Hindu Vivek Kendra
A RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE PROMOTION OF HINDUTVA
   
 
 
«« Back
Media's skewed approach to communal violence in India

Media's skewed approach to communal violence in India

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.
 


Back                          Top

«« Back
 
 
 
  Search Articles
 
  Special Annoucements