Recently, residents of Undhela in Gujarat’s Kheda district witnessed a public flogging of 10 men from the minority community who were allegedly among the 43 who disrupted a Garba event in the same village. The men were held against a pillar and caned by policemen in mufti. The anchor of a Hindi news channel describes the public flogging as ‘treatment’. This terminology implies tacit support of a blatant violation of human rights. Interestingly, the anchor, who projects himself as a secular man, addresses the unlawful nature of the flogging for exactly seven seconds in a monologue hat lasts 5 minutes 58 seconds.

First published on www.altnews.in