Author: M.V. Kamath
Publication: Afternoon Despatch&
Courier
Date: June 18, 2004
URL: http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=editorials&xfile=June2004_mediawatch_standard61&child=mediawatch
To our President all one can say
is: "Sir, we have the highest respect for you. But please don't take us
for a people who have lost our memory."
The President of India - bless his
heart - is not an independent man as one would think. If he addresses a
joint session of Parliament his speech reflects the government's point
of view. That is an accepted norm. Never mind that no English language
newspaper carried the full text of his speech. But excerpts of his speech
have been published.
Deccan Chronicle (June 8) thus published
a paragraph that said: "It is a matter of serious concern that the forces
of communalism have been able to vitiate the atmosphere in the country
leading to an outbreak of riots, 'the most gruesome' face of which was
witnessed recently in Gujarat". (emphasis added). "Most gruesome?"
On Sunday, July 13, 2003 The Times
of India carried an article entitled: 'The X-files. Where the mob goes
free'. The article compared what happened in the Mumbai riots, in the anti-Sikh
riots in Delhi in November 1984 and the Gujarat riots of February 2002.
In the Bombay riots 872 people were killed. In the Delhi anti-Sikh riots
2,733 people were killed.
Killing of Sikhs
Writing in The Telegraph (November
2, 1984), M.J. Akbar who since then has become editor of The Asian Age,
wrote, describing the killing of Sikhs and the looting of Sikh shops: "The
police simply looked the other way... The looters were totally unembarrassed.
The desire for revenge was the controlling theme of the day..."
On Sunday, November 3, 2003 the
Chandigarh-based The Tribune in its Spectrum supplement carried an article
by the well-known journalist Rajinder Puri that recalled the events that
followed Indira Gandhi's assassination. Writing in great detail about what
followed the day after the assassination, Puri noted: "The anti-Sikh riots
began. It was a systematic massacre. Sikh homes were earmarked and then
torched. Sikhs were pulled out of their homes and killed 'or burnt alive'.
I witnessed the carnage at several places. A mob burnt a shop near Regal
Cinema in Connaught Place while a policeman looked on silently. 'Why don't
you stop them?' I snarled. He shrugged. 'What can I do?" he said with a
smirk. 'This continued for several days'... Later I learnt that the same
mob went further 'and set fire to a car with a Sikh locked inside. He was
burnt alive... The Army offered to control the situation at the first signs
of an ugly situation. 'The government bluntly ordered the Army to desist'.
(emphasis added). Only after the carnage, 'after more than 3,000 Sikhs
had been slaughtered' (emphasis added), after forty to fifty thousand had
been rendered homeless, did the government take steps to stop the violence..."
May it be suggested to the President of India that he get a copy of The
Tribune (Nov. 3, 2003) for careful reading? Puri has, to the best of one's
knowledge, never been repudiated.
According to The Times of India
which hates the BJP and Narendra Modi, approximately 1,000 were killed
in Gujarat between February and May 2002. Puri says that 3,000 Sikhs were
killed. He has not been challenged again to the best of one's knowledge.
A report on the Delhi killings has still not seen the light of day. Why?
And may one suggest that the President
also finds time to read Inder Malhotra's excellent work Dynasties of India
and Beyond? Malhotra is no friend of the BJP and takes every possible occasion
to damn it. But in his book he writes: "He (Rajiv Gandhi) had been slow
to control the shameful anti-Sikh riots in Delhi... More disagreefully,
there was also evidence to show that several Congress-I leaders... had
joined in engineering the pogrom. To make matters worse, he (Rajiv Gandhi)...
played very heavily on anti-Sikh sentiment...." That book has to be read
to be believed.
Incidentally, during the Gujarat
riots, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had a Congress majority. Not
one Congress corporator stepped out into the streets to make even a modest
attempt to stop the killings. That is the spirit of Gandhian Congressmen,
if you please. And what about the Supreme Court when the anti-Sikh riots
were going on in Delhi? Has anybody heard of Neros? Congress party hypocrisy,
one can understand. But media hypocrisy?
And while we are on the subject
of killing, may one be permitted to quote The Statesman (May 24, 2004)
datelined Gopiballavpur, Midnapore west? The report says: "Adikanta Dolui
(45), Satragram panchayat secretary and BJP loyalist 'was burnt alive'
(emphasis added) by a mob allegedly backed by the CPI-M. Around 40 shops
and houses were robbed and set ablaze following the murder. The rampage
was reportedly the fallout of the murder of senior CPI-M leader Ardhendu
Satpati.... An hour after Satpati's killing, about 1,000 men, armed with
bows, arrows, tangi and knives raided homes and shops belonging to BJP
supporters at Birsachowk Bazaar.... Dolui (BJP loyalist) was dragged out,
the men chopped off his limbs and set him on fire after sprinkling petrol
on him from the tank of his two-wheeler parked nearby.... The mob then
set fire to about 40 shops and houses after robbing them. Several two-wheelers
and bicycles parked in the market were destroyed in the blaze. The police
posted in the market reportedly watched in silence...." A man has his limbs
chopped off and then burnt alive. Remember the killing of Staines? The
media cried murder. But Dolui? Ah, he is a BJP loyalist, isn't he? Serves
him right. And, apart from The Statesman, how many English-language media
does one think, reported this event? A man is burnt alive. A thousand men
armed with bows and arrows, tangi and knives go berserk and there is not
a word of it in most of our English language papers. If Communist goondas
kill a BJP loyalist it is not news. (yawn, yawn, yawn).
Communist goons
Does anyone remember that some months
ago a BJP teacher was similarly killed and tortured by Communist goons
right in front of students in the classroom who witnessed the gory scene,
way out in Kerala? That's the last one heard of that.
Hypocrisy must stop. The witch-hunting
against Narendra Modi must stop. Congressmen and Communists have turned
out to be the worst - most gruesome murderers.
And Sajjan Kumar has now become
an MP. The Asian Age (June 6) editorially noted that "there is also a feeling
that Sajjan Kumar was allegedly involved in the rioting against the Sikhs,
post-Mrs. Gandhi's assassination..." That must be dismissed as the great
under-statement of the year.
To our President all one can say
is: "Sir, we have the highest respect for you. But please don't take us
for a people who have lost our memory". And please stop this BJP-baiting.
It doesn't reflect very well on the presidency. Kindly look at Rajiv Gandhi's
record and the Congress record after Indira Gandhi's assassination. And
the Communist record of killings. You will have a better appreciation of
the meaning of the word 'gruesome!'.
And forgive this columnist for quoting
from past records. The truth has to be faced.
