Star of Mysore, a daily evening newspaper from Mysuru in Karnataka has referred to the Muslim community as “bad” and “rotten apples” in its editorial dated April 6th and has called for getting “rid” of the community, enraging its readers and the wider public for its blatant call for genocide against the community.
The article titled, “Bad apples in the basket“, written by the editors of the newspaper Govinde Gowda and KB Ganapathy, starts off by praising a “section” of Indians for what it calls “complying with the pleas of the Prime Minister”, and then goes on to denounce another “section” for what it calls as their “unedifying conduct marked by their faith and other features including their attire may bring to our mind the analogy of bad apples in the basket. Referred to as a rotten apple, a bad apple is a negative person who infects those around him with his bad influence.”
Leaving no doubt who they targeting, the authors write that the “nation is currently hosting an annoying 18 percent of its population self-identifying as rotten apples. More worrisome is the presence of bad apples even among the functionaries in the Government, a fact that is talked about in hushed tones.”
Open Call For Genocide
The newspaper then goes on to say that the “ideal solution” to the “problem created by bad apples is to get rid of them, as the former leader of Singapore did a few decades ago or as the leadership in Israel is currently doing.”
Although no police action has been taken against the newspaper and its editors for so overtly calling for a genocide of a community, the article has generated a severe backlash, with many calling for the editors’ arrest.
@DCMysuru @Star_Of_Mysore is spreading communal hatred by publishing xenophobic articles. Please take action against the chief editor and editor of the evening daily. @cjwerleman @KhaledBeydoun @UNHumanRights @RanaAyyub @ashoswai @ReallySwara @fayedsouza @SaketGokhale
— Mubariz (@Muby) April 10, 2020
Why can he booked for making such comments? Freedom to write doesn’t mean you can write anything. (1/n)
— Praveenkumar K: Kalam Way (@praveenkalikeri) April 10, 2020
On April 6th, an editorial in an English daily called the Star of Mysore – edited by KB Ganapathy- made a Nazi style, barely camouflaged call for the genocide of Muslims in India. No action whatsoever has been taken. Just another normal day for the Indian media. pic.twitter.com/b1KGFwpJWB
— Yeh Log ! (@yehlog) April 10, 2020
The article, now removed from the paper’s website, can be accessed through its cache.
Ever since Delhi’s Markaz Nizamuddin emerged as a coronavirus hotbed after numerous people who attended a Tablighi Jamaat meet in mid-March tested positive for the viral infection, there has been a swathe of fake and malicious news published against Muslims, leading to attack against the community across the country.
Last week, a video of a group of people attacking two Muslims with sticks and irons rods in Karnataka’s Bagalkot district went viral on social media. The attackers could be heard saying: “You people (Muslims) are the ones who are spreading this disease… Don’t touch them. They are the ones spreading the disease.”
In another incident that took place in Kadakorappa village in the same district, villagers barged into a mosque and attacked elderly people praying there.
In Delhi, a young Muslim man was brutally thrashed after accusing him of being a part of the conspiracy to spread novel coronavirus.
In Himachal Pradesh, a Muslim man hanged himself to death after allegedly being taunted by some villagers, who suspected him to be suffering from COVID-19 despite testing negative for it.
In Rajasthan, a pregnant Muslim woman was refused admission in a hospital by its staff citing her religion. The woman after leaving the hospital delivered the child inside the ambulance but the just born could not survive.
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