Khamosh Pani Crosses the Border Noisily
Yousuf Saeed December 14, 2004
#149 Posted by sadna on December 21, 2004 10:31:58 am
DilipD #146
``I would suggest that if you want answers to them all, you should go visit Godhra and ask for yourself. This is not a facetious suggestion. It’s sort of on the lines of what I did, which got me some of those bits and pieces of information. ``
If I could I would. If every concerned member of the general public like myself could travel to location and find out the truth behind every incident for ourselves, there would be no need to pay for cable news and newspapers or to have a profession called journalism.
If so many people ask you about Godhra, has it occured to you that these are valid questions, that not only Hindus but Muslims will also be helped if the facts are known?
And hope those concerned about Muslims in Gujarat realise that Godhra Muslims have to be `rehabilitated` too. Whatever circumstances existed when the Godhra train burning happened, still affect their future wellbeing. The least we can do is know what those circumstances are. Do they live in ghetto-zied communities with minimal interaction with local government - resulting in women wholly being at mercy of community elders, poor rate of education, poor prospects for employment, increased vulnerability to radical philosophies of out-of-town preachers?
Simply bashing BJP or Modi(while is very deserved) will not suffice to help them. That is part of my ``realism`` remark.
BJP takes advantage of already existing fissures in society. Gujarat happened not just because BJP had been in power and done its utmost to widen these fissures but because something else was `wrong` elsewhere as well. This could be:
1. Socio-economic competition between communities of Hindus and Muslims. Then Hindus took advantage of riots to get the upper hand
2. Socio-economic isolation of Muslim communities which neither Muslim leaders, nor the mainstream parties (including `secular` ones) like to address
3. Elements of extremism/goondaism not only in Hindu but also Muslim communities, which nonBJP parties refuse to acknowledge
4. Virtual disenfranchisement of Muslim communities-meaning every political party does nothing for them even in riot situations.
When will journalists bring these things to forefront? Simply changing the government in Gujarat will not take care of all this.
My original remark about `realism` was made in context of Pakistan. A large number of `leftist` journalists write very passionately about the threat of Hindu fundamentalism to the peace of S. Asia (a very valid subject) but at the same time display a collective deafness, dumbness and blindness to the long years of state-sponsored terrorism and illiberal intolerant policies of Pakistan. It kills their credibility as defenders of tolerance and warriors against intolerance in the region.
With me personally, these `leftists` also lose credibility as defenders of the downtrodden, when they show absolutely no outrage at the way promises of paradise have been cynically used to incite tens of thousands of poor and young people to give up their lives for Pakistan`s ideological and real wars abroad. The same young people who ought be demanding from jobs and a better standard of living from their government here on earth.
Indian journalists who go to Pakistan have a good rousing time within the same cocooned setup which has presided over such intolerance and exploitation for the last 25 years. On return from Pakistan, they think that they can gloss over that fact and keep preaching Indians about tolerance and liberalism with any credibility. They can not.
It is good to see that Kuldip Nayar at least is no longer trying to do so - he is no longer a single issue BJP-basher. He is fully cognizant of realities in Pakistan which pose real obstacles to tolerance in the region and peace with India and does not hesitate to write about them.
And take for instance Ms Arundhati Roy. I had been an admirer since `And Annie gives it those ones` days. She would never pose for a photo with Narendra Modi under whose watch 3000 people were brutally killed. Good for her. But she had no compunction in posing for a photo with Hameed Gul under whose watch 100 times as many were brutally killed and a country comprehensively destroyed. You will never hear her raise her voice against that. She is a vocal Narmada Valley Project critic (good for her) but has she ever ever discussed Mangala Dam or Kalabagh Dam or Three Gorges dam? When she doesn`t do so, does she retain any credibility as the universal humanist she claims to be?
I prefer to think some of the leftists` glaring inconsistencies are due to ideological blindness, some of it is due to ignorance, some of it is their arrogance about the stupidity of their intended audience. That is why I use the term `realism`.
As for using that term for you personally, well that was due to my memories of interacting with you on violence of CPM. You were not interested, though such violence has been around a lot longer than Hindutva violence, has displayed as much virulence and lessens considerably the Communists` effectiveness in combating Hindutva-inspired violence .
`Realism` is also that concentrating on BJP and Hindu communalism makes `opinionmakers` like you ignore the systemic problems which aid BJP like they aid any other party - such as political influence in law-and-order.
A maulana who was implicated for preaching armed jihad and plotting bomb blasts was arrested recently in Hyderabad. Members of his party physically attacked the police chief in his office and demanded his release. I think he is now out on bail. Jagdish Tytler, who presided over the burning alive of thousands of Sikhs is now a minister in the Union Cabinet. Taslimuddin MP implicated in dozens of murders is out on bail. These outrages are all part of the same system which failed Muslims so miserably in Gujarat, a system which has to be fixed. So when will leftist humanist journalists be outraged enough to write opinion pieces about these outrages? One can not expect any single journalist to write about everything or be an expert in everything, but why the deafening silence from the whole collective of leftist journalists ?
