The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Communalization of Media
Anam Fatima is a graduating senior at Georgetown University in Qatar, majoring in International Politics with a certificate in Media and Politics. Her main focus is on International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law alongside Public policy. Her CMAP research thesis examines the utilization of the national outlet of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India, known as the Kamal Sandesh. In doing the same, it deploys a three step research methodology and analyzes thirty two articles on the online outlet, to examine the following research question, “Does the Bharatiya Janata Party, in its official outlets, use religious identity as a means to furthering its Hindu nationalist agenda at the expense of promoting understanding of the news?”
The findings of the paper indicate that the promotion of the Hindutva ideology is often covert in nature in the articles and there is an inconsistency in the party’s perspectives and actions towards Identity politics. The favoritism towards one culture is evident, while the portrayal of Islam as associated with terror is concerning. Through the analysis of selected articles, it became evident that the articles consistently prioritize political agenda and Hindutva ideology over objective reporting, in accordance with the research question.
Faculty Mentor: Prof. Reza Pirbhai
CMAP Thesis: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14-XHga273jpuPdgCzwh1GYTtWOzXp7Ub/view?usp=sharing
