The Devoted

ON 5 AUGUST, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Imran Khan—not to be confused with Pakistan’s prime minister—was most elated. For Khan, an anchor for the Urdu news and devotional-content channel Zee Salaam, the Ram-temple ceremony inaugurated “a new chapter of rejuvenation in the history of sanatana culture”—another word for the “eternal” Hindu culture.

The inauguration ceremony met a fundamental ideological commitment of the Hindu-nationalist movement, which is why it was held on the first anniversary of another monumental feat for the Hindu Right—the abrogation of the special status granted under Article 370 to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Khan demonstrated his commitment to Hindu nationalism through song. On his Facebook page, he posted a recording of a song he had just written, “Kar Aao Mandir Nirmaan”—Let’s Build the Temple. The song received only about four hundred likes and a hundred shares on Facebook, and fewer than five hundred views on his YouTube channel, as of November. But its few hundred listeners included the coordinator of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell in Bihar’s Munger district, who played the song at a public place in Tarapur to commemorate the occasion. Some weeks later, to Khan’s delight, his track bagged him the second spot at a singing competition in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara, his hometown. This was not his first foray into Hindutva pop. A few years earlier, Khan had recorded his rendition of the singer Lata Mangeshkar’s emotional masterpiece, “Tu Kitni Acchi Hai, O Maa”—You’re So Good, Dear Mother—for the sacred cow.

Apart from working at Zee Salaam, India’s most-watched Urdu news channel, which has a mostly Muslim audience, Khan also serves as the national secretary of the Rashtriya Gau Raksha Vahini, a cow-protection vigilante group linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh—the BJP’s mothership. He is also a key member of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, the Muslim-outreach wing of the RSS. On Facebook, he heaps lavish praises on Hindutva icons ranging from Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar to present-day figures such as the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, the MRM’s head Indresh Kumar, and Syed Yaser Jilani, the BJP’s Delhi spokesperson and the MRM’s national spokesperson.

Khan’s ideology made him the preferred choice of anchor for Zee Salaam on the Ram-temple issue. On 9 November 2019, the day when the Supreme Court gave its verdict on the case, Bushra Khanum was the main host for the day. But, minutes before the judgment’s pronouncement, she was called off air and replaced by Khan.

During this special segment on the judgment, as Khan read out a bulletin about the court’s order, Zee Salaam’s screen turned to Bhagwat’s press conference, in which he welcomed the court’s decision. As Bhagwat’s press meet ended, Khan asked Mohammed Afzal Ansari, the MRM’s national convenor, to throw light on Bhagwat’s statement for the benefit of the Muslim community watching Zee Salaam. Throughout the show, Khan reiterated the sentiment expressed by Bhagwat and Modi: that a colossal conflict had ended peacefully, and Muslims must now move on.

Some weeks later, as it became evident that Muslim organisations were going to file a review petition against the verdict, Khan’s show put a spotlight on the lack of consensus between the organisations. He introduced the show claiming that these groups did not represent the millat, or the community. “Do they think all of us [Muslims] are fools?” Khan said. “Take back your review petition.”

In the last few years, Zee News—the Hindi news channel of the group that Zee Salaam belongs to—has championed the cause of Hindu nationalism, unfailingly exhorting its viewers to back the BJP, RSS and Modi. On the day of the verdict, Zee News was even more explicit in its support for the Ram Mandir cause with “Jai Shri Ram” displayed prominently in the background graphics while its headlines read “Mandir Wahin Banega”—a rallying, often violent cry of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement—the temple will be built there. Zee Salaam’s support for building the Ram temple seemed restrained only in comparison to its Hindi counterpart. The channel’s stand on the dispute synced perfectly with Zee News’s editorial line.

Even on other issues, such as the passing of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or the attack on civil liberties in Jammu and Kashmir, Zee Salaam has acted as a mouthpiece of the BJP-led government. Many of the channel’s Muslim reporters and anchors seem to have been picked out using a strategy that the BJP has often used in the political arena.