From shaheen bagh 2. 0 to jinnah: tv news rewrites the waqf bill story again

Days after it termed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill a “direct attack on Muslims”, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board held a protest in New Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Monday, upping its

ante against the contentious legislation. The demonstration was joined by several leading Muslim religious outfits, with their leaders being flanked by several opposition politicians such as

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Congress’ Gaurav Gogoi and Salman Khurshid, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, and Samajwadi Party’s Mohibullah Nadvi among others. Critics of the bill have raised _concerns_

about the “_discriminatory_” and “unconstitutional” aspects of the bill, and even termed it a way of “usurping Muslim properties”. In the wake of Rajya Sabha accepting a parliamentary

report on the legislation and the opposition’s allegations about the government censoring dissent notes, the bill’s opponents are now _planning_ to challenge the legislation in the Supreme

Court.  A section of the media, meanwhile, saw this as yet another opportunity to complain about Muslims and opposition leaders.  Throwing nuance out the window, news channels on Monday

presented an overly simplified version of the issue, burying facts under propaganda. From linking the Waqf protests to Aurangzeb to calling the demonstration “Shaheen Bagh Part 2”, there was

little space for deliberations on the concerns of the Muslims community.   Here’s what they said. _NEWS18 INDIA_ On his primetime show __Aar Paar__, Amish Devgan sandwiched the actual news

between fiery and farfetched conclusions. In what seemed like a single breath, he drew tenuous connections between opposition parties, the Waqf protests, Shaheen Bagh, Aurangzeb

sympathisers, and Jinnah mindsets.   “_Aaj desh ne Shaheen Bagh Part 2 ka trailer dekha hai, viewers. Woh bhi rajdhani Dilli ke andar. Kyunki, All India Muslim Personal Law Board ne Jantar

Mantar pe pradarshan kiya_,” he proclaimed. (Viewers, today, the country watched the trailer of Shaheen Bagh Part 2. That too in the capital Delhi. Because, the AIMPLB has protested at

Jantar Mantar.) This is _not the first time_ that the ghost of Shaheen Bagh has returned on primetime news to demonise a protest. Devgan then accused the political parties, whose leaders

lent support to the demonstration, of fighting elections against Narendra Modi and “coincidentally” supporting Aurangzeb.  He said: “_Khaas baat hai ki iss pradarshan mein har woh party

dikhi jo Shaheen Bagh ke waqt pradarshankariyo ke saath thi. Ittefaq ki baat hai ki yeh wohi sari partiya hai jinhone ghatbandhan banakar Narendra Modi ke khilaf chunav lada tha. Aur yeh bhi

ittafak hai ki baat ke yeh jo paritya Waqf Board Amendment Bill [2024] ka virodh kar rahe hai, wohi partiya Aurangzeb ki himayat karnemein juti hu hai._”_ _ Loosely translated, Devgan said

leaders from “all the parties who supported Shaheen Bagh” were at the protest site, and that it’s a “matter of coincidence that these are the same parties that had formed an alliance and

fought elections against Modi”. “And it is also a coincidence that the same parties that are opposing the Waqf Board Amendment Bill are involved in supporting Aurangzeb.” The ticker

diligently drove this point home: “_Waqf aur Aurangzeb, kiska siyasi fareb? (_Waqf and Aurangzeb, whose political fraud?)” With a picture of Bahadur Shah Zafar in the background though.