``I would suggest that if you want answers to them all, you should go visit Godhra and ask for yourself. This is not a facetious suggestion. It’s sort of on the lines of what I did, which got me some of those bits and pieces of information. ``
If I could I would. If every concerned member of the general public like myself could travel to location and find out the truth behind every incident for ourselves, there would be no need to pay for cable news and newspapers or to have a profession called journalism.
If so many people ask you about Godhra, has it occured to you that these are valid questions, that not only Hindus but Muslims will also be helped if the facts are known?
And hope those concerned about Muslims in Gujarat realise that Godhra Muslims have to be `rehabilitated` too. Whatever circumstances existed when the Godhra train burning happened, still affect their future wellbeing. The least we can do is know what those circumstances are. Do they live in ghetto-zied communities with minimal interaction with local government - resulting in women wholly being at mercy of community elders, poor rate of education, poor prospects for employment, increased vulnerability to radical philosophies of out-of-town preachers?
Simply bashing BJP or Modi(while is very deserved) will not suffice to help them. That is part of my ``realism`` remark.
BJP takes advantage of already existing fissures in society. Gujarat happened not just because BJP had been in power and done its utmost to widen these fissures but because something else was `wrong` elsewhere as well. This could be:
1. Socio-economic competition between communities of Hindus and Muslims. Then Hindus took advantage of riots to get the upper hand
2. Socio-economic isolation of Muslim communities which neither Muslim leaders, nor the mainstream parties (including `secular` ones) like to address
3. Elements of extremism/goondaism not only in Hindu but also Muslim communities, which nonBJP parties refuse to acknowledge
4. Virtual disenfranchisement of Muslim communities-meaning every political party does nothing for them even in riot situations.
When will journalists bring these things to forefront? Simply changing the government in Gujarat will not take care of all this.
My original remark about `realism` was made in context of Pakistan. A large number of `leftist` journalists write very passionately about the threat of Hindu fundamentalism to the peace of S. Asia (a very valid subject) but at the same time display a collective deafness, dumbness and blindness to the long years of state-sponsored terrorism and illiberal intolerant policies of Pakistan. It kills their credibility as defenders of tolerance and warriors against intolerance in the region.
With me personally, these `leftists` also lose credibility as defenders of the downtrodden, when they show absolutely no outrage at the way promises of paradise have been cynically used to incite tens of thousands of poor and young people to give up their lives for Pakistan`s ideological and real wars abroad. The same young people who ought be demanding from jobs and a better standard of living from their government here on earth.
Indian journalists who go to Pakistan have a good rousing time within the same cocooned setup which has presided over such intolerance and exploitation for the last 25 years. On return from Pakistan, they think that they can gloss over that fact and keep preaching Indians about tolerance and liberalism with any credibility. They can not.
It is good to see that Kuldip Nayar at least is no longer trying to do so - he is no longer a single issue BJP-basher. He is fully cognizant of realities in Pakistan which pose real obstacles to tolerance in the region and peace with India and does not hesitate to write about them.
And take for instance Ms Arundhati Roy. I had been an admirer since `And Annie gives it those ones` days. She would never pose for a photo with Narendra Modi under whose watch 3000 people were brutally killed. Good for her. But she had no compunction in posing for a photo with Hameed Gul under whose watch 100 times as many were brutally killed and a country comprehensively destroyed. You will never hear her raise her voice against that. She is a vocal Narmada Valley Project critic (good for her) but has she ever ever discussed Mangala Dam or Kalabagh Dam or Three Gorges dam? When she doesn`t do so, does she retain any credibility as the universal humanist she claims to be?
I prefer to think some of the leftists` glaring inconsistencies are due to ideological blindness, some of it is due to ignorance, some of it is their arrogance about the stupidity of their intended audience. That is why I use the term `realism`.
As for using that term for you personally, well that was due to my memories of interacting with you on violence of CPM. You were not interested, though such violence has been around a lot longer than Hindutva violence, has displayed as much virulence and lessens considerably the Communists` effectiveness in combating Hindutva-inspired violence .
`Realism` is also that concentrating on BJP and Hindu communalism makes `opinionmakers` like you ignore the systemic problems which aid BJP like they aid any other party - such as political influence in law-and-order.
A maulana who was implicated for preaching armed jihad and plotting bomb blasts was arrested recently in Hyderabad. Members of his party physically attacked the police chief in his office and demanded his release. I think he is now out on bail. Jagdish Tytler, who presided over the burning alive of thousands of Sikhs is now a minister in the Union Cabinet. Taslimuddin MP implicated in dozens of murders is out on bail. These outrages are all part of the same system which failed Muslims so miserably in Gujarat, a system which has to be fixed. So when will leftist humanist journalists be outraged enough to write opinion pieces about these outrages? One can not expect any single journalist to write about everything or be an expert in everything, but why the deafening silence from the whole collective of leftist journalists ?
reply to this interact
write a new interact
add to favorites
flag objectionable content
#148 Posted by mohar11 on December 21, 2004 10:31:58 am
dilip
//...Why so counter-intuitive? ...//
That`s easy. Two main reasons: #1 - the attack in Godhra was ``un-provoked``, so to say. Like you yourself said - some muslims have termed Bombay bomb blasts justified, as a ``revenge`` for earlier riots. But in case of Godhra - it didn`t seem to be a retaliation for anything. It seemd to be a pre-meditated mass murder of hindus, so it`s counter-intuitive to defend it.
