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Farm and Forest Freedom Media

Right Wing media working overtime to discredit farmers?

They are trying to make it appear as if the farmers marching towards Delhi are doing so to make things difficult for the general public

Image Courtesy: thedailyguardian.com

With world attention on the massive farmers protest now underway, some right wing inclined media outlets are trying their best to turn this into a civil unrest narrative that ‘threatens’ the law and order situation. A dangerous attempt was made by TV channel TV 9 Bharat to discredit and even communalise the farmers’ protests by linking farmers to ‘Khalistanis’!

 

https://twitter.com/archansr/status/1331839224690032640

 

“The farmers are taking the law in their own hands, they should not destroy public property,” the anchors of Republic Bharat are both excited and upset that the farmers are marching towards Delhi in protest braving the assault from the security forces. They wonder why the Haryana government has been unable to stop the farmers. They almost compare the farmers to goons who created ruckus on the streets when Gurmeet Ram Rahim was arrested in Haryana. 

They are not the only ones in the right wing media club who are trying to play to the audience and presenting this farmer’s protest as a destructive gathering to destroy public property. While the reporters and camera persons camping at various places along the routes cannot help but record the reality of police launching tear gas shells at farmers, and of attacking them with painfully high pressured water cannons even as temperatures in North India have dipped to single digits, the anchors, and editors back at the studios are doing their bit to politicise the issue. 

They are also trying to make it appear as if the farmers marching towards Delhi are doing so to make things difficult for the general public. “Kisano Ka dhamasaang, Dilli Pareshan,” The farmers are laying siege/ creating unrest, and Delhi is troubled, they state.  

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/orYT2AvXcSsqMFkiFG-6_z2iGKXy2FcFqQr2xfv5OSBghyAoI6tu8_1SkzPly1TRRRwF8lqbkb_hjaD5nMXsgDHPgnag2onWYtUgRr93kY6W1pTjmQP2dTNoE0z-OHk40BvizBqi

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/GxMGokIOqiA_CeCFPtzAvrdZqd646e2mPNygb0IAsph_TYm4OVCnhsBxXktp7a5yeLb0Pc52QdunxTfjRHrAxBsFxKU5miZyNhhMtgs4b595jb2up---XkJC5eMSyvbJQgmAAWPU

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/aogO0RxjixI_3iODVjyoEaQDBMWXX9_BF3rTl7VBh4kFNGG6lZCszrD_xbwltuba1Ihn7wD5q-Yy3alhKBIWq2UydsXAQzzmln0TMMI8IpSWmsQCDT72oYPjVvutuRGeyMZGCdgV

Right wing media’s manipulation of farmers’ protest is nothing new, as reported in 2018. Then too these media channels and publications worked to manipulate public perception. This kind of reportage and anchoring by right wing inclined journalists, did its bit to damage the Farmers’ Protest by using whataboutery, false equivalence and wild conspiracy theories. A large section of the mainstream media remained indifferent to the protest and the one sided RW reportage then, and now.   

https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gifIn 2018, OpIndia, the right wing blog, had tried a similar stunt for Maharashtra and Odisha protests. Now the RW media is calling the farmers march a “Big escalation in farmers’ ‘Dilli Chalo’ march at Haryana-Delhi border; protesters toss barricades off bridge; police deploys water cannons & tear gas” They run a live feed of how it is the poor police which was forced to deploy force when the unarmed protestors tried to break through barricades that include razor wires, boulders, trucks etc.

Of course some like ABP news want to know who is ‘provoking’ the farmers to agitate. They are also ‘concerned’ that many farmers managed to breach the massive police barricades.

 

 

Related:

We will stop your march at all cost: Political message to farmers?
LIVE Updates on All India General Strike and Peasants’ Protest 2020
Punjab Haryana HC issues notice to Haryana govt over alleged illegal detention of farmer
Adivasi Union to stand with peasants of country during nationwide protests

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