Author: Vivek Gumaste
Publication: Sulekha.com
URL: http://www.sulekha.com/articledesc.asp?cid=290065
When I read recent reports (fabricated,
to say the least) of the IDRF (India Development Research Fund) being a
conduit for the communal violence in Gujarat, I said to myself, "there
we go again." There just doesn't seem to be an end to this litany of lies.
A few years ago there was a story circulating in the Indian news media,
about the fleeing Hindu refugees from Kashmir. These reports claimed that
over a quarter million Hindus had left their homes in Kashmir, not out
of fear of Islamic militancy, but at the instigation of Jagmohan, the then
Governor of Kashmir. It was and is still, a ridiculous notion without even
an iota of truth; in other words, a blatant lie. But it didn't stop some
of our intellectuals from propagating that falsehood!
Then did you hear that the 34 innocent
Sikhs of Chatisinghpora, who were murdered in cold blood on the eve of
Clinton's visit, were not done in by Islamic militants, but by agents of
the Indian government in order to discredit the separatist movement? Another
canard spread not by Pakistan, but our own so-called intellectuals.
This has been the pattern ever since
the BJP came to power in India in March 1998. In fact there has been a
relentless witch-hunt, the likes of which we have never seen before; a
witch-hunt orchestrated by the major English newspapers in cahoots with
the opposing political parties and so- called secular groups; a witch hunt
that knows no logic and sees no reason; a witch hunt so consumed by a blind
hatred for the BJP that fraud and deceit are considered appropriate weapons
in this mad orgy; a witch hunt in which even national interest is of no
concern.
Beginning in the late 90s, Indian
newspapers reported on a rash of so- called anti-Christian incidents perpetrated
supposedly by Hindu extremists. Close scrutiny, however, revealed that
these incidents were deliberate falsehoods spread by vested interests to
further their political agenda.
Take for example the incident in
Jhabua, MP in which four nuns were brutally raped. Even before any details
of this crime were available, the major newspapers had conducted a trial,
established the criminal guilt of the Hindu extremists and communicated
this message to the country and the world at large by splashing this news
across their front pages.
It was finally left up to Francois
Gautier, the correspondent in South Asia for Le Figaro, France's largest
circulation newspaper, who personally went to Jhabua, to unearth the truth.
This is what he wrote in the Hindustan Times (Feb 1, 1999). "This massive
outcry on the 'atrocities against the minorities' raises also doubts about
the quality and integrity of Indian journalism. Take for instance, the
rape of the four nuns in Jhabua. Today the Indian Press (and the foreign
correspondents -- witness Tony Clifton's piece in the last issue of Newsweek)
are still reporting that it was a 'religious' rape. Yet I went to Jhabua
and met the four adorable nuns, who themselves admitted, along with their
bishop George Anatil, that it had nothing to do with religion. It was the
doing of a gang of Bhil tribals, known to perpetrate this kind of hateful
acts on their own women. Yet today, the Indian Press, the Christian hierarchy
and the politicians continue to include the Jhabua rape in the list of
the atrocities against the Christians."
A few days later, the Home Minister
released a list of the criminals, a list forwarded to him by the Congress
(whose leader incidentally happens to be Christian) government of MP. Twelve
of the accused were Christians. Christian groups initially questioned this
finding but when confronted with irrefutable proof chose to ignore it.
And the newspapers? Yes, they reported it in some hidden corner of their
paper. What about those things called truth and honesty? Does it matter?
No. According to their warped sense of values maligning the Hindu groups
is itself synonymous with truth.
About another incident that occurred
in Kerala, Francois Gautier wrote.
"In Wyanad in northern Kerala, it
was reported that a priest and four women were beaten up and a Bible was
stolen by 'fanatical' Hindus. An FIR was lodged, the communists took out
processions all over Kerala to protest against the 'atrocities' and the
Press went gaga. Yet as an intrepid reporter from the Calicut office of
The Indian Express found out, nobody was beaten up and the Bible was safe.
Too late: the damage was done and it still is being made use of by the
enemies of India."
More recently, the reporting of
events about Gujarat is another example of hyperbole. But before elaborating
on specific instances of deception, let me state that we cannot and should
not condone the senseless violence that happened in Gujarat. By the same
token we cannot accept the malicious dissemination of falsehoods. Writing
about the Gujarat riots, Arundhati Roy had this to say (Outlook, May 6,2002).
"A mob surrounded the house of ex-Congress
MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri. His phone calls to the director-general of police,
the police commissioner, the chief secretary, the additional chief secretary
(home) were ignored. The mobile police vans around his house did not intervene.
The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burnt them
alive. Then they beheaded Jaffri and dismembered him."
The description is graphic; the
veracity of the incident taken almost for granted coming from a writer
of Arundhati Roy's reputation. But, alas, that's where we make the mistake.
Fame and honesty are not interlinked as the following paragraph clearly
indicates.
Jaffri was killed in the riots but
his daughters were neither 'stripped' nor 'burnt alive.' T.A. Jafri, his
son, in a front-page interview titled Nobody knew my father's house was
the target (Asian Age, May 2, Delhi edition), says, "among my brothers
and sisters, I am the only one living in India. And I am the eldest in
the family. My sister and brother live in the US. I am 40 years old and
I have been born and brought up in Ahmedabad."
So if Ehsan Jaffri had only one
daughter (singular) who was safe and sound in the US, where did Roy get
her facts about not one, but daughters (plural) being stripped and burnt?
