Earlier this year, the sight of Indians deemed “illegal” by the US government under President Donald Trump and peremptorily sent back in a US military aircraft to India, manacled and shackled, created widespread outrage in the country. Headlines like ‘Indian Illegal Migrants Deported From US Tell Their Tales Of Abuse’ marked the accompanying flood of media coverage.
In sharp contrast, the Indian government’s renewed attempts to push out Rohingya and Bangladeshis who have fled to India, into the shadow lands and waters bordering neighbouring countries, have been met by a conspicuous media silence. https://thewire.in/media/backstory-disappearance-of-media-stories-on-disappeared
The forced evacuation of such a large cohort is alarming in a democratic country. It signals a breakdown of moral and ethical codes that had at one point in its history marked the country’s response to those seeking shelter within its shores for their survival.
There are five reasons why such developments do not capture empathetic media attention and why stories of the disappeared are literally disappeared from media coverage.
31/05/2025