The 'arrogant' secular Indian media
Is the secular Indian media arrogant? Indiainfo.com got a few view from its browsers on the above issue. Feel free to air your views and comments to editor@team.indiainfo.com on the above or any other topic.
Ramesh J Menon, New York
Recently, I was watching "The Big Fight", on Star TV, hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai. During the course of the show, B P Singh, an ex-IPS officer, pulled out a paper, which he said contained the apology of a principal of a Christian school from Rajkot.
The apology was for forcing a group of students to sign at the last page of a bible, which said, "I am sinner. I have sinned. Jesus bled for our sins. I accept Jesus as my saviour." The principal had, as claimed by B P Singh, threatened the students of expulsion, in case they didn't sign the paper. The apology letter was signed by the principal.
How would you react when there is some serious allegation like this? May be you will believe it. May be you will wait till you really see the document.
The surprise came from Rajdeep Sardesai's next question to the "secular" Jayanti Natarajan of the Congress. In his question, he mentioned that the 'sangh' members always carried "propaganda material" to pursue their cause.
Propaganda? Hmmm. "Hum kahe to jhoot, tum kaho to Guru Baani!"
This has become a regular feature of the secular media. I did a research on the Website about the incident B P Singh was refereeing to. By the way, the Internet has been a boon to people like me who want information without having to leave the bedroom.
The then Home Minister of Gujarat, in the Assembly of Gujarat had stated, in response to the Bible burning by a group of 'sanghis', that the school's minor girls were being forced to make "a signed commitment on the last page of the Bible which said they considered Jesus Christ as their saviour." He called this "a Constitutionally illegal undertaking".
If a Home Minister makes this statement in the Assembly, shouldn't there be some truth in it. But the secular media has already decided that anything the 'sanghis' say is a lie. A mere propaganda.
However, the most disappointing part of the question was the way in which Rajdeep put it. As though he was shushing a teenager for producing wrong information.
In fact, the missionaries have not left even the Hindu kids from their attempts at conversion. And I am a witness to that. I was in the 5th Standard when few nuns from Australia came to my school, (run by Christians with "government aid"), and distributed Bibles to all the students of the school.
God! At least leave the Hindu kids alone! Let them reach the age of 18. Then you can take them out of the "darkness" in their lives. Man, am I a loser. Cribbing about people trying to convert my kids! Hmmm. In India, I may be a loser, at least for the 'secular media'. I wish these people met at least one "obsessive" protestant Keralite missionary who lives and dies for Christianity!
This arrogance of the 'secular media' is not a once in a blue moon event. Next day, I was watching the 'Star News'. It was a Hindi news programme. I don't know the anchor's name. But what caught my attention was the way he presented a news item on how Modi is allegedly trying to "steal" the Sardar legacy by projecting himself as a successor to the 'Iron man of India'. This is how the anchor began the news item.
"Aur ab Narendra Modi ke naye paitre". In English, "And now, new dramatics by Narendra Modi!"
And this is how he ended the show! "Narendra modi ke sardar banne ka naakaam koshish". In English "A failed attempt by Modi to become the Sardar." Perhaps, 'Star News' crew suffers from Bollywood mania.
What do you call this? Arrogance? Absolutely! Perhaps, 'Star TV' belongs to the same 'secular media', from where calls from by the likes of Dileep Padgaonkar to ban the right from daily news. And they claim to be the guardians of free speech.
Just before writing my article, I read an article by Vir Sanghvi (of the tabloid newspaper ...oops did I say tabloid.. I will take a shot at it later) on Praveen Togadia. He came down hard on Bal Thackeray and Praveen Togadia. No qualms about it! It's a free country. But the funny part is this. He talks about decent talk. And look what he has written about Praveen Togadia.
"Should we allow him to rush from studio to studio, fixed mongoose smile on face, semi-intelligible rhetoric already pre-rehearsed, and encourage him to make abusive statements?"
Hmmm. Mongoose smile! I haven't seen a mongoose smile ever in my life. Perhaps, Sanghvi has a club of smiling "mongooses". And then! Semi-intelligible. Oh I forgot! Pre-rehearsed. So, any hard line Hindu leader who has the guts to speak his mind belongs to the above club.
He also calls Modi a Neanderthal, (Species of the genus Homo that inhabited much of Europe and the Mediterranean lands in the late Pleistocene, c. 100,000-35,000 years ago. had a low level of brain activity (DUMB THAT IS), and is extinct today according to History Channel which I watch regularly). This is not the first time Sanghvi has called him one! You can read the rest of the article to know Sanghvi's views on Bal Thackeray.
And he has the nerve to talk about decency. Calling a CM of a state, a Neanderthal isn't abusive, Mr Sanghvi? (Yeah I missed the NAZI suffix to that).
