Page 105 - Conflict, Terrorism, and the Media In Asia

94 Prasun Sonwalkar
actually a quote from a statement issued by a VHP leader, but the newspaper simply
used the words as a headline. On 6 March, the headline was: ‘Hindus Beware: Haj
Pilgrims return with a Deadly Conspiracy’, when the fact was that hundreds of ter-
rified Haj pilgrims had returned to Gujarat under the protection of a police escort.
The study found that most news reports of the post-Godhra violence in Sandesh
began with the sentence: ‘In the continuing spiral of communal rioting that broke
out as a reaction to the “demonic/barbaric, etc. Godhra incident...” ’. The study
observed: ‘The denunciatory adjectives used liberally to describe the Godhra
incident were strikingly absent in reporting the subsequent genocide’(PUCL 2002).
The study found that the Gujarat Samachar also played a role in heightening
tensions. But unlike Sandesh, it did not devote all its space to ‘hawkish and inflam-
matory reportage in the first few weeks, and did carry reports highlighting commu-
nal harmony’ (PUCL 2002). Gujarat Today, a Gujarati-language daily started by
Muslim liberals, was praised for its balanced and restrained reporting of the events.
The paper was...temperate in its language and eschewed shrill and potentially
provocative matter. It regularly carried items highlighting interdependence of
communities and incidents of help and cooperation extending across com-
munity barriers. It investigated incidents and carried detailed information
that did not appear in other newspapers. Overall, our analysis suggests that
Gujarat Today played a responsible and positive role during the violence in
the state, for which it deserves to be commended.
(PUCL 2002)

Gujarat Today’s sober coverage stood out amidst the dominant pro-Hindutva news
discourse of the Gujarati-language press. The editors’ team interviewed editors of
several newspapers, including those of Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh. In its
report, the team mentioned the example of a banner headline in Sandesh that the
breasts of two Hindu women had been chopped off by mobs during the Godhra inci-
dent – a report that was subsequently proved to be false. The newspaper’s editor told
the team that the information was from the local police. But this was contradicted
and the contradiction appeared in the rival Gujarat Samachar. The Sandesh editor
told the team that it was the paper’s policy ‘not to carry corrections and clarifica-
tions’(Patel et al. 2002). The Press Council of India subsequently censured both the
newspapers ‘for the infraction of the norms of journalistic conduct’ (Prerna 2003).
The two English-language national newspapers, The Times of India and the
Indian Express, publish editions from Gujarat. A clear divide was evident
between the news content of these English-language newspapers and the two
Gujarati-language newspapers. While the former was trenchant in its criticism of
chief minister Modi, the state government and the Hindutva forces, the two Gujarati-
language dailies espoused the cause of Hindutva. Desai, an Ahmedabad-based
correspondent on the Indian Express, wrote

Today, all the people who once used to look at me with respect question me and
abuse me. They do this because I represented a publication whose medium is