#2 - for minorities in any place, it is intuitive to keep the communal harmony at all costs - so, justifying unprovoked mass murders on majority community just goes against common sense.
+++
//plenty of Hindus told me the rest of the killing in Gujarat was justified. Didn’t seem counter-intuitive to them...//
Because it`s not. For these hindus, it`s about ``revenge``. Just like abive-mentioned muslims after bombay riots. Such sentiments are totally wrong, of course. But for these communalists on both sides - it makes sense, because it`s a revenge.
Conversely - if the situation were reversed i.e. if VHP would have killed a trainload of muslims returning from hujj - no hindu would say it was justified. Nobody justified killing of Graham Staines, the christian priest. To do so would be counter-intuitive for hindus in these cases. Because as the majority, it`s intuitive to look-out for well-being of minorities, which the hindus have by and far executed well, with exceptions.
Either way - such ``justifications`` of mass-murders, provoked or not, is completely unacceptable to the society at large. The idea is to keep these people under check. While media has done well to keep tabs on hindu communalists [and their supporters and ``justifiers``] there has been no attempt do so on muslim communalists.
That`s the crux of the matter here.
//...Why so counter-intuitive? ...//
That`s easy. Two main reasons: #1 - the attack in Godhra was ``un-provoked``, so to say. Like you yourself said - some muslims have termed Bombay bomb blasts justified, as a ``revenge`` for earlier riots. But in case of Godhra - it didn`t seem to be a retaliation for anything. It seemd to be a pre-meditated mass murder of hindus, so it`s counter-intuitive to defend it.
#2 - for minorities in any place, it is intuitive to keep the communal harmony at all costs - so, justifying unprovoked mass murders on majority community just goes against common sense.
+++
//plenty of Hindus told me the rest of the killing in Gujarat was justified. Didn’t seem counter-intuitive to them...//
Because it`s not. For these hindus, it`s about ``revenge``. Just like abive-mentioned muslims after bombay riots. Such sentiments are totally wrong, of course. But for these communalists on both sides - it makes sense, because it`s a revenge.
Conversely - if the situation were reversed i.e. if VHP would have killed a trainload of muslims returning from hujj - no hindu would say it was justified. Nobody justified killing of Graham Staines, the christian priest. To do so would be counter-intuitive for hindus in these cases. Because as the majority, it`s intuitive to look-out for well-being of minorities, which the hindus have by and far executed well, with exceptions.
Either way - such ``justifications`` of mass-murders, provoked or not, is completely unacceptable to the society at large. The idea is to keep these people under check. While media has done well to keep tabs on hindu communalists [and their supporters and ``justifiers``] there has been no attempt do so on muslim communalists.
That`s the crux of the matter here.
#147 Posted by mohar11 on December 21, 2004 10:31:58 am
dilip
//...you know, Sena, VHP, BD, BJP etc. I have copies of leaflets from Gujarat, for example, that are every bit as disgusting as what you heard in those mosques...//
Yep. And we all know what VHP/BJP are upto. Media has done well to expose these guys. there have non-stop debate on hindu communalism for years now, with good results - these communalists are under check and under constant scrutiny.
But we really don`t know what`s going on inside the mosques - what Veeresh said was news to me. If the messages being spread-out in the mosques are as disgusting as the ones in VHP leaflets - there where is the outrage? Has the media taken care to expose these mosques or groups who are doing it.?
The answer is NO. That`s exactly is the point here - it`s about media and it`s lack of expose on muslim communalism.
//...you know, Sena, VHP, BD, BJP etc. I have copies of leaflets from Gujarat, for example, that are every bit as disgusting as what you heard in those mosques...//
Yep. And we all know what VHP/BJP are upto. Media has done well to expose these guys. there have non-stop debate on hindu communalism for years now, with good results - these communalists are under check and under constant scrutiny.
But we really don`t know what`s going on inside the mosques - what Veeresh said was news to me. If the messages being spread-out in the mosques are as disgusting as the ones in VHP leaflets - there where is the outrage? Has the media taken care to expose these mosques or groups who are doing it.?
The answer is NO. That`s exactly is the point here - it`s about media and it`s lack of expose on muslim communalism.
#146 Posted by mohammad on December 21, 2004 6:40:50 am
=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts
view this users filtered interacts
#145 Posted by omar_r_quraishi on December 21, 2004 6:40:50 am
this for you shri veeresh and you`re sham argument that the indian print media is dominated by leftists
MEDIA IS THE MEDIUM OF COMMUNAL ``KHAUF`` IN GUJARAT
by Digant Oza
``Are you sure it is safe to organize harmony
program with Ramkathakar Morari Bapu in Juhapura
(Ahmedabad) notorious as Mini Pakistan ? Vishwa
Hindu Parished and Hinduvavadis would allow it to
pass peacefully?
