Author: MC Joshi
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 4, 2004
There was hardly any element of
surprise when the national media and television channels turned a blind
eye to the gruesome torching of Aadikanta Daliya, a Dalit and BJP worker,
in presence of his wife, children, villagers and the State police by the
CPl(M) workers in West Midnapore district of Bengal as narrated by S Gurumurthy
in his article, "Had Daliya not been a Hindu..." (Op-ed, July 12).
Recalling the over-reaction of
the media in the Graham Staines case, he asks whether it was a non-event
for them because Daliya was not only a Hindu but also a "communal Hindu"
in their eyes. No prizes for the correct answer! This very media would
have raised storm targetting the BJP had Dalia done the same to a Muslim
or a Christian.
The image-conscious "liberal" tiewallas
in the media and intelligentsia are sharing space in the fraudulent secular-communal
divide created by the "secular" political kurta-bushirtwallas who have
irreversibly desecrated secularism in letter and spirit for garnering votes.
For them, those pursuing Hindu cause are "communal" dhoti- knickerwallas
deserving ridicule, hatred and condemnation. Sufferings of the Hindus are
either totally ignored or brazenly underplayed, the aim always being to
put the onus for communal distrubances on the Hindus themselves.
In the case of Sabarmati torching
at Godhra, this combine not only refused to accept any link between the
Godhra incident and Gujarat riots but also tried to make a case that the
58 Hindu men, women and children were never victims of any conspiracy but
were themselves responsible for what befell them. The Railway enquiry now
ordered into the case aims at somehow exonerating the accused and implicating
the RSS, VHP, BJP and Mr Narendra Modi. Assembly elections in Bihar are
ahead where Muslim votes count. The self-styled champion of secularism
must, therefore, be seen fighting for the Muslims.
While discussing partisan and biased
media coverage of the Gujarat riots, Anuradha Dutt, referring to a television
channel, wrote sometime ago in The Pioneer: "...the reportage was clearly
partisan. When every fact on the street indicated that the mayhem was triggered
by the carnage at Godhra, perpetrated by members of the minority community,
high-pitched projection of the events was weighed against the majority
community. The channel's anchors took great pains to haul pro-Hindutva
leaders over the coals, white treating their equally intransigent counterparts
in the opposite camp with kid gloves.
Discredited Muslim rabble-rousers
were allowed to vent their spleen." Television coverage of the incidents
of police action against suspected Islamic terrorists was biased. The police
was instantly castigated while the suspects were projected as innocent
victims. The case of Ishrat Jahan killed with three others in the Ahmedabad
police encounter on June 15 is the latest example. The television channels
immediately started airing statements of the Congress leaders, calling
it a Narendra Modi manoeuvre to garner sympathy, putting Godhra-Gujarat
and Akshardham in the same category.
Unfortunately, the NHRC too jumped
in and issued suo motu notice asking the Gujarat police to produce a time-bound
report. Subsequently, Ishrat's terrorist links were confirmed that she
was even a member of Lashkar-e-Toiba. Her diary revealed that Mr Narendra
Modi, Mr LK Advani, Mr Bal Thackeray and Ms Uma Bharti-naturally all Hindus-were
all on the hit-list of these terrorists. So what? Just forget it, if you
are thinking for any word of apology from accusing politicians and their
friends in the media.