Source: The Hindu
A bilingual publication that promotes communal harmony — ‘Aap ki Taaqat’ – was targeted by mobs during the recent Faizabad riots
The recent Faizabad communal riot witnessed the usual religious symbols and shops being targeted in an attempt to disturb the communal amity of the city, which along with Ayodhya has historically been regarded as ‘twin cities’.
But what didn’t find mention in several mainstream discourses was that the vandals also attacked Faizabad based bilingual publication ‘Aap ki Taaqat’, a Hindi-Urdu weekly, which promoted communal harmony and the syncretic traditions of Ganga-Jumna tehzeeb in the city and the nearby regions.
But when the riot engulfed the city on October 24, the office of the publication which since its inception in December 2006, carried the slogan of ‘Hindu-Muslim do bhai, Hindi-Urdu do behen’ on its masthead, was also targeted by the rioting mob. “The attack was in spite of its message of communal harmony or may be because of that,” as its editor Manzar Mehdi puts it.
The newspaper’s office was located on the premise of Chowk Masjid that dates back to 1790 A.D. and every year the mosque used to welcome the goddess Durga procession with floral tributes. The office was gutted in the fire that also consumed other shops in the mosque’s premise.
Condemning the attack, last week, the Press Council of India (PCI) chairman Justice (retd) Markandey Katju constituted a one member PCI committee to probe the incident.
Mr. Mehdi painstakingly highlights the fact that the paper attracts almost 80 per cent advertisement support from the Hindu community.
“To tell you frankly, the paper survived on support from affluent Hindu brothers. The attack first took me by surprise because there was never threat to the paper,” says Mr. Mehdi who runs the paper single-handedly from a one-room office on the first floor of the mosque.