Author: M.V. Kamath
Publication: Afternoon Despatch
& Courier
Date: October 29, 2004
URL: http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=editorials&xfile=October2004_mediawatch_standard79&child=mediawatch
Le Monde apparently does not know
how to sell sex the way Hindustan Times does. It should seek help from
some of our knowledgeable editors. After all, India is the land of Kaamasutra
FOR our 'liberal' press, good news
is bad news; it is not to be reported. But bad news is 'good' news, to
be reported in great detail and with a vengeance. That is why a story in
India Today (October 25) comes as a pleasant shock. It is about - hold
your breath - Hindus running a school for Muslims in 'sensitive' Ahmedabad,
and Muslims being grateful for it. It would appear that in 1983 one Ranchodbhai
Kiri started a school called Shantiniketan in the all-Muslim Juhapura area
of Ahmedabad in Gujarat. The attendance then was 80 per cent Hindus and
20 per cent Muslim. But following the riots that followed the Godhra killings,
Hindus left the area in large numbers.
A section of 'inflamed' Muslims
wanted the school closed but the parents of the students would have none
of that. Such was the reputation of the school that some of the local Muslim
strongmen accused of involvement in communal riots were willing to protect
the school at any cost. Now the 1,200-odd students are mostly Muslims and
they and their parents speak highly of the school's standards, each day
the school starts with 'Saraswati Vandana'. Writes India Today: "When painting
competitions are held in the school, images of Hindu Gods and goddesses
are most common.
Divisive thoughts
And Sanskrit is a favourite subject
of many a student.... Significantly, the only Muslim teacher in the 40-member
teaching staff, Husena Mansuri, teaches Sanskrit. In fact, she is so happy
at the school that she recently declined the principalship of another Muslim-run
school.... Some of the students' entries in a recent painting competition
were truly moving. One drew a picture of Bharat Mata with a mosque and
temple, while another portrayed a boy tying rakhi to his sister. Manisa
Vakil who heads the primary section in the school says: 'It comes out of
them naturally because they are free from all divisive thoughts'...." And
this in Narendra Modi's Gujarat? Hindus and Muslims living side-by-side
with mutual respect? How can that be? Our secularists must protest. They
should object to 'Saraswati Vandana' being offered at the start of the
classes.
Hindustan Times has latterly been
in the news. For one thing it carried a scoop which was played up as the
lead story on the front page (October 16). According to the story, Punjab
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, his son Raninder Singh and his then principal
secretary Sanjit Sinha "were involved in conceiving and finalising a project
for which questionable foreign currency transactions appear to have been
made".
The report said that according to
available documents "the foreign currency transactions amounting to Rs.
46 lakhs took place on Raninder's instructions". Wrote Hindustan Times:
"The money was a fraction of the Rs. 14.18 crore consultancy fee that a
Dutch firm was to receive for the Punjab Intranet Co. (PIC) project - which
was still in the paper stage. An HT expose on December 28, 2003 scuttled
the scheme and the company was never formed." Further details are given.
The next day the Punjab Chief Minister at a press conference indicated
that he would sue the Hindustan Times, resident editor in Chandigarh, Kanwar
Sadhu and his team, for what he called a 'fictional story' about his son.
A charge of criminal defamation apparently is to be made.
The Chief Minister's defence was
published in the paper of 18th October with an editorial note at the bottom
which said: "we published the story after ascertaining facts.
We stand by the story". Further
developments are eagerly awaited. Will Amarinderji become another 'tainted'
minister? Hindustan Times made news in another way. It retrenched 362 people
- or literally one for each day of the year - on the grounds that their
services in the printing section are no longer needed. Understandably 'hundreds'
of the paper's employees went on an indefinite 'dharna. The Hindu (October
14) quoted S.N. Sinha, General Secretary of the Employees Union as saying
that the retrenchment was being done to make foreign direct investment
in a printing company started by the paper "attractive".
Business, one supposes, is business.
But Hindustan Times may take comfort in the knowledge that one of the most
distinguished newspapers in Paris, Le Monde has announced that it is seeking
100 'voluntary redundancies' about 35 of them being journalists. Already,
it is reported that another 100 jobs have been cut from the printing operation.
Despite the fact that it seels 380,000 copies daily, Le Monde is reportedly
running at a loss with circulation falling. Le Monde apparently does not
know how to sell sex the way Hindustan Times does. It should seek help
from some of our knowledgeable editors.
After all, India is the land of
Kaamasutra.
There are some who believe, like
Siddhartha Reddy in The Asian Age (October 19) that in Maharashtra "Sonia
Gandhi's Congress may celebrate the BJP's decimation, but must mourn its
own rejection by the voters". The Congress always does well. Take Karnataka,
for example. It has a Congress government. But between April 2003 and October
2004, according to Deccan Herald 846 people of whom 809 were farmers, committed
suicide. It shows how very helpful the Congress government is in Karnataka.
The largest number of suicides were from Belgaum district (66) and Chitradurga
(72). In Maharashtra, the State has a deficit of several lakh crore rupees.
That merely shows how efficient the Shinde government has been.
It takes a lot of effort to run
a deficit of that magnitude. No doubt the next government will add a few
more lakh crore rupees deficit so that Sonia Gandhi can claim that her
party knows how to spend money. She probably thinks having Nashik in Maharashtra
helps. Maharashtra has the printing presses which can churn out thousand
rupee notes as easily as once, in the 1920s, German presses churned out
10,000 deutchmark notes. Trust the Congress to follow Germany's example.
Brightest headlines
One of the brightest headlines in
sports pages was seen in Deccan Chronicle (Oct. 15) when Kumble took seven
wickets in the first innings against the Aussies. The DC headline said:
Aussies Tumble Against Humble Kumble. Very smart, except that 'Kumble'
does not rhyme well with 'Tumble' and 'Humble'. 'Kumble' is pronounced
'Kumblay'. The right headline would have been: Aussies Tumblay Against
Humblay Kumblay.
There is happily at least one good
thing to be said about the recent Maharashtra elections. Exit polls by
various television channels were not so far off the mark as to make them
the laughing stock of the country. The Aaj Tak channel was almost on the
button in its prediction when it said on October 13 at the end of the balloting
that the ruling Congress-National Congress Party alliance would get anywhere
between 140 to 150 seats in the 288 seat Assembly. It did.
