Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray (C) during the 14th Foundation Day celebration of MNS Party at Vishnudas Bhave Auditorium, at Vashi in Navi Mumbai.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, addresses party workers in a rally demanding that illegal Immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh be evicted from India in Mu...
Maharasharashtra Navnirman Sena, MNS chief Raj Thackeray, center, joins party workers in a rally demanding that illegal Immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh be evicted from Indi...
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray along with workers participates in a march from Marine Drive to Azad Maidan, demanding eviction of illegal (Muslim) immigrants ...
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray during party convention at Nesco ground in Goregaon, Mumbai.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray during party convention at Nesco ground in Goregaon, Mumbai.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray during a function to launch party's new Flag and symbol at NESCO Center in Mumbai.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray during a function to launch party's new Flag and symbol at NESCO Center in Mumbai.
Leaders of various political parties stand for the national anthem during a swearing-in-ceremony of Shiv Sena party leader Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister of Maharashtra state d...
MNS chief Raj Thackeray interacts with media after casting his vote during Maharashtra Assembly elections, in Mumbai.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray and his wife after casting their votes during Maharashtra Assembly elections, in Mumbai
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray addresses a public meeting during a rally for the upcoming Assembly elections, at Borivali in Mumbai
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackrey addresses in support of party candidate from Bandra (west) Akhil Chitre (unseen) ahead of Maharashtra assembly polls, in Mumbai.
Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray offers tribute to Bal Thackeray as Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray looks on during Dussehra at Shivaji Park, in Mumbai.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray arrives at the Enforcement Directorate office, in Mumbai. Thackeray is set to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (E...
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray along with his mother leaves for Enforcement Directorate office, in Mumbai. Thackeray is set to appear before the Enforceme...
MNS chief Raj Thackeray with opposition party member NCP Ajit Pawar (R) addresses a press conference demanding to replace EVMs by ballot papers, in Mumbai.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray meets Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra in New Delhi.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray greets Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi during a meeting in New Delhi.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray leaves after meeting the Chief Election Commissioner, in New Delhi.
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L'affaire Mutalik brings us to the issue of how much coverage for incidents like this. Also, is the media willingly or unwittingly turning into a PR wing of such ragtag vigilante groups? Is media's over-enthusiasm proving totally counter-productive? The media, in all sincerity, should come up with a policy prescription for itself to ensure that its coverage does not achieve the exact opposite of what it intends to establish. After all, this year's Valentine's Day was the least colourful in recent times and strangely, the media ensured that it was so. Ironically, the media outdid Mutalik in this endeavour.
There is another deeper media issue involved in the Mangalore pub attack-coverage. Why was the media, the more sedate and supposedly more balanced print media included, utterly disinclined to inform the readers about Ram Sena's antecedents and its running battle with the Sangh Pariwar? Also, the media chose to ignore the fact that there were some local Congressmen among the Ramsena funders. Questions like whether Mutalik was deliberately being modelled into a Hindu Bhindranwale to embarras an unfriendly dispensation at Bengaluru, just as a similar exercise is on to establish Raj Thackeray as the real representative of Maharashtra pride, have never been probed by the media. Ram Sena's run-ins with RSS are only too well-known even to the general public in Mangalore. Why did the media fail to see the obvious? Is there a deeper and hidden agenda?
