Indian media grilled for aggressive coverage in Nepal quake

The Indian media is facing severe criticism from Nepalese social media for its coverage of the earthquake, said local daily The Hindu Monday.

Describing their reports as "relentless and aggressive", the Nepalese social media users said in over 60,000 tweets that Indian media were treating the tragedy as a "public relations exercise" on behalf of the Indian government, according to the report.

On Sunday evening, #GoHomeIndianMedia, created on Twitter by Nepalese, led the criticism of Indian media's "insensitive" reportage of the worst earthquake to hit the Himalayan nation in 80 years.

Indian media coverage was "largely responsible" for how the rest of the world saw the Nepal tragedy and even influencing global response, according to the report.

"(Indian) media humiliated poor Nepal in order to take credit and cheap publicity in the hour of crisis," said one tweet.

In a blog published on CNN, Sunita Shakya of Nepali origin wrote, "Your (Indian) media and media personnel are acting like they are shooting some kind of family serials."

She also described a couple of instances where she said the reporter did not do enough to help the injured person in need.

Some tweets said Nepal is a sovereign country and not a " satellite state" of India.

"Dear@narendramodi our Dharahara may have fallen not our sovereignty! Sincerely Nepalese #GoHomeIndianMedia," said one tweet while another sarcastically said, "Mr. @narendramodi please call your media back. They r just hurting us more."

The Dharahara is a 19th century tower which overlooked Kathmandu. It collapsed on April 25 when the quake struck.

Ajay Bhadra Khanal, a veteran Nepalese journalist, was quoted as saying that the Indian media's "aggressive presence" and the way it was highlighting only New Delhi's role in rescue and relief efforts has affected the perception among Nepalese of the Indian government.