The credibility of the ‘renowned terror expert’ of The Hindu, Praveen Swami, has now come down to near-zero, risking the credibility of the paper itself. Trusting the fake stories Swami files, both the editorial section of the news paper and the readers are getting misled. One example is the Mecca Masjid bombing at Hyderabad. It pays to read The Hindu editorial of October 15, 2007.
Titled “Challenge of Islamic terror”, the editorial begins as follows:
“Investigative leads point to the Harkat ul-Jihadi-e-Islami (HUJI), the Islamist organisation behind the Mecca Masjid attack in Hyderabad, as being behind the terrorist strike at the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer. What can one say about an outfit so consumed by hatred as to deliver death to the shrine of a saint who preached the oneness of god’s creation? The Ajmer bombing is the latest in a series of terror strikes directed at both Hindu and Muslim religious institutions. Investigators have been able to establish that many of these attacks were carried out by Islamist terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammad, and the HUJI…”
The editorial, as authentic a record of the paper’s stand as is ever possible, overtly hints that the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts were the deeds of “Islamist terror” groups, while investigations have now brought out the fact that they were the handiwork of Hindutva groups like Abhinav Bharat. The Rajasthan ATS and other investigators have by now identified RSS activists and Abhinav Bharat leaders as having plotted and executed the blasts. How could The Hindu come to a very early and premature conclusion to “establish” guilt on the wrong people and without solid proof categorically state that Islamist groups did these?
This was possible only because the paper was misled by its own “terror expert”. As early as 23 May 2007 (the Mecca Masjid bombing took place on 18 May) Praveen Swami decided who the culprits are. In his news analysis titled “Behind the Mecca Masjid bombing” Swami stated with absolute certainty: “What the Mecca Masjid bombings make clear is that the Islamist threat to India's cities remains in place, notwithstanding the decline in violence since the Mumbai serial bombings…” The story was accompanied by a photograph, with a caption reading: “The street leading to the house of `Bilal,' suspected to be the mastermind who planned the Hyderabad blasts, in Moosaram Bagh.” The story itself began with detailed descriptions of “Bilal’s” house, painting it and the streets leading to it in menacing colours.
Now that it has turned out these reports, analyses and even the editorial were based on lies, will the paper make amends? Is the Editor-in-Chief listening?
On 14 October 2007 The Hindu carried another Praveen Swami report on its front page: “New leads tie Ajmer blast to HUJI”. The disclosure this time was that the “SIM card reveals Hyderabad link”. The report went on to state: “In both the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer terror strikes, the bomb-maker who fabricated the explosive devices had the phone’s speaker connected to a detonator implanted in nitroglycerine-based industrial explosive…Andhra Pradesh police investigators believe that the Mecca Masjid strikes were carried out by two or more Bangladesh-based HUJI operatives, who planted the explosives in the mosque and left India soon after.” Swami always functions as the megaphone of police and security sources, and consequently The Hindu ends up being reduced to a tool easily manipulated at will by motivated people.
Praveen Swami has not yet confessed to his past mistakes. Also, he has not shown the courtesy of apologizing to readers and victims of the fake news.
There is a Reader’s Editor at The Hindu. Will he intervene in the issue? It might help if he could conduct a detailed study of Praveen Swami’s terror coverage.
