Image Courtesy:dnaindia.com
The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Afghanistan has sent shockwaves all over the world. With the Taliban capturing Kabul, thousands of people are trying to flee their homeland, in a bid to escape from the totalitarian regime. The chilling video of people falling off the United States Air Force plane seems to have shaken the conscience of the world.
However, taking advantage of this devastation, Zee’s DNA News has published a sarcastic piece offering an ‘Afghanistan Tour Package’, to the so called “Tukde-tukde gang”, a common pejorative for liberals and intellectuals. The piece accuses them of supporting the Taliban rule in Afghanistan and applauding its victory.
The publication referred to the statement allegedly made by Shafiqur Rahman Burke, a member of the Samajwadi Party, who said that the Taliban fought in the same way as the revolutionaries of our country fought the British for freedom. As per media reports, he has booked under sections 124A (Sedition), 153A (promoting enmity amongst groups of people on the basis of religion, sex, caste, race, etc) of the Indian Penal Code.
The infamous “Go to Pakistan” can soon be replaced with “Go to Afghanistan” with the DNA article reading, “These people will also get a chance to do a lot of adventure activities in Kabul during this time. If they want, they can hang from flying planes, do rope climbing to enter the airport. Children can swing with Taliban fighters in Theme Park, drive a bumping car, trek through the Hindukush mountains where the Taliban shed the blood of minorities and is still occupied by it. Burqa and hijab shops are very crowded these days in Kabul because with the arrival of the Taliban, the burqa has become mandatory for the women there. If these people want, they can go to Kabul and shop from these shops.”
Referring to liberals as ‘these people’, the article says that they don’t believe in democracy. The DNA News piece says that they could go to the Parliament in Kabul, have dinner with the Taliban leaders and members and go to theme parks with them!
Sudhir Chaudhary, the Editor-in-chief of Zee, who is known for anchoring the DNA (Daily news and analysis) show, has also tweeted a few names, asking them to go to Afghanistan including young women activists like Richa Singh and Gurmehar Kaur.
After the Taliban Spokesperson delivered their first news conference since seizing control of Afghanistan on August 17, several netizens took to Twitter to point out that even a military organisation takes questions from the press, but not the Indian Prime Minister. But this narrative has been falsely twisted by Chaudhary on social media insinuating that some selective people support the Taliban.
Some people in India are celebrating Taliban 2.0, their liberal policies on free press and women. They should go and spend sometime in Afghanistan.
कुछ दिन तो गुज़ारिए #Afghanistan में pic.twitter.com/CPxk58N31g
— Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) August 18, 2021
The news article also says that the liberals should go to Afghanistan and think of ways to spread hate. Amid such heightened fears and issues of grave human rights violations, Zee News is back to spewing hate, misinformation and diverting people’s attention from the primary problem.
Concluding with a snide remark, the article draws parallels with the people who unfortunately hung on to the plane wheels to escape the Taliban, by saying that the liberal gang who go to Afghanistan will eventually feel suffocated and fear for their lives, and it will be at that stage when the Indian government will valiantly rescue them without letting them to cling on to the wheels of the plane.
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