Was the question faced by the group of NGOs who
had ventured to organize an event to jointly
celebrate Dev Diwali, Idd and Guru Nanak Jayanti
on 26th of November in the so called ``Border``
across Juhapura and Vejalpur Areas of Ahmedabad.
It was a first step by a Hindu religious
celebrity to reach out to the minority
communities.
However, the gereral atmosphere in the city was
so created by earlier Media reporting that even
the activists themselves were not sure about the
outcome of what they had thoughtfully organized.
On 19th of Nov. Crime branch of Gujarat Police
told the local Court that there is No case
against pota lawyers and on 23rd Nov. the senior
Advocate H.N. Zala alsong with his juniors are
arrested. What does it mean? Is the crime branch
of Gujarat Police lying? Were they misleading the
Court while spreading reign of terror, was the
question in the minds of so many who were the
readers of Local Newspapers.
Needless to say that the POTA has been misused
ever since its enactment through out the country,
now it is the turn of lawyers to face the terror
of POTA, more particularly those who are
defending the accused under POTA. The arrest of
senior lawyer of Gujarat High Court H.N.Jhala and
his colleague Mustaq Ali Saiyed has sent a
shockwave in legal fraternity to Gujarat. It is a
threat to all lawyers defending POTA accused, and
yet print media went on publishing stories after
stories, without any crosschecking, which were
dished out by the crime branch of Gujarat police
to colour a senior Advocate as Anti-national and
Criminal Consperator.
The arrest of the lawyers under POTA is
absolutely unconstitutional, illegal, malafide
and aimed at terrorizing the legal fraternity and
therefore, we strongly condemn the arrest of the
lawyers under charges of POTA and demand their
immediate release and withdrawal of charges of
POTA said a communiqué by the same High Court
Advocate Association which till yesterday were
adopting resolution condemning supreme Court of
India for transferring Best Bakery case out side
Gujarat State.
Time and the compulsions of life have dissipated
the fires of hatred in Gujarat. But the editorial
ire of the English press is still raging,
prodding them to send squads of news dogs to
sniff relics of the old rivalry and report cases
of fresh villainy threatening what S Jaipal Reddy
pompously calls the secular fabric of the country
discovered by Jawaharlal Nehru. Every day, leader
writers, commentators and analysts remind the
reader of the real nature of our polity, our
society and our press. Obviously, their thirst
for bad news is unquenchable.
Riot after riot, the press repeats the
performance of our parliamentarians who stall
business in both Houses of Parliament to
prioritise religious issues. Like the sandhya
vandanam for the Brahmin, the editorial parrots
must chant the hate mantra every day.
Paradoxically, what troubles the English press
does not trouble the language press. Less
secular? Asked Dasu Krishnamoorty on the net
called rediff. It was April 26, 2002.
The media`s love for religion came in for
criticism by the Press Council of India, which
always included several leading journalists.
Pained by the new trend of conflictual
journalism, the Council pilloried the most
venerable English newspaper in the country and
its editor for its reporting of the Delhi riots
of 1984.
The, fundamental objective of journalism is to
serve the people with news, views, comments and
information on matters of public interest, in a
fair, accurate, unbiased, sober and decent
manner. Over the years, the press has become so
powerful that, it has soon acquired unique status
of ``Fourth Estate``. It is supposed to playa key
role and a crucial role of a watchdog, to see
that the other three institutions ``Legislature,
Executive, Judiciary`` function fairly within the
constitutional framework and serve the people for
whose welfare they were created said Justice K.
J. Reddy, at the ``Time of turmoil Godhra and
After`` while discussing the Role of Media at the
Inaugural function of Indian First Foundation on
April 6, 2002.
Justice Reddy further said, As a fourth organ the
press has also the responsibility (rather the
most important responsibility) to help build the
nation, to implement objectives of the
Constitution and to promote social justice and
equality, stability and unity and peace, progress
and happiness to the society at large. The
freedom that the media enjoys is the freedom for
and on behalf of the society. Media plays the
role of communicator and as such it has to inform
and not to misinform, dis-inform or non-inform
the people on issues of vital importance. It has
to educate, motivate, persuade and entertain.
They must have their fingers on the pulse of the
people and has a pious obligation not to
jeopardise or harm the welfare of the society.
Mahatma Gandhi said ``The newspaper/press is a
great power, but just as an unchained torrent of
water submerges the whole country side and
devastates crops even so an uncontrolled pen
serves but to destroy``.
In the midsts of the experiences of missing
social respon sibility of the media, One needs to
see the performance of Gujarat media in last
three years. Gujarat riots raised many issues.
