Fairness gone for a toss?

Pakistan's nervous reaction on the Udaipur beheading perpetrated by two local residents on June 30 — killing Kanhaiya Lal (47), a tailor — is not at all surprising. Most shockingly, the murderers video recorded the grotesque killing, which immediately started making rounds on the social media.

It is indeed sad that a prominent Pakistani English daily, Dawn, in its' June 30 edition, instead of castigating the killers, chose to vitiate public opinion in Pakistan by apparently condoning the condemnable act. It also diluted the gravity of the heinous act. The newspaper read, "The political heatwave during this summer has led to a constitutional meltdown. From Udupi to Udaipur – via Khargone, Prayagraj, Delhi and Gulbarg Society – we have covered a long distance. During this summer, we have come a long way – from banning Hijab in classrooms to preventing azaan on loudspeakers, from bullying to bulldozing, from blasphemy to beheading. The façade of constitutional niceties has wilted". This was all avoidable.

Furthermore, it questioned the incumbent Indian government, "Why did the BJP government wish to whitewash the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi's Congress from school textbooks? Why did the Yogi Adityanath government perform the public ritual of bulldozing Javed Mohammad's house even after a handsome electoral victory? Why did the government go after Teesta Setalvad and Mohammed Zubair, fully aware of adverse international publicity following recent diplomatic embarrassment over blasphemy?" Exceeding all journalistic ethics, the newspaper said that "there is a method to this madness. We are looking at the rise of total politics. It involves total dominance of political power over all other sectors of power – social, cultural, religious or economic".

Now this is really bizarre, and it is evident that a newspaper which is considered apolitical, balanced, and known for unbiased reporting, has decided to attack India without condemning "blasphemy" perpetrated by individuals of a faith which allows beheading of blasphemy offenders with a complete social endorsement. Daniel Pearl's killing, which was carried out by a Pakistani, was most shocking and heartless. There are numerous cases involving inhuman killings of minorities and foreign nationals in Pakistan — including that of a Sri Lankan business executive killed most inhumanly on suspicion of blasphemy.

As the complicity of Pakistan based Dawat-e-Islami surfaced during preliminary investigations, Pakistan Foreign Office reacted by rejecting India's "mischievous" attempts to link the accused of the murder case in Udaipur with a Pakistani organisation. Again, Dawn claimed it has seen reports in a segment of Indian media referring to investigations into the murder case in Udaipur, mischievously seeking to link the accused individuals (Indian nationals) to an organisation in Pakistan. The newspaper described this as BJP-RSS' Hindutva-driven regime's attempt to malign Pakistan, including externalising their internal issues by pointing fingers towards the country. It is proved beyond doubt that Pakistan has turned a blind eye towards barbaric beheading, and its silence, by implication, means it is condoning such killings, based on religious extremism.

Such irresponsible media coverage carried out by a supposedly responsible newspaper suggests that religious extremism and rising fundamentalism are getting the better of the free press in Pakistan. And it further indicates that targeting India on the Udaipur beheadings is nothing but a cover-up exercise to conceal the religious intolerance prevailing in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, a well-known journalist, Ayaz Amir, was assaulted in Lahore last week. Amir is Pakistan's most respected newspaper columnist and television commentator. He was dragged out of his vehicle and manhandled on a busy street openly. It all happened a day after he delivered a speech in a seminar in Islamabad, which went viral on social media. The speech was scathing and full of sarcasm. It irked the powers that be who seem to be on edge these days. Tolerance level seems to have gone down in the current political storm within the country. Ayaz Amir may have been scathing but there was nothing in his remarks that is not being talked about. He didn't reveal any state secrets. It was a truth, perhaps, put too forthrightly against the liking of some elements belonging to a 'sensitive' institution — hence the response in the shape of the crude use of power that we have witnessed so often being applied against those who dare to speak out.

According to reputed columnist Zahid Hussain, who has dealt with the issue comprehensively, the entire episode highlights not only the consequences of the deep involvement of security agencies in political engineering but also their role in manipulating sections of the media. If Zahid Hussain is right in his wisdom in criticising the system for failing to protect Ayaz Amir, and in exposing the complicity of security agencies then, by the same yardstick, it is inconceivable that the same Dawn newspaper had an inkling of bias while reporting Udaipur beheading. This is surely not fair!

The writer is a retired IPS officer, a security analyst and a former National Security Advisor to the PM of Mauritius. Views expressed are personal