The turnaround from Hukum Singh, the Member of Parliament from Kairana in Uttar Pradesh leaves two particular news channels in a bit of a spot.

There may be other news organisations left embarrassed, but we only caught NewsX and Zee News out. How? Well, here’s what the story from Kairana was – Hindu families fleeing Kairana because of intimidation from Muslims. Many reports stated this as fact, based on a list circulated by Singh. The responsible MP didn’t say “Muslims” when he was asked if the “criminals” who drove the Hindus away belonged to a “vishesh varg” (special category) in his interview to NDTV, but he did rattle of names like Qayyum, Abdul and a few other obviously Muslim ones. He ended with the observation that their identity is obvious their names. Point made.

However, what emerged from on-ground audits by various reporters as well as the local administration was very different from Singh’s take. Several Hindu families came on record to say their relatives had left Kairana for economic reasons, some over five years ago. It was then time for Hukum Singh to backpedal, with a “Calling It Hindu Exodus A Mistake By My Team”. Also it emerged that several Muslim families too had migrated for jobs because the constituency seems to be devoid of any opportunities.

Which brings us to NewsX.  On Sunday night, during a debate, anchor Jujhar Singh came down heavily on the Samajwadi Party spokesperson Pankhuri Pathak, who was trying to make the point that there is no Hindu exodus or any communal intimidation. The anchor went with, “We have seen this” and claimed to confirm through their own reports that there was in fact a Hindu exodus, as earlier claimed by Hukum Singh before his U-turn. Not that there were any interviews with even a fraction of the families involved. The claim that NewsX had seen “this” was said to images of locked doors and walls with “Ghar Bikau Hai” (House for sale) painted on them. Unless all houses that go on sale are because the original occupants are on the run from a communal attack, this was in typical TV news style, a claim based on nothing but irresponsible noise and the desire to push an agenda that will get viewership or heated debates, or whatever else NewsX‘s motivation may be.

Rohit Sardana on his show Taal Thok Ke Extra Strong went all guns blazing, accusing a Samajwadi Party spokesperson of not acting on Zee News’s report that apparently presented unquestionable proof of Hindu exodus in Kairana. At one point he questioned the SP spokie who was poking holes in Sardana’s narrative: “Aap ko kya lagta hai, jo TV channels chal rahen hai is desh main, gawaar log chala rahein hain kya? Anpad log chala rahen hain kya?” [Do you think news channels are run by illiterate people?]

We don’t know about illiterate, but some of them certainly seem very incompetent.