Rakesh Gupta of center for political studies in
JNU, while discussing communalism asked several
questions thru Asianaffairs. Rakesh Gupta
questions : First, is India moving away from a
liberal political community, let alone liberal
democratic community, to a bizarre fascist
society and not the Anarchical Society that
Gandhi had visualized for the poor? Second, why
have those generations that were behind Sanatanic
but secular Gandhi failed to regenerate the same
Hindu ethos of tolerance, despite the caste
rigidity? Third, what has happened to the
different strata of Gujarati middle classes that
are mute spectators to this fearsome, diabolic
design and dance of death? Fourth, what is the
local media doing? Fifth, is this premeditated or
not? Sixth, what happened to the state of India,
its police and its army? Seventh, in the current
phase of globalized liberalization in India, who
needs endemic communal conflagration and to what
end? Eight, whatever happened to the morals and
ethics of a cultural milieu and the state is its
self-proclaimed purpose? Last but not the least,
what has happened to the constitutional right to
life? These issues relate to the matters of the
state, civil society, cultural communities,
citizenship and democracy. Answers to these
cannot be found in this brief exercise. But
Rakeshbhai should know that No one is bothered
about such issues, these days.
PUCL and Shanti Abhiyan, two NGO`s in Baroda
which undertook a brief analysis for the period
Feb 28 to March 24, 2002, gave a report under the
caption ``THE ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS DURING THE
GUJARAT CARNAGE`` in the report PUCL and Shanti
Abhiyan says, ``The purpose of our analysis was to
find out how the local press presented the riots
to the readers. The report further said :
``Gujarat has been ravaged by unprecedented
violence since 27th February sending shockwaves
all over the country. The spell of genocide that
followed the Godhra massacre have seen newspapers
playing a significant role in the long spiral of
violence. Shanti Abhiyan and PUCL (People`s Union
For Civil Liberties), two Baroda-based
organisations have been following the vernacular
press as well as the English newspapers to
analyse news reportage throughout this period.
Discussing the role of Local Newspapers the
report observed, ``According to our above
framework, the Gujarati newspaper Sandesh,
(Baroda) has crossed all limits of responsible
journalism and has been at its inflammatory best.
While it is difficult to give an exact
translation of the articles and news reports that
have appeared in the newspaper we have selected a
few reports and summarised them in
Annexure.
As Shanti Abhiyan and PUCL have formed a few
fact-finding teams, it has been possible for us
to compare facts unearthed during our field
visits with the news that has been reported.
The major characteristic of Sandesh, in the
period under review, has been to feed on the
prevalent anti-Muslim prejudices of its Hindu
readership and provoke it further by
sensationalising, twisting, mangling and
distorting news or what passes for it. The
average Hindu reader in Baroda feels that he is
getting value for money and `real` reportage`` the
report observes.
According to PUCL and Shanti Abhiyan on 6th March
the last page of Gujarat Samachar (Baroda
Edition) carried a report with the headline: THE
PLAN WAS TO TORCH THE WHOLE TRAIN, NOT JUST ONE
BOGEY. In yet another box item on last page a
report states that `a mob was ready for the
second attack.` The source of the information is
not mentioned. The question is how did the
reporter of a Vadodara based Newspaper knew what
was in the mind of people gathered on 27th
February 2002 at Godhra Railway Platform ?
The two NGO further reports : ``Sandesh`s sale has
reportedly fallen in recent times. It is
plausible that it has been resorting to
sensational and irresponsible reporting in a bid
to boost sales. Whether this is true or not,
Sandesh has consciously sought to project a
communalised version of events and inflicted
serious and long-term damage to a society already
fragmented along communal lines.``
As a rule, the mainline Gujarati dailies did not
print contradictions and clarifications given to
their inflammatory and half-truth reports. The
credit must go to the private TV networks which
brought the horror of the carnage let loose in
Gujarat to every home throughout India as
otherwise the people at large would not have
realised the gravity in the wake of Chief
Minister Narendra Modi issuing official
statements to deliberately underplay the shocking
violence.
Perhapes because of such behevier or the print
media well know historia. K.N. Panikar said at an
event celebrating the 125th anniversary of the
reputed daily ``HNIDU`` on increasing communalism
in the media. Panikkar warned of the increasing
acceptance and perceived respectability of
communalism, as well as its impact on the
rhetoric of nationalism:
Dr. Panikkar said that communalism had gained
legitimacy, often through crude and false
representations, as a result of which the popular
common sense about key concepts such as
nationalism and secularism were changing.
One of the several Paradoxes Gujarat of Gandhi is
facing to-day is that the citizens have lost the
voice of dissent and are silent against all the
injustices meted out to the Civil society in the
name of pride of Gujarat. Citizens of Gandhi`s
Gujarat do not have right to know and press is
not Free.
It was Gandhi who taught Gujarat and the country
to dissent, and have the courage to stand up for
it. It was from here that major national
movements took shape, and caught the imagination
of an entire generation. It was the courageous
journalist in Gandhi (of ``Harijanbandhu`` and
``Young India``) who pioneered the campaign for the
freedom of the press. He stood for these rights
when fellow countrymen were considered to be the
white man`s burden, and the dream of a free India
was nowhere in sight.
