The New York Times’ biassed coverage of India has resulted in years of shameless promotion of Hinduphobic articles, factual distortions, and narrative manipulation. In order to achieve this, it recently released a piece that disparaged Hindus and accused them of “attacking” Muslim sites after Islamist crowds went on the rampage in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, when a madrassa and mosque that were constructed on encroached territory were demolished. Blaming Ram Mandir is expected by NYT.
The demolition of Muslim houses in India has resulted in deadly violence, according to an article published in The New York Times. The author, Sameer Yasir, cleverly neglected to include in the headline that the “Muslim properties” were situated on encroached lands. State officials carried out the destruction, while the New York Times accused Hindus of “unleashing a wave of violence” surrounding “Muslim sites,” citing the consecration ceremony of Ram Mandir among other incidents.
In addition, the author uses obscurantism and factual distortion to portray aggressors as victims and victims as aggressors. This is a well-known tactic that the New York Times has mastered by siding with Islamists worldwide and protecting them from unfavourable portrayals, frequently at the expense of the truth.
The article’s opening line describes the recent wave of violence in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, as the result of the demolition of a mosque and a Muslim seminary. It refers to this as the ‘latest bout of sectarian tensions, as Muslim sites have become a broader target of the Hindu right-wing after the opening of the major temple last month’.
The New York Times neglects to mention that the action had the approval of the highest court and dragged the Ram Mandir temple in Ayodhya and the churn over the Gyanvapi complex to suggest that the Hindu right wing has been targeting Muslim sites instead of holding the Islamists accountable for going on a rampage against the authorities carrying out their duties and clearing government lands appropriated by encroachers.
To begin with, the Supreme Court resolved the centuries-long conflict in favour of Hindus in November 2019, allowing the Hindu side to regain the Ram Mandir Temple in Ayodhya.
The Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was constructed after the Supreme Court gave Hindus who had been violently usurped by Mughal rulers in the sixteenth century the land, which had previously been the site of a mosque that had been erected after a pre-existing temple was destroyed. This is similar to how the demolition of Haldwani was carried out following the Supreme Court’s orders.
The author also attempted to imply that right-wing Hindus are attacking Muslim buildings more frequently, making reference to the Gyanvapi complex, where a Shivling was discovered in the wazukhana in 2022 and where the ASI investigation said there was evidence of a temple beneath the mosque.
Strong archaeological and epigraphical evidence suggests that there was once a temple at the location of the Gyanvapi mosque. Aurangzeb, the Mughal tyrant, was notorious for ordering the destruction of temples, desecrating the idols housed within, and erecting mosques and other Islamic buildings on top of them. Irfan Habib, a communist “historian,” has acknowledged that the Gyanvapi mosque was constructed following the demolition of temples.
In addition to being factually false, calling these and hundreds of other locations “Muslim sites” is an affront to the millions of Hindus who have struggled against the illegal and violent occupation of these places, even sacrificing their lives to stop Muslim iconoclasts who want to take over their places of worship and humiliate them by demolishing and erecting mosques over them.
The New York Times has a history of displaying its anti-Hindu prejudice. OpIndia has documented at least 14 instances in which the New York Times openly expressed its hatred for Hindus.
As authorities collapse unlawful construction on encroached lands, Islamists go on the rampage.
The New York Times attempted to discredit the Hindus in this instance as well, despite the fact that they were not involved in the destruction of the mosque and madrassa in Haldwani.
Notably, illegal encroachment on government land has been a persistent problem in the Haldwani region of Uttarakhand, making it difficult for the authorities to address the matter.
On Thursday, February 8, violence broke out in the town of Uttarakhand when a group of Islamists engaged in open acts of violence against police officers and local authorities who had gone there to take down an illegally built structure on encroached government land in the Banbhoolpura police station area. Some had called the structure a madarsa, while others had called it a place for Namaz.
Almost 300 police officers were hurt in the fighting, and up to four people were confirmed dead.
Videos of Islamists hurling stones, pulling triggers, and engaging in unrestrained violence and arson have surfaced. According to official police statements, the Muslim crowd intended to set them on fire. The Islamist violence resulted in up to six fatalities and over 300 injuries to police officers.
Following the incident, the DM of the Nainital category clarified that the violence was prearranged and that the Islamists had made the decision to use violence against the police on the day that they arrived to demolish the building in accordance with a High Court ruling.
The Uttarakhand High Court mandates the removal of trespassers from Haldwani
It is important to note that Haldwani has already experienced violent riots and demonstrations against the government’s actions in response to illegal encroachments. Massive demonstrations over the removal of encroachment from Indian Railways-owned land broke out in Haldwani in January of last year.
The Uttarakhand High Court’s December 26, 2022, order to the authorities to remove the illegal encroachers—roughly 4000 families—from the Indian Railways’ territory instantly sparked the demonstrations. The demonstrators, who were primarily Muslims, stated that many women, children, and elderly residents of the neighbourhood would be impacted if the encroachments were cleared.
The railway agency claimed that the encroachment was preventing efforts at growth and expansion, even though the unlawful encroachers were not prepared to leave the railway territory. The railway officials claim that numerous requests to extend the railway tracks in the area were previously made to the government but were blocked because of encroachment. A few years ago, a plan to construct pit lines was obtained; however, it was cancelled due to an encroachment-caused area shortage.
