Indians Must say no to Hate-Filled News https://www.newsclick.in/indians-must-say-no-hate-filled-news SN Sahu, the former Officer on Special Duty to ex-Indian President KR Narayanan . 05 Aug 2023, delves into the perilous intersection of media, hate, and violence.
Five days before India’s independence, on 10th August 1947, Mahatma Gandhi, speaking at a prayer meeting at Sodepur, warned, “If this wretched spirit of communalism had entered the police force, the prospect was bleak indeed”. Therefore, he said he “hoped that the police would realise the dignity of their profession”.
Seventy-six years after Gandhi’s dire predictions about the poisonous communal spirit within the police, the nation is witnessing the horrors of communalism guiding this armed force—be it RPF constable Chetan Singh or the police personnel in Manipur who are being accused of having handed over three Kuki women to a hostile crowd that sexually assaulted and paraded them.
Communal hatred's alarming consequences are being exposed in the violent incidents in Haryana and Manipur. The media's role, particularly 'godi' outlets known for their divisive content, is under scrutiny.
A Supreme Court bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy, while hearing a clutch of petitions on alleged hate speech via some TV shows, observed on 22 September 2022 that the visual media is the “chief medium of hate speech” and wondered why the government of India is treating it as “a trivial matter” and “standing by as a mute witness when all this is happening.”
The bench observed that hate speech in different forms “has the effect of ridiculing a community” and can have a “devastating effect.”