What is it in these people, which makes them believe that any one who speaks against them is a mongoose? That they belong to the semi-intellect category. Is it the upbringing? Like in my school, students were fined if they spoke in Hindi. (Perhaps to increase proficiency in English, but at the cost of Hindi). Is this the mentality, which is brewing the sense of superiority complex in them?
When the Gujarat riots happened, the 'Times of India' asked to limit the coverage for the right wing organisations. Dileep Padgaonkar went to Pakistan to attend a meeting of Pakistani journalists. And in that meeting he said, "We will take care of them!" By them, he meant the right-wingers.
And how does this secular bandwagon try to achieve this control? Of course, by arrogantly brushing aside the views of the right-wingers, as mere propaganda. No matter, how much rationale or reason, there may be in those views, who cares! Our aim is to stop them. By any means. The NAZI RIGHT is showing its ugly head. Where is this Nazi head? In INDIA?
A country where there has been more massacre of the majority community be it in Punjab or Kashmir (where Hindus happen to be a regional minority) than any other country in the world. A country where 15 per cent of the nation has its own personal laws and the Parliament goes out of the way to negate the Supreme Court on one.
A country where non-Christians are expelled, of course for being non-Christian! A country where loads of immigrants are "imported" for vote banks. A country where, the Left has for years and years, carried out its vicious "propaganda" of anti-Hinduism. A country where even the kids of the majority community are not spared from the zeal of the missionaries. Yes, there is a growing unrest amongst the majority. But this is not Nazism.
Nazism is when you wipe out cultures, forcibly. Like Jews in Germany, the Incas in the Latin countries, the Indians in USA, the Hindus in erstwhile "Akhand Bharat", and the aborigines in Australia and many, many more. But the biggest of the crimes, is to deny the kids of today, the atrocities on their forefathers, like the Communists in West Bengal have done by choosing to not portray these historical events in their textbooks.
Friends, it is not the NAZI head, which is showing its ugly face. Not that the resurgence of Hinduism as I see it, has not had its black days. But as a 'Hindutvavaadi', I am not an arrogant ass, who will deny that these things happened. But I see them only as aberrations. Not as a phenomenon. The phenomenon is the movement of 'Hindutva'.
The secular press and media, say that they will expose the 'sanghis'. To whom will they expose? That is my question. With a 2 per cent population, which can read English, fortunately India is not a ground for the "expose" these people are talking about. Or are they talking about the 3rd page columnists and yellow journalists, and the owners of these English press, who have turned their news papers into nothing but a Tabloid. When they fake numbers to show that they are number one, who in the world in their right senses would take their claim of being the champions of the secular world seriously?
What India needs is a medium like Fox News? Perhaps an anchor likes Bill Reilly! Who does not hide behind his personal prejudices when dealing with news items. The spin and absolute arrogance has to stop. These people, who think that they have more intellect, should be made to show that they really have the intellect they claim to have.
Calling some one "mongoose smile and semi-intellect", who happens to be a general secretary of an organisation of 2.5 million members, is not intellectual and certainly not decent. May be, Sanghvi can strive a little better and add more gossip columns in his "esteemed" newspaper to make his readership rise to that figure. As for Togadia, and Modi, the people of Gujarat and the people of India will decide what to do with them. Accept or reject!
What India needs is a balanced news medium where people can listen to NEWS and not VIEWS of anchors. Newspapers where Editorials are not printed on front pages. Don't think that the people of India don't have the intellect of what Modi is going to do. Or whether Togadia has a mongoose smile or not. Anyone who takes the time out to read and see the news has the basic intellect to make sense of what he or she sees or reads. It is high time the arrogant, prejudiced 'SM Inc' workers, got this heed. Further, you may impress the International Religion Forum or the Amnesty International with your "great" journalism. But people like me aren't impressed.
Perhaps, in the secular world, there is no centre or right! It's always the left. But they forget that if you always take a left turn, you will end up from the place you started!
And where do you go from there? Of course, LEFT!
Bharatram Gaba, Mumbai
I had the utter misfortune of watching a thoroughly disgusting programme on 'SAB TV' called, rather untruthfully, 'Khulla Manch' (Open Forum). It was neither Open nor was it a Forum. All it looked like was a propaganda machine for the VHP.
The anchor Manoj Raghuvanshi was especially reprehensible. I always thought anchors were supposed to be impartial. This man is nothing more than a 'Hindutva' brigade spokesperson. The way the minority community panelist, a Church Padre, was heckled, insulted and shouted down, left an extremely bad taste in the mouth.
To add to the farce, not only were the audience and the co-panelist going out of their way to see that the Padre couldn't get a word in, but even the anchor joined in with gusto. Poor show, SAB TV, poor, poor show. And, Raghuvanshi, you urgently need a new job.
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