leading a masked mob inside purportedly the hostel campus in which violence was unleashed. Further, a sinister Congress angle was also revealed to the protests.

The media and the usual suspects who self-identify as “liberals” took it upon themselves to allege that “ABVP Goons” had unleashed violence against the innocent Leftists.

The same narrative was then taken up by several media houses. The one media house that went the extra mile to spew their misplaced propaganda was Financial Times.

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In a horribly biased report, Financial Times wrote, “Nationalist mob goes on a rampage at secular university in Delhi”.

Nationalist mob goes on rampage at secular university in Delhi https://t.co/CIopFwntcO — Financial Times (@FT) January 5, 2020

Firstly, one has to wonder what they meant as “Secular University”. “Secular” in itself means the separation between the State and religion. A University would essentially become “non-secular” only if it has an official religion that the University follows. Unless it is a college for theology, in India, all premier institutions are “secular”, so to speak.

Further, Financial Times says that a “nationalist mob” went on a rampage. Firstly, there was no evidence that it was a “nationalist mob”. Secondly, it is a wonder how they managed to decipher the political leaning of masked individuals as soon as the violence broke out. Perhaps they took inspiration from Barkha Dutt who had once deciphered the political leaning of a lewd phallus picture that she had received, unfortunately, and branded it a phallus of a “nationalist”.

In response to this ridiculous article, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar hit out at the publication.

I know it’s a bit too much for you to understand India, but here’s an effort: Stop predicting the breaking apart of India at every possible chance you get. India is a diverse democracy and it has always assimilated all differences to emerge stronger.@FT — Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) January 6, 2020

Javadekar said, “Technologists across the world would be eager to get the tech possessed by you, which helps decipher that a masked mob is ‘nationalist’. Also, all universities & institutions in our country are secular”.

Further, Javadekar said, “I know it’s a bit too much for you to understand India, but here’s an effort: Stop predicting the breaking apart of India at every possible chance you get. India is a diverse democracy and it has always assimilated all differences to emerge stronger”.

Alluding to another ridiculous report by Financial Times, the Minister plugged an article where FT had predicted that unrest in India was owing to the price of onion prices.

Speaking of this article, Prakash Javadekar said, “I hate to break it to you, but so shallow is your reporting & understanding of India, that the last time you predicted social unrest in India was over rising onion prices!”.

The narrative in the media has often been one of less facts and more propaganda to ensure that the Modi government is shown in a bad light. However, in their desperation to show the Modi govt in a bad light, the media has often proven themselves to be the antithesis to the very idea of nation and the welfare of the nation-state of India itself. The FT report is just another example of how the media twists facts to suit their anti-India narrative.