Four culprits with non-Muslim names were arrested near Andheri Railway Station, in suburban Mumbai, selling RDX explosives, apparently 'stolen from Military base' at Devlali. Since Gujarat communal riots, which is commonly believed to be whipped up by Hindutva extremists to reap political windfall, a similar attempt to destabilize the neighbouring state of Maharashtra is being observed in a continuous series of bombings and its blame instantly being put on Muslims to trigger another communal holocaust to rival Gujarat. The famous commercial city of Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is the prize booty in the political war game. Though the fight between the two opposing political groups, both Brahminical formations, very inappropriately branded as carrying two distinct banners -- secular and Hindutva, is over power grabbing; the competition is staged in communal terms, where Muslim voters are the main bone of contention. Consequently, Muslims are constantly demonized specially by English newspapers, who had been the opinion makers in India, since last 100 years, including the British colonial phase. The communal bias of India's English media is most glaring when it splashes headlines over unsubstantiated blame on Muslims or supposedly Pakistani terrorists, while putting down the gravity of bombing expeditions by Hindutva elements. Deliberately or inadvertently, they thus become partners in the crime of instigating communal strife. A case in point is the way the news of the arrest of the 4 non-Muslims caught near Andheri, openly soliciting clients for their stolen RDX explosive, is reported by The Times of India. If these culprits would have been Muslims, Times of India would have blazoned the news on the front page with multi-column headlines. As it happened, The Times of India had chosen to flash the news of Mumbai High Court verdict on Triple Talaaq as top front page news, but the news of the arrest of the 4 culprits selling RDX was relegated to page 3 at the bottom of the page. It needs no media expert to make out that the city editors of The Times of India, are trying to suppress the alarming content of the news where the guilt is clearly not committed by Muslims or Pak agents and even laxity of army authorities in such grave matter impacting internal security and communal harmony is now open to serious investigations.

It is most reprehensible that a premier newspaper of India is so blatantly playing communal games with news management, probably at the cue of other pressure groups that have no value for human lives and are bent on involving the city of Mumbai in a cycle of terrorist events, to gain upper hand in India's future of hope that could turn into despair if they persist in their nefarious activities.

GHULAM MUHAMMED, MUMBAI