Author: Varsha Bhosle
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: March 11, 2002
I do not know why readers assume
I'm interested in their messages to other columnists -- my inbox is perpetually
flooded with mail written to others and CC'd to me! I do not know why readers
imagine I need help with news-surfing -- a quarter of my mail constitutes
opinions and items I've almost always read yesterday!
Take, for instance, the "news" about
the 60 karsevaks being burned to death because they had abducted a 16-year-old
Muslim girl: "She kept pleading and begging to them [sic] to stop beating
her father and leave him alone. But instead of listening to her woes [sic],
the kar kevaks [sic] lifted the young girl and took her inside their compartment
S-6 and closed the compartment door shut." Forget the scores of Pakis who
sent me that mass-circulated piece of shit, even Indian Muslims and Hindus
used it to rationalise the incineration of the karsevaks. And this, amidst
condemning me for supposedly justifying the massacre of the Muslims...
A variation of this "news" was produced
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post: "[Karsevaks] exposed themselves
to other passengers. They pulled headscarves off Muslim women... They failed
to pay for the tea and snacks they consumed at each stop," even quoting
a mere deputy superintendent of police saying that the attack on Hindus
"was not pre-planned", but "a sudden, provocative incident". No matter
that Additional Director General (law and order) of Gujarat police J Mahapatra
and The Hindustan Times (Godhra: A planned attack, March 3) and The Pioneer
(Dastardly crime, March 1) and The Times of India (Attack could have been
pre-planned, February 28) *and* the Intelligence Bureau, all indicate a
pre-planned conspiracy. Chandrasekaran simply found "witnesses" he wanted
to find.
For "secularists", Muslims always
act with good reason, while "retaliation" is what fundamentalist forces,
aka Hindus, indulge in. Remember the Radhabai Chawl bake-fest of 1993?
This is the country where, while reporting a TADA court's sentencing of
the perpetrators of that incident, the ToI felt it necessary to say that
the burning alive of 6 Hindus (including a handicapped girl) was "a sequel
to the riots which took place in the wake of the demolition of the disputed
structure at Ayodhya". Meaning, the burning was "understandable" since
the root cause was the Babri demolition. If some set ablaze human beings
because a pile of bricks was rearranged, and others killed after humans
were roasted alive, guess which of the two groups will be damned forever.
Déjà vu, all over again. And thus, from March 5 to date,
messages about the villainous karsevaks and the abducted Muslim girl have
been steadily trickling in.
Here's some real news for you: The
"information" about the abduction was directly lifted from an item on an
Islamist Web site purporting to be a news portal, and then embellished
with garbage like "I would also mention my sources namely Mr Anil Soni
and Neelam Soni (reporters of Gujarat Samachar Newspaper and also member
of PTI & ANI) have worked hard to dig the true facts", and gave 3 phone
numbers of the Sonis. Well, I found Mr Soni at (02672) 40264. He said,
"Are you calling up about the emails? That is complete bogus and rubbish.
It is the work of my enemies."
That's how Islamists work -- knowing
well what "secularists" *like* to believe.
The portal whence the "news" was
lifted proclaims to disseminate "Original Accurate News for the Ummah"
and the item in question is written by Rajeel Sheikh and was published
on March 2 (which was when I read it, 3 days before dorks sought to enlighten
me). To give you an idea about how much Ummah News takes that "Original"
seriously -- and which agencies fund the Web site -- here are some gems
culled from it:
* September 15, 2001: Who
would really stand to gain the most from such an attack [on the WTC]?...
The country best enabled to carry out such a humangeous [sic] feat is not
an Arab or a Muslim one, but Israel.
* September 28: Alex Diamandis,
vice-president of sales and marketing, confirmed that workers in Odigo's...
sales office in Israel received a warning from another Odigo user approximately
two hours prior to the first attack [on the WTC].
* February 12, 2002: Indian
Army murdered 5,359 Kashmiris during 2001... According to the statistics
compiled by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, 519 women were
raped or molested by official Indian rapists [sic], 2,395 children were
orphaned and 871 women were widowed during 2001.
* February 27: Prominent
Kashmiri guerrilla commander martyred... The commander was killed in action
after fighting occupying Indian troops for the past 13 years. Rich tributes
have been paid to the freedom fighter.
* March 4: Indian occupation
[sic] forces have killed 12 more Kashmiris in fresh acts of military terrorism.
* March 5: Indian occupation
forces have killed another 22 Kashmiris including 14 in custody in the
last 24 hours... The mujahideen have inflicted their own losses on the
occupying army... Quoting statements by senior Indian police and army officials
the report confirms that occupation forces are under instructions to kill
people rather than attempt to capture them alive. On Saturday, The Asian
Age carried a story titled "Rumour race: BJP is way ahead of Congress".
