TV Newsance Ep 138: TV news villains & ‘love jihad’ in Kashmir
Your weekly dose of all the insanity that passes off as news on TV.
Move on from Bollywood films, pyaar ke dushman are now found on primetime debates in TV news studios.
This week, the bogey of “love jihad” reached Kashmir. It was alleged that a Sikh woman in Srinagar had been abducted at gunpoint and forced to marry a 60-year-old Muslim man. Amish Devgan, Arnab Goswami and anchors of Zee News played up the story, but didn’t get the basic facts right. We were told that religious minorities were a threat to the majority community in India, and alleged forced conversions to Islam were the flavour of the week.
But what is the actual story of Manmeet Kaur and Shahid Bhat, and other Kashmiri Sikh women whose names cropped up this week? What role did Akali Dal politician Manjinder Singh Sirsa play?
Watch.
Reading list
Newslaundry’s Covid coverage from Rajasthan and Maharashtra
The curious case of ‘1,000 conversions’: Who is Umar Gautam?
How did Mannu Yadav and Aditya Gupta convert to Islam?
She married a Muslim. Then she was snatched and married again
J&K ‘conversion’ row: Man in jail, sister says ‘didn’t like relationship’
Day after: J&K woman caught in ‘conversion’ row wed to fellow Sikh
Support Independent Media
The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free.
Contribute
Power NL-TNM Election Fund
General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans together to focus on the issues that really matter to the voter. From political funding to battleground states, media coverage to 10 years of Modi, choose a project you would like to support and power our journalism.
Ground reportage is central to public interest journalism. Only readers like you can make it possible. Will you?