New Zealand mainstream media, time to change old habits!

It is so unfortunate that New Zealand’s mainstream media never fails to portray India in bad light and invariably always mislead people by publishing treacherous and distorted facts. This is not only showing their outright bias against India but also exposes the hypocrisy and ignorance of the New Zealand media houses. The latest occurrence in this series is the reporting of consecration ceremony of Shri Ram Mandir at Ayodhya by New Zealand’s mainstream media. While New Zealand’s TV media chose to completely ignore the historic event where a community turnout of around 12000 people was not important or newsworthy enough for them. The same media extensively covers the religious event of other faith at the same venue every year. Who can forget the shameful conduct of same New Zealand TV media during the maiden visit of Indian President Pranav Mukherjee in 2016. Even the news about cats and birds or pets get wider coverage than what they did to the visit of the head of the state of world’s largest democracy.This attitude of New Zealand’s mainstream media is deplorable and Its time for them to come out of the deep slumber to face the harsh reality and (bitter) truths. Even more shameful is the attitude of some spineless left leaning gang of jokers of Indian ethnicity who constantly keep working against the Indian nation and work as fodder for western media. In this India bashing competition, New Zealand print media doesn’t want to lag, so they also did their share of venom spewing against Indian government and Narendra Modi by distorting the facts about the consecration ceremony and Ram Mandir. It appears that New Zealand’s mainstream media is both ignorant and biased when it comes to reporting India and their bias goes back to colonial times. The left leaning western media world over doesn’t see anything good happening in the country after 2014. This is simply because for the first time since independence, there is a strong nationalist government at the centre that can’t be compromised. So, the only way these hate-India forces find to put a check on the government is to run smear campaign and create false propaganda against it. These forces world over are hell bent to anyhow stop Narendra Modi making a comeback third time in upcoming Lok Sabha elections in April 2024 so they can continue with their old ways in India. The New Zealand media is not ready to understand the fact that they are a very small entity in comparison to the might and magnitude of India. No offence to anyone but it’s just a couple of large Indian corporates is what it takes to devour the entire New Zealand media, if the Indian government stoop to their level. So, NZ media needs to be mindful that they just can’t continue running false propaganda and smear campaign based on lies, and half-baked distorted facts against world’s largest democracy.

If one goes through the offensive terms used in reporting by most of the NZ media (without naming any) it’s a clear indicator of their bias against India and the Modi government. It is utterly disgusting and shameful that these mainstream media outlets have resorted to this level in their hatred against India. They are publishing lies and distorted history of the Ram Mandir movement without checking the truth. The former Regional Director of Archaeological Survey of India, K K Muhammed (a devout Muslim himself), who was part of the Mandir survey and excavation team has said it on record many times that his team found credible evidence that the Mosque was built over a Hindu temple. He further said the remains of temple belong to 12^th century, 400 years before it was demolished by Mughal invader Babur in 1528. His claims have been scientifically tested and verified and are not his personal opinions. Nearly 40,000 Hindu temples were demolished and desecrated in India over a period of couple of centuries and mosques built over them with the broken remains of temples. Leftist historians after independence did more damage to India’s history than Mughal invaders by falsifying and distorting facts and telling absolute lies to the world. They portrayed the oppressors as our heroes and the oppressed as the wrong doers. Sadly, these fraud historians were supported and patronised by the successive anti-Hindu governments to spread their false narratives against the majority community. If the onslaught of a falsehood continues for several decades, after a couple of generations people start believing the lies and that’s why so many people, especially the younger generation are at the crossroads today and can’t make out what the actual truth is.

On behalf of the Indian fraternity in Aotearoa New Zealand, I have a piece of advice to my friends in mainstream media to rehabilitate their old habits. Times have changed and its time for them to do a serious introspection before blindly following the old diktat. The people in mainstream media must do thorough research specially on sensitive matters of historic importance before putting it to the world. If they continue spreading lies and misinformation about a certain community and a sovereign nation, there will be repercussions of their stupidity. The temple built in Ayodhya is 100% legitimate and is built after following full legal course of action for many decades and the country’s top court unanimously ruling it in favour of Hindus. The peace-loving Hindu community has waited long 500 years to build the temple in a legal and legitimate way. Thousands of Hindus sacrificed their lives during the 500 yearlong movement. Sadly, there are still some people who don’t want peace in the country and are ready to create discord at any opportunity.

Western nations must accept the fact that India is a burgeoning world power and India becoming a strong nation will only be good for rest of the world. Many open and veiled enemies of India can’t digest the imminent rise of India and they will do anything to create obstacles in India’s path of growth and development including running smear campaign and creating false narratives. The recent agitations, violence and political unrest in India was all creation of these vested foreign interests, which sadly has support of some Indian political parties. As India approaches close to elections, we should be ready to see many more of such tool kit onslaughts in India in coming weeks.

New Zealand government must also be wary of their relations with India and this attitude of New Zealand media will only jeopardise the situation further. No media in the world has the right to tarnish the image of a sovereign nation, its government, or religion in the name of ‘free speech’. What if this ‘free speech’ comes back to them in the same coin, all ‘pal bearers’ of free speech would then run to hide their faces. Its time New Zealand media need to reevaluate their conduct and approach and shouldn’t become a pawn in hands of the leftist media nexus. I strongly believe this obduracy of mainstream New Zealand media will take it nowhere and will ultimately lose its credibility. -Yugal Parashar