Prasar Bharati, the Indian government's official public service broadcaster, seems to be out-of-sync with the news – and the concept of political correctness.
On Tuesday morning, Prasar Bharati tweeted a news story about a group of Muslim youth cleaning flood-ravaged temples in Chennai, but chose an odd way to phrase its message:
The original story that is linked to in the Tweet carries the same headline except for one different word: instead of "rare example of humanity", the original headline says "Great example of humanity: Muslim youth clean flood-hit temples in Chennai".
The story was first reported in The Hindu, and echoes a host of similar examples of Chennai's humanitarian spirit evident everywhere during last week's devastating floods. As the city was inundated, people opened up their homes to shelter stranded strangers, citizens spontaneously launched social media campaigns to coordinate rescue operations and religious and community centres – temples, mosques, churches and wedding halls – offered refuge to anyone in need.
Social media was flooded with stories of people from several communities going out of their way to help each other. Perhaps the most reported story about the breakdown of religious barriers was the case of a Hindu couple who named their newborn baby Yunus, after the Muslim man who rescued them while the wife was in labour.
Clearly, Prasar Bharati's social media team did not get the memo about the outpouring of religious unity in Chennai throughout the floods. Its tweet about "rare" Muslim humanity did not draw too much attention, but some Twitter users didn't miss the opportunity to call them out.
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On Tuesday morning, Prasar Bharati tweeted a news story about a group of Muslim youth cleaning flood-ravaged temples in Chennai, but chose an odd way to phrase its message:
Rare example of humanity: Muslim youth clean flood-hit temples in #ChennaiFloods. https://t.co/VmrGJxU7bz pic.twitter.com/yZgClyDCOr
— Prasar Bharati (@prasarbharati) December 8, 2015The original story that is linked to in the Tweet carries the same headline except for one different word: instead of "rare example of humanity", the original headline says "Great example of humanity: Muslim youth clean flood-hit temples in Chennai".
The story was first reported in The Hindu, and echoes a host of similar examples of Chennai's humanitarian spirit evident everywhere during last week's devastating floods. As the city was inundated, people opened up their homes to shelter stranded strangers, citizens spontaneously launched social media campaigns to coordinate rescue operations and religious and community centres – temples, mosques, churches and wedding halls – offered refuge to anyone in need.
Social media was flooded with stories of people from several communities going out of their way to help each other. Perhaps the most reported story about the breakdown of religious barriers was the case of a Hindu couple who named their newborn baby Yunus, after the Muslim man who rescued them while the wife was in labour.
Clearly, Prasar Bharati's social media team did not get the memo about the outpouring of religious unity in Chennai throughout the floods. Its tweet about "rare" Muslim humanity did not draw too much attention, but some Twitter users didn't miss the opportunity to call them out.
.@prasarbharati @DDNational @DD_Bharati @AkashvaniAIR @airnewsalerts @mediasurya @fsheheryar Is that the best way to phrase it?
— Lajan Joseph Oommen (@DilawarTalkies) December 8, 2015
@prasarbharati : Its not rare! Every time there's a calamity, Indians stand by each other! Only politicians use religion to divide people
— picadoress (@picadoress) December 8, 2015
@prasarbharati @sudha073 @DDNational @DD_Bharati @AkashvaniAIR @airnewsalerts @mediasurya @fsheheryar they r not muslim youths but indians
— SAM :) (@samirnewsmaker) December 8, 2015