BETRAYAL OF SILENCE
Governance and the Media is not just about
Gujarat only. It is about all of us in the
context of a professedly multi -cultural society
which should conform to the constiutional
legitimacy of social, democratic puralist and
secular republic. Citizenry has to get its act
together and actively engage in the governance
process if these precepts are to be substantiated
by practice and not insidiously violated. The
events in Gujarat also clearly leave no room for
sitting on the fence. As Martin Luther King
pointed out long ago, `` A time comes when silence
is a betrayal.``
Public memory is notoriously short. This, coupled
with the lack of citizenry engagement has
contributed to lessons of the past being
consigned to the backburner, and history
repeating itself. Timely information,
communication, documentation and dissemination
can play a vital role in preventing mistakes of
the past from casting a long shadow. Media`s
role, both in terms of raising questions as well
as tracking events pertinent to governance, then,
assumes additional significance. It is against
this backdrop that the raison d`etre for the
current issue of this conference has taken shape.
Media is driven by communalism and Media is the
medium to spread communalism.
If irony had a synonym, it would be Gujarat. For,
today, the very same freedom, which Gandhi fought
and earned for the country is at stake. Infect,
like the father of the nation, respected
journalist Bill Moyers was also not exaggerating
when he told an audience that `the very soul of
democracy is at stake`. Gandhiji used to say that
suffering injustice is like commiting it. That is
what both media and the civil society busy with
in Gujarat to-day.
The field journalist has been virtually de-linked
from the editors-cum-owners of the media group
externally by a scheming political establishment,
which spends more time in studying the economic
dynamics of a running a newspaper vis-a-vis the
onslaught of 24-hour TV channels.
While this may be a trend catching up nationally,
the establishment in Gujarat goes one step ahead.
Having taken care of the owner-editors, the focus
is now on to clip the wings of the field
journalists, especially those covering the
government, which has juxtaposed the freedom of
the press as its own right to suppress the press.
Attempts are being made to ensure the reporters
covering the Secretariat go back in the evening
with an empty newsbag or are fed with
misinformation and disinformation.
DEPARTMENT OF CLARIFICATIONS
Different ways are being devised to frustrate
him. The government today has a section in its
Information Department whose job is to issue
clarifications and rejoinders to news reports on
a daily basis. The Chief Minister of Gujarat
spends more time in overseeing the press releases
of his functions, while the only department,
which seems to be `working` in the Gujarat
Government is the Information Department. What it
dishes out, as it was just mentioned, may be
both, `misinformation` as well as
`disinformation,` but you are disliked and
harassed if you dare say this.
Even political statements by the opposition
parties are replied back by the Information
Department of Government, along with the ruling
party. When one editor recently ``dared`` to ask
how could the government reply to the signed
press statement of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress
Committee president on his official letter-head,
it was treated like sacrilege. He lost government
advertisements for such a ``Gustakhi``.
IS GUJARAT READY FOR ANOTHER EMERGENCY ?
How would the Indian media react if the Emergency
were to be declared at midnight tonight, and if
the Freedom of Speech and Expression guaranteed
under Article 19 of the Constitution were to be
suspended?
If witch-hunts were launched against magazines
that refuse to parrot the establishment lineS. If
flimsy cases were foisted -- and dossiers built
up -- on pesky newspaper journalistsS If
trouble-making publications were so harassed that
they wouldn`t be able to function much less
surviveS If foreign correspondents were summarily
ordered to leave the country for filing
not-so-glowing reportsS If television channels
were banned for showing the other side of a
storyS If small newspapers were dis-empanelled so
that they wouldn`t receive government advertisingS
The good news is that it is a hypothetical
question. The brazenness (and the eventual
electoral backfiring) of Indira Gandhi`s
Emergency is still too fresh in the minds of our
political masters to attempt a similar
misadventure 29 years later. The bad news is that
a subtler, more sophisticated method of muzzling
the media has been mastered by the BJP-led
National Democratic Alliance government.
Each of the `Emergency` possibilities listed
above -- and each of which had the votaries of
Free Speech up in arms in 1975 -- has been (or is
being) played out in news and board rooms across
the country without so much as a squeak in
protest. More so in Gujarat. Guess who is the
loser.
As Former B.J.P. Minister Arun Jaitley once wrote
under the caption : ``Nazi priestess``, ``The German
Constitution was envisaged as one of the most
liberal constitutions in the world. Yet one man
motivated by the desire for personal dictatorial
power subverted it and presented to the world one
of the most disgraceful authoritarian regimes in
history. This man was Adolf Hitler.
How did he do this? He used the constitutional
provisions to declare a state of emergency. He
imposed censorship on the newspapers. He detained
his political opponents. He crushed all dissent.
He inspired the persecution of those he was not
prepared to suffer. He generated an environment
of terror and sycophancy.
And why did he do all this? ``To make Germany a
powerful nation,`` he claimed. To legitimise this
he announced a 25-point economic programme. He
claimed that it was discipline that he was
imposing, that it was the hallmark of the system.
