Bizarre election coverage

IN Media Watch Briefs | 15/09/2015

What exactly is Dainik Bhaskar upto? Its web edition on Sept 15 announced that pegged to the Bihar elections it was starting a flashback series on glimpses of Bihar's historical events. So the first episode has a headline which says "Muslim sashak ne lagwai thi  Nalanda mein aag, hazaron ki karai thi hatya." (A Muslim ruler  had set Nalanda on fire, and slaughtered thousands.) Then follows a garbled story about Bakhtiyar Khilji seeking treatment from an Ayurvedic acharya at Nalanda and being provoked by the treatment advised, to burn the university. All of this on pages one and two, and then upto page 9 follows only a description of various facets of Nalanda. But nine times in bold type you have the headline about  a Muslim ruler slaughtering thousands, repeated.