Was it the fantasy of a writer's mind? Or was it willful deceit aimed at
maligning her ideological adversaries?
Arundhati Roy did apologise for
her mistake in a letter published in Outlook May 27, 2002. Could this have
been a genuine mistake, one is tempted to ask? But when such 'mistakes'
occur periodically, the chances of them being accidental appear remote.
They appear to be in fact calculated machinations aimed at achieving a
specific goal as the following incident further proves.
In the same article, Roy claims.
"Last night a friend from Baroda
called. Weeping. It took her fifteen minutes to tell me what the matter
was. It wasn't very complicated. Only that Sayeeda, a friend of hers, had
been caught by a mob. Only that her stomach had been ripped open and stuffed
with burning rags. Only that after she died, someone carved 'OM' on her
forehead." Disturbed by the thought of such a ghastly act, Balbir Punj
(a BJP MP) had this matter investigated. In Outlook (Jul 08, 2002) he wrote.
"Shocked by this despicable 'incident,'
I got in touch with the Gujarat Government. The police investigations revealed
that no such case, involving someone called Sayeeda, had been reported
either in urban or rural Baroda. Subsequently, the police sought Roy's
help to identify the victim and seek access to witnesses who could lead
them to those guilty of this crime. But the police got no cooperation.
Instead, Roy, through her lawyer, replied that the police had no power
to issue summons. Why is she hedging behind technical excuses?"
So when asked to prove her allegations,
Arundhati Roy developed cold feet; definitely not the attitude of a crusader
for truth.
Similarly you must have read some
accounts of what preceded Godhra. There were wild accounts of an altercation
between Ram sevaks and Muslim stall-owners, and of the abduction of a Muslim
girl by Ram sevaks. All this emanated on the basis of a fictitious e-mail
as revealed by Prem Shankar Jha (Outlook, March 25)
This also reminds me of another
episode that occurred a few years ago. Filmmaker Pradip Kishen (who happens
to be Arundhati Roy's husband and a part of the same ideological group)
walked out in a huff from the National Film Awards jury accusing the board
of political motives. He asserted that Raveena Tandon had been given the
best actress award for Daman because she had campaigned for the BJP. When
an angry Raveena asked him to prove his charges, he beat a hasty retreat
and submitted an unconditional apology. This may not be an item of grave
national importance but serves to confirm the fact that certain groups
repeatedly use devious methods to achieve their broader political aims.
Mr. Tunku Varadarajan is deputy
editorial features editor of The Wall Street Journal. He also has had several
publications in the New York Times. This is an excerpt from his article
titled, 'Deadly Zeal in India' (NY Times, Jan 11, 1999).
"This happened a month after a Roman
Catholic priest was murdered and religious fanatics vowed to turn an entire
district into a 'Christian-free zone'. In keeping with this promise, a
chapel was set on fire. Elsewhere, armed men broke into a Catholic convent
and assaulted two nuns inside, and another Catholic priest was shot dead."
This report appeared exactly 15 days before, I repeat 15 days before Graham
Staines, the Australian missionary was killed in Orissa. Until then no
Christian missionary had been killed in India as a result of religious
hatred, yet Tunku Vardarajan's op-ed piece described picturesquely how
armed men broke into a convent and shot dead a Catholic priest. In deference
to fair play and before passing judgment, I e-mailed the newspaper asking
them for details that I may not have been aware of. I never received a
reply. A week later, however, the NY Times reported that no lives had been
lost in the so- called anti-Christian campaign. (This was before the Staines
murder). So this was without a doubt an explicit lie with an ulterior motive.
Apart from being a tall tale it was also a clever ploy: exaggerate the
crime, evoke greater condemnation and thereby silence those who do not
agree with you.
What do these incidents suggest?
The so-called secular groups (or more appropriately labeled 'pseudo-secular')
are willing to go to any lengths to put across their point of view, even
if it involves duplicity, spreading half- truths or indulging in hyperbole.
How can we believe a people or the philosophy they espouse when trickery
is an indispensable item in their mode of communication? Or in other words
can an ideology that requires the crutches of deceit and distortion sustain
itself?
What is even more disturbing is
that many eminent personalities (Nobel laureates, software entrepreneurs
and academics) are using the weight of their prestige to lend misplaced
credibility to these untruths. But one must remember that shorn of the
sophisticated accents that we speak in, shorn of the King's English that
we pen, shorn of the academic degrees from Western Universities that we
flaunt, shorn of our status or fame in society that we impose upon others,
what really matters is the truth and honesty of the words that we write
or speak. When judged by this yardstick, some of these so-called intellectuals
and eminent personalities fall way below into an abysmal pit of moral bankruptcy
that is hard to fathom.
Blind adherence to any ideology
whether it is Hindutva or anti-Hindutva will lead us nowhere. Truth, honesty
and justice must surmount all ideology. Double standards and hypocrisy
especially the type practiced by our so-called eminent personalities will
only destroy our democracy and society. Truth must be the basis of any
ideology. Truth and honesty must be the foundations of our society.
So let us stop lying. Let us be
fair and above all let us speak the truth. Then alone can we build a truly
democratic and secular India.
REFERENCES
1) Outlook India, May 06,2002
2) Outlook India, May 27, 2002
article by Balbir Punj
3) Outlook India, Jul 08, 2002
article by Balbir Punj.
4) Hindustan Times, Feb 1, 1999
5) New York Times, Jan 11, 1999