The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority on Tuesday directed five news channels to take down eight shows that linked a National Council of Educational Research and Training textbook to a “love jihad” conspiracy.
The complaint concerned the misrepresentation of a fictional letter in an old NCERT Class 3 Environmental Studies chapter titled Chitti Aayi Hai. The letter, written by a character named Reena to another character, Ahmed, was wrongly projected by the television channels as evidence of a love jihad conspiracy, according to the complaint.
Love jihad is a Hindutva conspiracy theory that Muslim men trick Hindu women into romantic relationships with the aim of converting them to Islam. The Union home ministry has told Parliament that Indian law has no provision defining such a term.
The programmes challenged by complainants Indrajeet Ghorpade and Utkarsh Mishra were aired on India TV, News18 MP/Chhattisgarh, Zee MP/Chhattisgarh, Zee News and ABP News.
In its December 2 order directing the removal of the videos, the regulatory body noted that just because an NCERT chapter shows a girl writing a letter to a boy from another religion, it does not justify being described as love jihad.
Retired Justice AK Sikri, the chairperson of the regulatory body, observed that India is a secular country, “which is the constitutional mandate as well”.
“Therefore, giving of this slant to a particular chapter in an NCERT book by the broadcasters would amount to the violation of the Code of Conduct,” Sikri said.
Complainants allege biased coverage
The complainants had alleged that even though the channels had been recently censured for their earlier coverage relating to love jihad, they had chosen to highlight a news story that was “entirely subjective”, “highly polarising” and largely pushed by groups seeking “notoriety and popularity”.
The channels had given a platform to persons promoting the claims, and in some cases, the anchors had casually endorsed the narrative through “dog-whistling” and tickers on the screen, the complainants had alleged.
They said that in the show by News18 MP/Chhattisgarh, the entire coverage revolved around the comments of Dhirendra Shastri, the head priest of the Bageshwar Dham, who claimed that Hindu women were in danger and that love jihad was a strategy to increase the Muslim population.
The complainants argued the show reinforced Shastri’s narrative through tickers and visuals, with “no critical examination” of whether the claims were communal or divisive.
In the broadcasts aired on Zee News and Zee Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh, the complainants stated that even though teachers were interviewed, the broadcast suggested that the chapter in the textbook was “suspicious”.
They said that the reporter openly questioned the motive behind the chapter and implied that including a letter from “Reena to Ahmed” was problematic.
According to the complainants, the views clearly showed that the reporter himself opposed the chapter.
The complainants also alleged that on India TV, the channel showed extreme reactions, including that of a person who was “blackening” the textbook. The broadcaster did not question or challenge the conduct, thereby amplifying it, Ghorpade and Mishra had alleged.
A consistent pattern across all channels, according to the complainants, was the “absence of any critical engagement”. They said that News18 MP/Chhattisgarh and ABP News had challenged Shastri’s claims.
The complainants pointed out that none of the channels had made an effort to contact the NCERT for its explanation.
Merely reporting statements, say channels
During the hearings before the regulatory body, the channels defended their shows by arguing that they were reporting statements made by a parent, political leaders or other public figures.
News18 Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh said it had aired the comments by Shastri and that it was not endorsing or verifying what he said. It also questioned whether the term love jihad can be construed to be “unconstitutional or unparliamentary”, and whether there was “any embargo against the usage” of the term.
India TV said that its coverage focused on the protests and had included NCERT’s response.
Zee and ABP News argued that the term love jihad had been used in the parents’ original complaint, and that their reporting was centred on the news value of the controversy.
NBDSA disapproves coverage, orders removal of shows
The regulatory body disapproved of the manner in which the news story had been dealt with.
Sikri, the chairperson of the NBDSA, noted that a parent had complained about the letter in the chapter and that the channels had justified their coverage saying that they were reporting about the complaint.
The shows being limited to covering the complaint as news might not have led to objections, Sikri said. “Instead, this complaint was turned into a debate by the broadcasters with a specific narrative, and in doing so, they did not interview any other persons or the 15 parents,” his order said.
The NBDSA order also noted that some channels had interviewed individuals whose views were already well known, but failed to bring on anyone with a different perspective.
The regulator observed that the way the shows had been structured “clearly showed a lack of objectivity”.
It directed the five channels to take down the videos from their websites, YouTube channels and other platforms. The broadcasters were asked to report compliance to the NBDSA within a week.
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