In a brazen act of alienation towards Indian Muslims, television channel Asianet Suvarna News used the Pakistani flag to represent the Muslim community of India in a show that aired on May 9. The Kannada news channel later apologised for the incident claiming it was an ‘oversight.’
The offending graphic was broadcasted during the show Suvarna News Hour, hosted by anchor Ajit Hanamakkanavar, in an episode titled ‘Hindu population has decreased, Muslim population has increased enormously.’ The channel — which has been linked to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar — was discussing a recent report compiled by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) which showed that the share of the Hindu population in India has taken a slight dip between 1950 and 2015, while the population share of Muslims has increased. While debating about the alleged increase of the Muslim population, a graphic was aired on screen in which the Hindus were identified using an Indian flag while the Muslims were identified with a Pakistan flag.
After facing backlash, the graphic was later changed to generic Hindu and Muslim symbols. The video now available on their YouTube channel reflects this change.
Expressing regret over the incident, Asianet Suvarna News issued a statement claiming that the graphics which were used for another episode, depicting the growth of majority communities in India and Pakistan, were used for their current episode which led to the controversy. “The same graphics plate that was prepared to explain the population growth and decline of India-Pakistan majority communities was used to explain the growth/decline of Hindu-Muslim communities in India. It is an oversight without malice. It was fixed within seconds as soon as it was noticed by the team. The Asianet Suvarna News team expresses deep regret for the oversight,” the channel said.
It is to be noted that the EAC-PM report — released in the midst of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections — uses projected figures for 2015 to make the comparison between Hindu-Muslim populations, but reveals nothing new that was not already known from the 2011 Census of India. The report with its old data, however, has since been used to peddle a communal narrative by many media outlets and BJP leaders including Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
Speaking to the media, Rajeev claimed that the report’s finding on Hindu and Muslim population changes is significant, asking why “only the Muslim community” population had risen so much. He also ‘wondered’ how much of the growth was due to “illegal immigration” and religious conversions.
TNM has reported that the data presented in the report, and the media coverage around it, has misrepresented the changes in religious composition of India’s population, by making it seem like the share of Muslim population was growing at an alarming rate. While the report itself concludes that this is an indication that minorities are well protected in India, the religion-wise total fertility rates and other factors indicate that the population share of Muslims isn’t growing at an exorbitant rate, and that religious conversions or illegal immigration cannot be the primary reason for the growth either.
Read: Same data, new spin: The noise over the study on Hindu-Muslim population explained