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India is moved by the story of two sons.
The first is Aryan Khan, the 23-year-old son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who was arrested early Sunday morning for allegedly using recreational drugs at a party.
The second is Ashish Mishra, the son of India’s interior minister, who is accused of ordering his driver to plow his vehicle against a group of protesting farmers, causing deaths and injuries.
Khan and Mishra have denied the allegations against them, and the two cases are not related in any way.
But the way in which the two young men were treated by the police, and the enormous media attention given to Khan’s case, has led some to question the agenda of part of the press, and to accuse certain stations of trying to “tarnish Bollywood”. .
The “drug bust”
Khan was taken from a cruise ship on its way from Mumbai – the city where his family lives – to the tourist paradise of Goa. The Narcotics Control Bureau (BNC), which arrested him along with several others, said the group was being held under laws “related to the possession, consumption and sale of illegal substances.” The 23-year-old was remanded in custody until October 7.
Analysts said, based on Khan’s arrest documents, that the drug’s yield was likely so low that there really was no reason to keep him in custody. His lawyer Satish Manshinde strongly denied the charges. He told the magistrate at the bail hearing on Sunday that Khan was “examined twice when he boarded the cruise” and that “no contraband was found on him” and that he there was “no evidence that he had used drugs.”
Protests, fleeing car and dead
The second incident involved Ashish Mishra, son of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ministerial colleague Ajay Mishra, after a car from their motorcade allegedly crashed into a group of protesting farmers in the Lakhimpur district of Uttar Pradesh.
A total of eight people were killed. Farm unions said two protesters died when they were run over, two others who were later injured in hospital, and three BJP workers and the driver were beaten to death by crowds of protesters.
Early reports quoted Ashish Mishra as saying he had run through farms and fields to escape lynching by protesters. He later said he was not in the car at the time of the incident – a claim supported by his father.
It was only after protests from opposition parties and farmers’ unions that the police finally opened an investigation on Monday morning and the father and son were charged.
“The reluctance and delay of the police to file a complaint is inexcusable,” said Vikram Singh, a former senior police official in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
“The Lakhimpur incident is much more serious because it involves deaths, but Khan’s arrest has taken the spotlight,” he said.
Media coverage
Throughout Sunday, some TV channels feasted on the Khan family ordeal. He was photographed and filmed being escorted by police in and out of buildings, and his “arrest note” was shown on TV screens and shared widely on WhatsApp.
Khan’s arrest was described by one host as a “major bust of a rave party”, while another demanded that the “Bollywood-drug connection” be ended.
Guests at these channels made unsubstantiated claims about the star son and criticized the actor and his wife for bad parenting. On Twitter, Aryan Khan’s name was trending with #BollywoodDruggies and #BollyDruggiesShamingNation.
But more than 24 hours after the Lakhimpur incident, the Mishra have still not been summoned to the police station for questioning, and TV channel coverage has been much more low-key.
Famous presenters have refrained from demanding their arrest, some in fact blaming the violence on farmers (who have been protesting for a year in many parts of northern India against three new laws).
On Twitter, the only hashtag that circulated for hours on Monday morning was the one urging Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to “beat farmers and protesters with sticks”.
The “star son” against the unknown
The coverage of the drug seizure was “overdone” but had to be “expected in our eyeball and click focused journalism,” former journalist John Thomas said.
“The star value of the star son influences the coverage and also the presumed interest of the consumer whether on television or in print,” he said. “The politician’s son, on the other hand, is a stranger across the country, just like his dad. Who knows a deputy minister of the Modi government?
Mr Singh said the wall-to-wall coverage was part of “a hidden agenda, an insidious roadmap” to tarnish Bollywood. He brought up the case of Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty, who found herself at the center of a vicious campaign last year by some of India’s most prominent journalists, after her partner, the actor Sushant Singh Rajput, was found dead in his Mumbai apartment last year.
“There was no substance to the allegations against Rhea, but it ruined his image. Khan’s arrest note shows recovery of the drugs was paltry, but his family’s reputation is in tatters,” a- he declared.
“This was a bondable offense, so why did the NCB request his pre-trial detention? Moreover, they should not have disclosed the identity of the accused and the media should not have been allowed to follow and report his every move after the arrest. “
The consumption of young drugs was “a human tragedy”, he added, calling on officials to be “sensitive”.
“Drugs cannot be exterminated, so drug addiction must be treated by sending people to drug treatment centers so that the unfortunate victims of drug addiction can be rehabilitated.”
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