Media blocks key aspects of Sandeshkhali
While the Bengal media has been going haywire about ‘non-traceable’ Trinamool leader Sheikh Shahjahan and his alleged atrocities against a large number of female residents of the village of Sandeshkhali, the recent arrest of an electronic media journalist, employed at a house with known ties to the Bharatiya Janata Party, has added fuel to the fire.
Yet, there are several incongruities in the reporting which needs to be noted.
While several women have come out accusing Sheikh Shahjahan and local Trinamool leaders of sexually harassing them, none of them claim to be victims. Most of the accusers we have seen in news reports have said they are not the victims themselves but their acquaintances.
At the same time, nearly zero screen-time is being given to women who have come out and nullified all accusations.
Also, while Sandeshkhali consists of 16 areas in total, news from only one is being reported.
Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP leaders have time and again claimed that women have been “raped” en masse by Trinamool goons but are yet to produce one woman in front of the press or in front of the judiciary who has been “raped”.
In another incident, Jaspreet Singh, an IPS officer—who, along with his team, was stationed at Dhamakhali on the banks of the river Kalindi and had erected barricades to prevent Suvendu Adhikari from accessing Sandeshkhali, located across the fiverKalindi River—was allegedly called a ‘Khalistani’ by a group of BJP supporters.
In response to this, Sikhs of Kolkata have sat in protest in front of the BJP headquarters on Muralidhar Sen Lane. But no media seems to be keen to cover that.