Even as it said that the parties are "vying with each other to use rumours
doing the rounds during communal riots for their own gain", all the "rumours"
stated were those supposedly spread by the BJP, with poor Congress as the
hapless victim: "The Sangh Parivar has been successful in spreading rumours
that one of the alleged conspirator of Sabarmati Express massacre, Mohammed
Kalota, is a Congressman. Kalota, according to rumours doing rounds is
Godhra municipality president and the convenor of the Godhra Congress minority
cell... An opinion poll by a local cable network in Baroda confirmed that
Kalota's Congress connection has significantly worked in shattering the
people's perception of the Congress."
This is not a "rumour". This was
reported by the HT on March 4: "Kolota, convener of city Congress minority
cell, was picked up by personnel of the anti-dacoity squad of the city
police from the residence of one Iqbal in Polan Bazar area during a combing
operation, IGP Deepak Swaroop told PTI. Kolota, 45, has been evading arrest
since the attack on the Sabarmati Express." Besides which, Kalota was at
the Godhra railway station when the massacre occurred.
Pay attention, this is how propaganda
is disseminated: On March 2, the ToI's Manoj Joshi and deputy bureau chief
Siddharth Varadarajan -- who later joined a march demanding the dismissal
of Narendra Modi and declared that "media should boycott the right wing
forces" -- wrote about "a method in the casual manner in which the Centre
responded to the communal tragedy in Gujarat... In some places, George
Fernandes waded amid hostile crowds and appealed to them to keep the peace...
In Gujarat, the Union government claims 'there were no Army columns in
or around Ahmedabad' for immediate deployment. Considering that the state
bordering Pakistan has an especially heavy deployment of the Army, this
excuse does not quite wash."
Fair enough -- on the face of it.
However, within an hour, the HT
posted Swati Chaturvedi's piece containing: "On several occasions, authoritative
sources say, the Defence Minister was forced to wade into the crowds himself
to control the situation... The real question is whether there is a method
to Modi's madness... The official reason, that troops had to be pulled
out of forward positions, seems unconvincing because there was heavy troop
deployment on Gujarat's borders with Pakistan."
"Wade". "Crowds". "Method". "Heavy
deployment". These are what I call "fed" reports. That is, an opposition
party member must have literally handed out the "report" to our respectable,
secular, investigative journalists, who simply rephrased most of it --
but left tell-tale clues, anyway. In this case, guess who the "authoritative
sources" can be.
But that's not the end of it. The
ToI rehashed the same story a week later and stuck it -- once again --
on the front page, under the title "Political observers smell a rat behind
delay in army deployment". However, amidst all those "sources in the government"
slamming L K Advani and Modi, guess who was the only "political observer"
named in the piece: "Manoj Joshi, strategic editor of The Times of India"
hahahahahaha...
Now you know why the Indian press
makes my stomach heave. But I admit, the revulsion it evokes is far less
than that invoked by readers who swallow this shit.
When one scrutinises the technique
of the press, one begins to discern wheels within wheels, all held by a
pinko fulcrum: On March 4, the Age reported that the editor of Communalism
Combat, Teesta Setalvad, held Modi responsible for "mass murder" at a meeting
organised by SAHMAT, which organisation demanded "effective deployment
of the Army" and "immediate dismissal" of Modi. The same day, Shabana Azmi
said, "We want that the government led by Mr Modi be dismissed immediately."
The same day, ToI plastered "Citizens for dismissal of Modi Government"
on the front page, with "citizens" constituting JNU's Prabhat Patnaik,
Nikhil Wagle, Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand, Valson Thampu, Syeda Hamid.
The same day, N Ram (Frontline), Dileep Padgaonkar (ToI), Khushwant Singh,
Arundhati Roy, Seema Mustafa (Age) and Vishnu Nagar joined a procession
demanding the dismissal of the Modi government...
Doesn't the pinko press grasp it
can't fool all the people all the time? Won't people realise they're being
manipulated? I guess, not.
Could things get any worse? You
bet they can! Our friendly pinkbutts, SAHMAT, has formed a "united front"
with The All-India Confederation of SC\ST Organisations to resist the move
to perform kar seva at Ayodhya. Udit Raj, the chairman of the Dalit organisation,
said the Shankaracharya of Kanchi "had no business to intervene in the
Ram temple issue" as he isn't the representative of a majority in the country.
And, he declared that the disputed site was neither a mosque nor a temple
but a Buddhist vihar, and claimed evidence to support this theory.
Hey, you Christians, Jains and Sikhs
out there -- why don't you make a claim to Ayodhya, too?! Our pinkos can
be relied on to bolster your cases and ensure that rock-solid wedges are
driven between Hindus and every other community that exists. After all,
it's the only way that a Red flag can possibly fly on the Red Fort.
When Gujarat was burning, the "secularists"
and Communists, instead of marching for peace on the lanes affected by
communal violence, marched in Delhi for the dismissal of the state government.
While arson and massacres ensued, our editors were busy pontificating on
the politics behind police conduct and army deployment -- drilling in "Hindu
mobs" and "Muslim victims". These dorks care about the people?! Don't make
me laugh; I'll take a Bal Thackeray any day.
