Author: Shri V A Gopala
Publication: RRCC Experts' View
Date:
Condoning minority violence, condemning
the majority community
The certifying engineers of secularism
have not overcome their blinked approach to communal violence in India.
Their theory has it that communal violence in India is primarily the creation
of the majority community (read the Hindus and the Sangh Parivar) over
the hapless minorities (Christians and Muslims). So whatever be the
situation, it is the majority community in general and the Sangh parivar
in particular who are at the receiving end of their poison pen.
This was evident in the manner the
Indian media reported the rape and murder of a 9 year old girl at the Jhabua
missionary school campus in Madhya Pradesh on Monday, January 12, 2004.
(reported in Indian Express dated January 15, 2004 under the title "Sangh
activists attack Jhabua missionary school)
Rape and murder of a 9-year old
girl is a heinous act of violence and deserves severe condemnation irrespective
of the religious background. But the media's skewed approach to communalism
denies this privilege to the majority community, when it is under attack
from the minority community. That is why the rape and murder was
by and large ignored by the media focus.
As per reports, the girl was selling
fruits outside the campus with her brother, when she was lured inside by
a youth on the pretext that the nuns wanted to buy some fruit. When
the girl did not return, the brother set out in search for her. She
was found dead in a toilet on the campus.
Now what would have happened if
the girl had belonged to a minority community and the institution was of
the majority community, there would have been an uproar in the media about
the "persecution of minorities" by the Hindu fundamentalists. Perhaps,
Uma Bharati might have been given the focal point of calumny as Narendra
Modi was during the Gujarat riots.
Now that the media has glossed over
this minority violence, efforts are on to blame VHP and Sangh Parivar activists
for the violence. According to the official version given out by the Jhabua
SP Mayank Jain, "a mob of over 50 persons from the VHP entered the campus
and pelted stones. They caused some damage to property and vehicles:.
However, the media was not content
with the official version of the story. The news report in the New
Indian Express dated January 15, 2004, quotes Father Pradeep Cherian of
the Catholic Church, "More than 500 people (of the Hindu Jagran Manch)
forced their way in, attacked the priests and damaged vehicles, before
the police was able to control them. I am in touch with the school
authorities and right now a 1,000 strong mob is gathered outside the school.
The police do not have the numbers to control the situation. They
are attempting to blame our personnel. I do not rule out a preplanned
attempt to implicate us. The priests have been evacuated but there
are sisters and around 75 girls still in the hostel. I do not know
how the police will evacuate them because even the police vehicles are
being attacked."
The tone and tenor of this report
suggests that the media - instead of concentrating on the killers and rapists
of the 9-year old Hindu girl - is trying hard to defend the Christian missionaries
by creating a sympathy wave towards them and trying to project the protestors
as attackers.
Such skewed reporting suggests that
the media has one set of rule for the majority community and another for
the minority community.
Remember, how the murder of the
Australian missionary Graham Staines was used to project India as an intolerant
state where Christians are persecuted. Remember that the media had blamed
the Sangh Parivar for the rape and robbery of nuns in a convent in Navapada
in Jhabua district on September 22, 1998. However, on final investigation,
it turned out that the majority of the Navapada rapists were Christians
and Congressmen and the media had glossed over this part of the story,
without any apology to the Sangh parivar. The media also ignored
the fact that Staines had invoked tribal rage by blatant proselytisation.
Such skewed reporting of communal violence undermines media credibility.
The eminent statesman K M Munshi
predicted such a trend long ago. K M Munshi in a letter to Jawaharlal
Nehru had stated that "if every time there is an inter-community conflict
the majority is blamed regardless of the merits of the question, the springs
of traditional tolerance will dry up.."
The gradual drying up of the springs
of traditional Hindu tolerance is all due to the minority appeasement schemes
adopted by the media and the secular politicians. The Gujarat reactions
can be attributed to this. If our secular intellectuals and politicians
continue with their lopsided version of secularism, it is bound to boomerang
on them. It is high time the media stopped the majority- blame game and
give objective journalism its due.
