The Indian media went ballistic when Baptist Missionary Graham Staines was murdered in Orissa. Reams of newspaper were devoted to mourning the "Ghastly Murder" and for weeks editorials discussed the rising "intolerance" which according to them was fuelled by the BJP's policies of encouraging Hindutva. Even after a commission instituted by Law, called the Wadhwa Commission did a thorough investigation and found that the prime accused was not associated with any Hindutva oriented organization, still the pseudo secularists and Media barons cried foul. Graham Staines got more coverage than all the Kashmiri Pandits put together who had been assassinated by Islamic terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.

Later a Muslim youth and another Christian proselytizer in the same area were also found murdered. Again there was a frantic rush to the newsroom. Facts were thrown out of the window. No evidence was found to even remotely link "Hindu extremism" to the murders and yet the newspapers' headlines screamed about the Hindu hand behind the outrageous murders of minorities. The Indian media seemed to be having a field day at lambasting and accusing the entire Hindu community of India with these dastardly crimes. They gave front page coverage to the hypocritical Report from the US State Department which outrageously claimed that India had become a hotbed of "rising intolerance" in a very direct reference to the BJP government. The import of the report was clear; Hindus were murderous savages, who would go a killing rampage if they were given political control of their own nation, as in the case of BJP in India.

The Indian media has no space to devote to the thousands of Hindus who are victims of intolerance at the hands of Muslims and Christians every year. The fact is that there is a sinister attempt to totally ignore the fact about these incidents and to focus completely on portraying Hindus as the villains when isolated incidents such as the Staines murder take place. This fact is shockingly demonstrated by the fact that just last week a Hindu boy was HACKED TO DEATH by Muslims in the EXACT same area of Orissa, where the purported attacks on minorities is taking place at the hands of Hindus, according to the Indian media!

A 25-year-old youth, Bhuban Bihari Barik was mercilessly hacked to death by a mob of Muslims in the village of Chadheikul in Mayurbhanj district. Bhuban belonged to Ghasda village under Chitrakosi Gram Panchayat in the same district. He had gone simply to play a game of cards at a local Dhaba in Chadheikul. In the meantime a group of Muslim youths were also present there. They were gambling with money. The police decided to raid the area on a tip off that gambling may be happening there. At this the Muslims were enraged that the Police had dared to raid a Muslim stronghold. They decided to indulge in a macabre demonstration to punish the "Hindus". A hapless and innocent Bhuban was carried to the edge of the Eucalyptus forest in the area and hacked to pieces with Scythes and daggers. The Muslims then proceeded to feed pieces of Bhuban's flesh to the dogs in a celebration of violence.

Upon learning of the heinous crime, the shocked villagers went to the Police to get justice. They were thwarted with the warning not to create trouble with the Muslims! At this 200 members of the village sat down in a Dharna to demand justice for the unimaginably gory crime. It was only at this point that Police were forced to file a case for Bhuban's murder.

The Indian media to date has not published a solitary story on this sordid episode. Is the blood of a Hindu Bhuban Bihari Barik worth much less than that of a Christian Baptist Graham Staines??

If you were to ask the Indian media this question, there is no doubt about how they would answer.