Even Mussolini had claimed in Italy that the
effect of Fascism was that `trains were running
on time`. One of Hitler`s Nazi colleagues had
proclaimed: ``Adolf Hitler is Germany and Germany
is Adolf Hitler. He who swears allegiance to
Hitler swears allegiance to Germany.``
How is the todays Gujarat scenario is any
different? If personal political position of
present chief minister is threatened, one is to
belive that is was insult of Five crore
Gujaratis, and attack on pride of Gujarat. In
other words ``Narendra Modi is Gujarat and Gujarat
is Narendra Modi``.
As Arun Jaitley wrote about Emergency (1975),
every dishonest protagonist of the
``Mini-Emergency`` (Courtesy former CM Keshubhai
Patel) would argue that it was to save the state
from anarchy and to impose descipline on
democracy and save the interests of majority
community. The honest truth is very much to the
contrary.
Newspapers, magazines, television channels,
web-zinesS a peevish and paranoid by those who
had amended the constitution in favour of Civil
liberties, has clicked a perverse `convergence`
of punishment. They are the one who wants POTO in
any form to be operationable, it not nationally,
atleast within Gujarat.
Remember Thomas Jefferson? `I would prefer a free
press without a government than a government
without a free press.`
Censorship in one way or another has always been
there. But, in Gujarat it seems to have acquired
draconian dimension. When it comes to media there
are number of instances which prove this point.
Censorship is generally at the other end. At the
place where information is being used. But the
Gujarat government has its innovative concept.
Check the free flow of information. So no problem
of `moral` policing at the user`s end. Put the
media at tenterhooks using all possible legal
(and Not so legal) means. Apparently it may sound
an exercise to clean the system, in reality it
turns out to be bashing by so called legal baton
without any legal sanctity to it. You may be
slapped a legal case to give the impression that
action is right. But a case on false premises or
illogical grounds can serve only one purpose. To
harass you. And that is what is happening in
Gujarat.
Here are some examples of what the media in
general and hapless Secretariat reporter in
Gandhinagar (Gujarat) particular, suffers and
stoically takes in his stride. The examples are
self evident :
DENIAL OF PRESS ACCESS :
If accreditation meant access, it is denied to
journalists in Gujarat. It has been 10 months
since the government has kept in abeyance
issuance of the new press accreditation cards to
journalists, while renewals are being given on a
provisional basis for a couple of months unlike
for a year as has been the practice all over the
country. All this is being done in the name of
framing a new media policy, which nobody knows
when would be finalised. There has been a
practice of issuing accreditation cards to
``Veteran Journalists`` in recognition of their
life-long services to the profession. They have
even been denied the respect of a renewal. If you
ask anyone in the government informally, he will
tell you, ``We are giving the cards and even
renewing it. Please come we will renew your
card.`` Which never happens and I know this from
personal experience. Insiders say the Chief
Minister has a special hatred for a couple of the
`Veterans`, so everyone must suffer.
Needless to say the accreditation is required for
security purposes as well as basic facilities of
moving in government departments and talking to
responsible officers.
Information department officials say the
government feels the need to weed out
``undesirable and corrupt journalists`` and deny
them the cards. There is already a set of norms
to provide the cards, but nobody in the
government would admit that it is neither being
monitored nor implemented. There is a special
committee, including senior journalists, to
verify and decide whom to give the card. The
norms are being violated by people from within
the government and not by the committee. If you
know a minister or MLA from your area, you can
get a card and you need a minister only if you
are an ``undesirable and corrupt journalist`` not
measuring up to the norms.
World over, governments and their spin surgeons
want a rosy picture to be painted in the media
regardless of everything. So, the BJP-led
government, which essentially believes in
governance by media management, cannot be accused
of doing something that others elsewhere have
not. But it is the method that exposes the
madness that has gripped its media-minders.
It is a different question as to what are the
professional bodies -- the Editors` Guild, the
Indian Newspaper Society, Journalist Association
etc. doing to ensure that media professionals are
not completely stripped and paraded naked for the
cardinal crime we are committing of carrying the
message?
And What is the role of institutions like
National Minority Commission and National Human
Right Commission in safe guarding the Civil
liberties of Fifty million Gujaratis.
PRESS (AB)BUS:
For the last almost two decades, media
representatives were traveling 28 km to and fro
Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in a government bus.
The present Chief Minister stopped this facility
on the pretext that most media publications now
have representatives in the State capital. Of
course, he has not bothered to inform the Press
about this reason and it was only after a
correspondent inquired that he was told about it
by an official. And this is how I also know it.
But this argument doesn`t work when the Press bus
operates on Wednesdays.
The fact is the Chief Minister doesn`t like the
sight of prying journalists, who refuse to be
spoon-fed. From the rest, he has a selected band
of loyalists who can take a mouthful from him
and still won`t mind eating his lunches.
Recently, a rumour was systematically spread that
the Chief Minister was to hold a press
conference, a rare event in itself. Usually, such
conferences are held with a proper invitation, so
those who had not got it wondered and started
inquiring. They were told, ``There is no press
conference, the Chief Minister wishes to meet
some selected journalists over lunch.`` How many
do you assume could be selected journalists?
