BBC and The Guardian show cruel bias against Hindus and India

During the recent years there is a growing and alarming sign of Western media’s cruel bias against Hindus and India, while in most cases, which is seen by many analysts as a “colonial mindset” where reports and opinion articles in the Western media – particularly European and more precisely BBC and The Guardian are created through a prejudices lens – where Hindus, India and Jews are demonized. While reporting on India, these Western media outlets portray religious minorities as “victims of persecution” and tactfully hide the fact of Muslims spreading seeds of religious hatred thus ultimately posing serious security threat to the country as such actions lead to rise of jihadism and anti-Hindu terrorist agendas.

Ever since Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power through a landslide victory under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, global media outlets alongside a section of left-leaning and so-called secularist media in India began orchestrated propaganda targeting Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other patriotic forces. It seems, those biased Western media outlets as well as their leftist-secularist counterparts in India are desperate in pushing India towards religious chaos by continuously spreading disinformation and fake news stating religious minorities in India, including Muslims are facing persecution or there is an ongoing “genocide” against Muslims. There is alarming level of vilification of Hindus, where media outlets such as BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times and others, which is resulting in wrong public perception that finally makes the Hindu diaspora in the West into scapegoats.

In a recent survey conducted by INSIGHT UK Hindus and Indian living in the United Kingdom were asked about their opinion on the British media. The result reflects a shocking distrust of the mainstream British media among British Hindus and Indians, while an overwhelming 89 percent of the survey respondents said that the UK media lacks impartiality while reporting and writing on matters pertaining to the Hindu community, while 91 percent said the reports on India were not balanced.

According to the survey, more than 90 percent of the respondents consider the BBC to be the most biased and inaccurate in its portrayal of matters pertaining to Hindus and India, followed by 67 percent considering The Guardian to be the most prejudiced.

The survey further observed that both BBC and The Guardian are facing highest number of complaints raised by Indian community members in the United Kingdom. It also said, Hindu community members in Britain are increasingly losing trust on UK’s mainstream media due to its anti-Hindu and anti-India mindset.

According to the INSIGHT UK survey report, the organization has commissioned a team to conduct further analysis of news articles produced by specific media organizations that were highlighted in the survey. It’s sad that while the Social Sciences and the Humanities departments of prestigious Indian universities are busy doing extensive research on anti-Bharat and anti-Hindu topics, one hasn’t come across a single groundbreaking research from Bharat highlighting the systematic anti-Hindu and anti-India bias of either internal media or even the Indian English media for that matter. This could be a valuable research topic for scholars researching mass communication, media, and journalism in Indian universities.

Meanwhile, according to Indian newspaper Firspost, “A recent article in the London-based Guardian newspaper on Narendra Modi’s electoral chances in the upcoming general elections has caught quite a few eyeballs in India. Truth to tell, neither the topic nor the content is surprising. Western media’s interest in India is on an upswing. The large, English-speaking, digitally savvy readership in India presents a desperate growth opportunity for struggling global media outlets. They badly need the Indian market to remain in business”.

It further said”

…Written by analyst Amol Parth who scrutinized over 3000 India-related articles in a clutch of western outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, BBC and Guardian, the report titled ‘An Analysis of Global Media Coverage of Events in India’ points out how profitable it is for foreign media to run negative narratives on India based on sensationalism, prejudice, rank disinformation and reinforcing of cultural stereotypes.

The British newspaper is focusing all its attention on India and running the time-tested template with full gusto. In its article published on 31 December, titled “BJP win in India’s 2024 general election ‘almost an inevitability’”, author Hannah Ellis-Petersen doesn’t hold back on doomsday prophecies, specious narratives, or fake news, pulling the already declining bar several notches down on low-quality journalism where objectivity, editorial consistency, and adherence to facts have given way to ignorance, prejudice and a palimpsest of lies.

While prophesizing a victory for the Modi-led BJP, a possibility that seems to have caused the newspaper deep anxiety, the article ticks all the boxes — contempt for Indians and their electoral choices, hateful rhetoric, shocking unfamiliarity with even the basic tenets of India’s domestic politics and economic progress and an unbridled attempt to exploit the perceived Hindu-Muslim divide.

The article is a case study of fulsome gaslighting driven by a need to establish a political agenda. The sense of resignation and despondency in the article, starting with the title, suggests that Guardian (as a representative of foreign press in general) has almost given up all hopes of the Opposition putting up a fight and has decided to insert itself as a political actor into the mix, running a discourse based on blatant disinformation and an existential need to give its intended readership a slant that it expects to read and readily believe, no matter how far removed it is from reality. The slant is also tailored to provoke controversy among the vast majority of readers who may take umbrage at the disbalance and partiality on display, and the purpose of creating revenue would be served. It is a fail-safe strategy.

Meanwhile, as Indian general election, which is scheduled to take place during April and May this year, Western media outlets are intensifying their notorious assault targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ruling BJP as well as Hindus. At the same time, leftist and secularist media outlets in India also are joining such notorious propaganda.