Have attacks on ‘Anandabazar Patrika’ proven its ‘saffron hooliganism’ headline right?
· Scroll
Days after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari demanded an apology from Anandabazar Patrika for using the term “saffron hooliganism” in a headline, a mob arrived at the newspaper’s Kolkata office on September 1 to prove that the newspaper was right.
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The mob, which included members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, smeared the publication’s compound wall with saffron paint on Tuesday. They shouted slogans criticising the Bengali daily, one of the oldest newspapers in the country, chanting “bhagwa ka apman nahi sahega Hindustan”. India will not tolerate insults to saffron.
Saffron is the sacred colour of Hinduism but has been adopted by the BJP as its signature hue.
The Bengali daily had used the phrase “gerua gundami”, or saffron hooliganism, to describe the August 20 violence at Jadavpur University. That day, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of BJP’s ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, had clashed with Left-affiliated student groups on campus.
“The people who entered the campus of Jadavpur University and did hooliganism – they demeaned saffron, not us,” said a journalist working at the newspaper, requesting anonymity.
The journalist added: “We vividly described whatever happened that day along with photographs. Everything – the article and the photograph – substantiated the headline.”
The journalist has worked at Anandabazar Patrika for decades. He said that...