Media war over show on Banaras Hindu University

Efforts to silence any individual or institution that has a view contrary to the NDA government and the RSS are not new. The trolling of 20-year-old student Gurmehar Kaur, who stood up against the ABVP, is only the most recent instance. Now, a media war has broken out over the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), with Zee News trying to run down a report by leading India Today TV anchor Rajdeep Sardesai.

All that Sardesai did was to interview four girls who spoke on the serious gender discrimination that existed at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU). The programme was telecast on February 28 on ‘News Today at 9 with Rajdeep Sardesai’.

It was National Herald that, in fact, had first reported on February 7 on the many bizarre decisions taken by BHU Vice Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi—who openly brags about his RSS links. The report was based on Janata Dal (United) MP Ali Anwar Ansari questioning in the Rajya Sabha why non-vegetarian food was banned in the girl students’ hostel at BHU, but not in the boys’ hostel; why girls couldn’t use cellphones after 9 pm; why girls were subjected to curfew hours; and so forth. Rajdeep had posed similar questions to the girls, who replied candidly. The interview with the girls was recorded a few days earlier while Sardesai was covering the Uttar Pradesh elections in Varanasi.

The girls complained that in the name of “Indian culture,” the administration sought to curb their freedom of expression. “We cannot participate in any debate with a political group outside BHU, especially if it is against the RSS ideology. Writing against the RSS creates problems for us. Our teachers warn us against participation in debates saying that we were responsible for our dignity,” said one of the students in the interview.

Sardesai, in fact, had aired the version of VC Girish Chandra Tripathi as well, who had denied the charges levelled by the four girls. That was followed by a debate in which Manish Sharma from BHU’s Joint Action Committee and Shakti Dhar Sharma, an alumnus who took the management’s side, participated. Sardesai clearly tried to present a balanced report, incorporating all views.

Zee News, however, tried to spin the India Today report on discrimination in BHU as a “conspiracy” to malign BHU’s prestige and its ‘age-old cultural values’ attached to it. Starting the 9 pm programme on March 2, Zee News Chief Editor Sudhir Chaudhary took the steering wheel and began by “dedicating” his show to the BHU community. The channel’s focus was to somehow disprove the charges made by the four girls. The strategy adopted was to dumb down the issue by playing a numbers game: “Char ladkiyon ke aaropon ka jawab 40 ladkiyan dengi” (40 girls will reply to the accusations made by the four girls) read the banner heading.

Though Sardesai was not mentioned by name, Chaudhary referred to “some designer journalists” and “vested interests” who were apparently trying to poison the atmosphere in the university.” He said, “These journalists are trying to mislead the youth—from JNU to Jadavpur, from DU to BHU.”

“Zee News’ single-point agenda was to produce a counter-narrative to the India Today report, nothing else. It had nothing to do with the larger questions involved with any kind of discrimination,” says a senior TV journalist from Aaj Tak, which is also part of the TV Today Network.

Media observers point out that this move by Zee News against a seasoned journalist was only aimed at “proving to its political masters” that it “could not only shoot the message, but the messenger as well.”

“Agenda driven reporting, especially in favour of the Modi government and RSS is not a new thing as far as Zee News is concerned; but by spearheading a campaign against a news channel and senior television journalist like Rajdeep Sardesai, the channel stooped to a new low,” says a senior journalist and editor of a famous English daily.

It indeed was. Zee News had no qualms whatsoever earlier in projecting the NDA Government’s narrative when the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) controversy erupted in February last year. And, it has consistently presented JNU as being “anti-national.” In fact, its programme on BHU was branded as “BHU ko JNU mat banao” which translates as “Don’t turn BHU into another JNU.” The programme, which was first telecast on March 2, continued to be repeated on the following days as well.

Zee News too tried put up a veneer of impartiality and gave airtime for varying reactions. But, it skewed the whole issue in such a manner so as to make it seem that Sardesai’s programme was indeed a “conspiracy” against BHU. To justify its claim, Zee News interviewed BHU’s proctor, public relations officer and some teaching staff as well. Proctor OP Singh openly proclaimed, “Surely we do follow some ideology. We want the development of our country as well as that of the University. Everything is connected to that.”

A government school teacher from Varanasi told National Herald on the condition of anonymity that the whole university has been converted “into an RSS dump yard” in the last few years. “Most appointments—from the post of the professor to that of a peon—are RSS appointees,” he says.

After the Zee News coverage, Sardesai was attacked by trolls on Twitter with #rajdeepshame. And, Sardesai in his show on Friday said the girls he interviewed received “rape threats.”

The Zee News coverage could well have instilled fear in and silenced other students. Sadly, this kind of journalism may become the new normal.