On DNA's anti-Dalit bias

The story 'Residents live on razor's edge' published in Daily News Analysis (Mumbai) is surely in a bad taste. Of course, on the basis of just one story, you can't label a newspaper insensitive to a community or group but this is not the kind of journalism we expect from DNA.

The correspondent, Haima Deshpande, apparently wanted to highlight the inconvenience suffered by the middle-class/upper-class as Dalits came in lakhs at Chaitya Bhumi on December 6, the day Dr BR Ambedkar died.

But it has turned out to be a story prejudiced against Dalits and reminds one of coverage of 'native's events' in English papers during the colonial rule (pre-Independence era).

Quotes like “There is loud music at night, people barge into buildings and dirty them, bathe in the open on the footpaths, throw food around and make life miserable for us. We cannot go out or take our cars out for fear of hitting someone. We are under house arrest all day', that are clearly offensive and not at all justified in a story.

Is the story about Indian citizens or cattle? The story begins with, 'Come December 6, residents of Shivaji Park in Central Dadar press the panic button. Many alter their work and daily schedules, beef up security in buildings, inform schools that their children will remain absent, and literally barricade themselves inside their homes with heavy-duty locks.' Just like racist European papers often write about quarters dominated by blacks which are marked by filth and litter.

The inherent prejudice in the minds of the writer and more so the desk (sub-editors) who let it go in this form, can be gauged easily by the story. A newspaper like DNA that sells in lakhs should be more restrained and careful.

The story was published here
And I first read about it on the blog of Harini Calamur here