Dear New York Times,

How’s it going in the upper echelons of the ‘liberal’ virtue-signaling world? All good I hope. Anyway, I was just wondering if you good folks by any chance have heard of the two Hindu Sadhus and a driver who were mercilessly lynched in India a few days back. Perhaps not. May be because #Lynchistan was not trending on Twitter this time. Don’t give yourselves a hard time, after all it must be overwhelming to outrage about every single case of mob violence in the sub-continent, so what if you wish to reserve it for a few that deserve the attention of the world! Your discretion is understandable. Also, I bet when you have such quality stuff being churned out by the likes of Aatish Taseers, Suhasini Rajs and Siddharth Varadarajans your ‘India’ section gets quite crowded.

You see guys, I know you lot know your stuff. After all you’ve been doing this for almost 170 years now. But I know journalism can be challenging, especially covering my country. So, I only wish to chip in, help you bridge the gap a little. I’m writing this because your minions in India have deliberately muddied the waters about the Sadhus and why they were brutally murdered by the mob, as they always do when the victims are Hindus. They vociferously came out in unison claiming that the villagers were under the influence of rumors of theft and abduction and that is what led to the lynching of the Sadhus. And that there is no communal, religious or political angle to the killings. Heck, they even declared that the Sadhus were not Hindu at all but nomadic tribesman! All this must be very convenient to you since you already like to play hooky from work when a Hindu is murdered by Leftist extremists, Christian or Muslim mobs given what your narrative about India has been for so long. NYT, you are notorious for your selectivity in your reportage of the sub-continent? Why would that be? And what would it take for you to shun your ideological predisposition and be fair and objective when covering the sub-continent?

Assuming you intend no malice towards my country and that you have been merely misinformed (all these years) let me try to alleviate your phobia of Hindus and its spiritual leaders. Quite contrary to the character of Mola Ram in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom who performs human sacrifices, child slavery and black magic, Hindu sadhus lead very simple ascetic lives. Some even ask for alms, eat just one meal a day, dedicate their lives for the upliftment of backward classes and their carbon footprint is negligible. I know, I know it might be exceedingly difficult to see saffron-clad men in that light, especially when at the mention of the mere word ‘saffron’ lefties in India froth at their mouths but they are also the ones who flaunt posters of Kim Jong Un and Stalin in their bastions. And we also have Arundhati Roy who incessantly rants about the Hindus committing genocide against Muslims at the world stage without substantiating her claims, ever! You know Arundhati, don’t you? Sorry, you might know her better as Suzie.

Suzie plays snooze when Hindus die at the hands of leftist extremists. Suzie lies brazenly that karsevaks were returning after demolishing a ‘disputed mosque’ in Ayodhya when they were torched alive in Sabarmati Express in Godhra in 2002 and claims nobody knows who burned the train. Suzie justifies leftist extremism and violence by calling them ‘Gandhians with guns’. Suzie asks minorities to lie during National Population Register (NPR) surveys and give out false names. Oh, the righteous overlords of everything that is just and pure in journalism, why is Suzie and her ilk’s collective fecal load such nectar to you guys! How low should Suzie and her comrades stoop to run out of credibility in your otherwise scrupulous eyes? Did Suzie also tell you that the Sadhus belonged to the Dashanami Juna Akhada of Varanasi who raised arms against Aurangzeb and the British ergo not deserving of the compassion of liberal western journalistic world? Now, I don’t know what fan fiction Suzie has peddled about the Islamic invasions and British colonialism during her last visit to Times Square but I’m really hoping you don’t make me defend the Dashanamis for raising arms against invading foreign forces. Or are you just afraid the world will know about the rampant forced conversions by Christian missionaries that is happening in the tribal areas of India?

NYT, we all know you like to take jibes at us Hindus and poke fun at our space program (see the cartoon below), almost as if to say how dare you dream so big! You also like to blame Hindurituals and culture for the sanitation challenges the country faces. Despite your blatant racism and bigotry I wish to attempt to appeal to your conscience and ask what it would take for you to carry out this story since I have many confused fellow countrymen who look up to the West for validation even if it is them who truly are the victims. And I know your eminence in journalism, fortunately or unfortunately, would help me achieve that validation for their sake.

NYT, I can give you dozens of names of Hindus who were killed by Muslim mobs. Some killed for waving the national flag in a Muslim dominated locality, some for blaming the Jamaat for the spread of coronavirus in India, some for trying to prevent cow slaughter, some for just falling in love with a Muslim girl and some for just being Hindu. Yet, I do not believe I will ever get to read an article by your newspaper questioning the religious intolerance of communities other than Hindus in India. When will that famous white liberal guilt that has worked wonders elsewhere stop being elusive when it comes to persecuted Hindus? A Hindu murdered is ‘’all the news that’s fit to print” too but you keep missing! The name of the place where the Sadhus were killed is Palghar, NYT. Next time when you run into Mr. Varadarajan asking him about it and the infestation of Christian missionaries in these tribal areas and the murderous left that thrives there. Him and his wife know a thing or two about the both the issues. By both I mean, tribals and murder.

Namaste!

Image Credits: CBN.Com