Author: Darius Nakhoonwala
Publication: The Hoot
Date: May 8, 2006
URL: http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web5917610166Hoot115142%20AM2104&pn=1
The more I read editorials, the more I wonder
why those who write them are paid so much. Any blogger would do just as well.
This column comments on the editorials written
in the largest newspapers of India. It has always maintained that the writers
are very lazy. Further proof of this was available last week when they wrote
about the Vadodara riots.
The most important piece of information that
the reader needed was the actual age of the dargah that was demolished. He
or she also needed to be told what a dargah is. Finally, he or she needed
to know whether the municipality had followed due process.
Amazingly, not one of the papers bothered
to provide the reader with these crucial pieces of information. The result
is that we really don't know even now how old the dargah - it is the grave
of a pious man and not a mosque - actually was.
Some have said more than 300 years old, others
have said more than 200 years old and one newspaper said it is only a 104
years old. As for the municipality following due process, it did; it was the
High Court that did a strange thing: issued orders on the basis if a report
in a newspaper.
Instead, the venerable leader writers focused
on what comes most easily off the keyboard: politics.
The Hindu, in fact, wrote two edits. The first
straightaway alleged that "the extended communal violence in Vadodara
in Gujarat cannot be explained by its immediate provocation: the demolition
of a dargah in Fatehpura area by the municipal authorities as part of a road-widening
project." According to it, the riots happened because the Muslims have
been living in fear since 2002 and the Modi government has done nothing to
make them feel better. "Instead, the efforts of the Modi Government have
so far been to feed the fears and complexes of the minorities at every available
opportunity. Not surprisingly, Muslim residents near the dargah in Vadodara
were suspicious of the real intent behind the notice issued by the Municipal
Corporation for the removal of the structure - which they claim was more than
300 years old. That three meetings with the residents of the area did not
end in any agreement cannot be cited as an excuse for the insensitive and
irresponsible manner in which the Municipal Corporation staff and the police
handled the demolition." I see.
In the second edit, commenting on the Supreme
Court's stay order on further demolitions, it took a swipe at the Gujarat
High Court, whose "order directing the police and other authorities to
"take immediate steps for the removal of encroachments by religious structures
on public space without discrimination and submit their reports" held
the potential for aggravating tensions in communally surcharged Gujarat."
"According to one count, in Ahmedabad
alone in 1998 there were 1,200 temples and 250 mosques that were encroaching
on roads, while in Surat 40 places of worship had been identified as major
encroachments. The High Court felt that the civic authorities, by remaining
silent spectators, had contributed to the proliferation of illegal religious
structures. Given the way the law and order situation spun out of control
in Vadodara following the demolition of a dargah, the consequences of the
wholesale and immediate demolition of religious structures ordered by the
High Court could well be imagined." I see.
The Indian Express had no clue what to say.
So it patted everyone on the back for making sure that we didn't get a repeat
of 2002. "As the nation watched Vadodara burn, there was very real trepidation
that Gujarat would slip back to the atavistic 2002 moment. That this did not
happen was largely thanks to some timely interventions - by both the Centre
and Gujarat's chief minister." It was by far the most inane edit on the
subject but the one in t he Hindustan Times came a close second.
As might be expected, it was full of praise
for the central government for getting the Supreme Court to issue the stay
order. "Given the communally charged climate in Gujarat, and the lack
of any significant effort on the state government's part to rebuild the climate
of trust destroyed in the wake of the Godhra massacre and the 2002 anti-Muslim
pogrom, the project to remove a 300year-old dargah was fraught with risk….Under
the Centre's insistence, the state has called out the army and this has possibly
calmed the situation." It then talked about the role of the army, for
heaven's sake!
As for the Pioneer, suffice it to say it took
the opposite view - severely critical of the central government and totally
supportive of the municipality and the state government and Mr Modi. "The
Supreme Court's stay order on Thursday, putting on hold further demolition
of illegal structures described as "places of worship", may have
fetched a temporary reprieve for fanatics in Vadodara who have nothing but
contempt for authority."
The Deccan Herald ignored the subject.
