“We are not denying it. They were angry,…”
A band of right-wing activists ransacked an Indian televisionstation in the country’s financial hub of Mumbai in an assault theirparty said was an act of retaliation against the channel’s “bias”against their veteran leader.
Political commentators called theattack on the IBN Lokmat station a manifestation of competitivemilitant politics in Maharashtra state, home to Mumbai.
Policehave so far arrested seven people. About 15 to 20 people more areexpected to be taken into custody, said Rajkumar Vhatkar, a deputycommissioner of police in the city.
Those held have been charged with assault, rioting and criminal trespass, among other counts, he said.
IBN Lokmat is a sister station to CNN-IBN, also in India; CNN-IBN was not targeted.
Policesaid the suspects are members of the regional Shiv Sena party. Thegroup, which fights federal and state elections, confirmed that theyare.
“We are not denying it. They were angry,” said Sanjay Raut,a federal lawmaker from Shiv Sena. He accused the channel of insultinghis party head, Bal Thackeray, a fiery Maharashtrian leader.
ShivSena and its breakaway Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), headed byThackeray’s nephew, claim to be champions of Maharashtrian issues,especially economic issues, as hundreds of thousands of migrants from anumber of impoverished states are lured to Mumbai for jobs.
“Earlier,it was only the Shiv Sena. Now it faces the MNS too. It’s a competitionto prove who’s more militant,” said K.G. Suresh, an observer of India’sright-wing politics.
“This brand of politics is flourishing inMumbai for more than 40 years now. It’s a paradox in India’s democracythat these parties have always endorsed attacks at those who do notsubscribe to their parochial, medieval thoughts. Targets have beenBollywood films, Valentine’s Day celebrations, non-Maharashtrians, andnon-Hindus.”
Madeline Earp, Asia research associate for theCommittee to Protect Journalists, said Hindu nationalists, and ShivSena in particular, have indeed been responsible for previous attacks,and such violence is part of a broader trend of impunity for attacks onjournalists in India, including killings.
She said Indiafeatures on the committee’s Impunity Index — a list of countries wherejournalist murders are consistently unprosecuted.
Earp said”it’s good to see local police are making arrests following thisattack, because aggressive investigation and prosecution aredesperately needed to protect Indian journalists from incidents likethis one. “
“Generally speaking,” she said, “I would think thisattack looks extreme. I wouldn’t say it’s unusual. I think there’sactually a fairly consistent rate of low-level attacks throughoutIndia” over recent decades.
“This year and last year — I canthink of at least two or three of this magnitude,” she said. “It’s notconcentrated in a particular area. I think there is a certain degree oflawlessness in India which can involve newspapers or the media,especially over issues that are really tense in certain regions.
“Forexample, these occur in states that suffer from communal violence orethnic tension — they’ll be attacks on media offices or vehicles.These are places where feelings run high. I would say that’s notunusual — though we are not always aware of it” outside India.