Four, five, six? There were some 25 of them.
THE SECRETARIAT PRESS ROOM:
The PRESSROOM in the Sachivalaya has been locked.
Reporters have NO Place to work even if they
happen to reach Gandhinagar on their own, i.e.
without a state Government Vehicle. The entry to
non-accredited journalists has been prohibited,
while even those having the cards cannot enter if
they have committed the sin of forgetting it.
THE INACCESSIBLE CHIEF MINISTER:
The Chief Minister simply does not meet the
press, especially if you have written even one
piece against him. The customary post-Cabinet
meeting press briefing is generally not held. And
when rarely held, spokesmen of government will
not entertain questions with an air that you have
to write what has been handed out to you.
If you want to start a new publication and want
to file a fresh declaration what you need to do,
anywhere in the country baring Gujarat, is to
approach the district magistrate and apply in
prescribed profile with five suggestive names in
order of priority, than it is forwarded to the
office of registrar of Newspapers in Delhi for
further action. But Gujarat is an exemption your
papers will not be forwarded to Delhi unless
there is a positive report about the applicant
from Local Police Station. It is innovation for
gagging up the media even before its birth.
The Present Chief Minister is not accessible to
media in general and reporters in particular. The
organization called `Gujarat Dainik Akhbar Sangh`
( having membership of Gujarat dailies excluding
Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh ) which has a
history of having meetings with all the previous
Chief Ministers were deprived of a dialogue with
Modi till recently. Both Bhupat Vadodaria and
Ramu Patel, the past and present presidents of
Gujarat Dainik Akhbar Sangh requested for a
formal meeting with Modi, but in vain. However,
after it was presented at national level the
Chief-Minister had a formal meeting only last
month. Similarly, no access to any media person,
no dialogue with media person - All this in the
name of security.
Since Narendra Modi took over, his ministers do
not meet press. Though none admits, it is a fact
no minister is allowed to speak to press without
his permission. And his permission is rare. The
formal periodical News conferences, which are
denied more then they are organized, are a time
bound affair but they are invariably declared
over, even while reporters have just started
putting their questions.
As a result of this, even senior bureaucrats not
only run away at the sight of journalists but
they seek ``on Deputation`` transfer outside the
state. The overall effect of this style of
functioning is of censorship at the source. So
there is no need to go for open censorship.
A senior correspondent of a Gandhinagar based
daily once asked a rather longish question in one
of the rare news conferences of NAMO (as the
present CM is popularly addressed) and the
prompt reply came from Chief Minister, ``Tamaru
Chapun to nanu che ane Saval avado moto`` (your
Newspaper is small and you are asking such a long
question). The question was, however, not
answered.
ADVERTISEMENTS ARE SOURCE OF INFERMATION
Advertisements to newspapers have been reduced to
minimum while cases have been slapped against
number of newspapers on all kind of grounds. In
one of its judgements, the Court felt that
Government Advertisements are also a source of
information apart from income, but the Modi
Govt. denies these sources to all those
newspapers that the Chief Minister does not like.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu
organisation were publishing handbills suggesting
economic boycott of the minority during the
post-Godhra period in the year 2002, Similarly
the state Government puts economic sanction on
the Newspaper, to gag them. Gujarat Samachar got
the Govt. Advts. restored through a court order
and at present they are fighting a legal battle
for the compensation for loss of Advt. during the
period of stoppage. Jai Hind has filed a case in
Gujarat High Court. Rajasthan Patrika is before
Press Council of India, another Gujarati daily,
Divya Bhaskar, is yet to see Govt. Advts. in
their columns even after 15 months of its
existence. Both Rajasthan Patrika and Divya
Bhaskar are considered pro-BJP newspapers but
their guilt is that they are not toeing the
present CM`s line. One newspaper rented out a
part of the building it had constructed on land
bought from government in special category and it
was charged with commercial use of the building .
A case was filed against a newspaper that had
bought a piece of land at a concessional rate in
the special category. The charge was that it did
not construct the building in the specific time
frame. The fact was that the newspaper had to
revise its building plan to meet post-Kutch
earthquake requirements. Though the paper won
the legal battle, the purpose of the government
was to terrorise with a kind of censorship that
is perpetrated against the non-accommodative
newspapers and journalists every day.
Notices for closure of newspapers are issued on
technical and legal grounds even when the point
involved is some thing like informing the
Magistrate about a change of editor or print.
The CM invites a team of selected journalists by
name for official briefing over lunch; something
never done in the past. He manages to get
invitations for the inaugural flight of Air India
for journalists of his choice. Certainly it was a
move to reward his own men in the media and at
the same time a move to create rift among
journalists by a policy of carrot and stick.
However, a national level controversy over the
issue led to cancellation of freebies to the
select journalists.
CENSORING OTHER MEDIA
Censorship today doesn`t necessarily need a pair
of scissors. It can be done by the click of a
button. Police across Gujarat, apparently on the
orders from the government in Gandhinagar, is
using its powers to gag the electronic media.
News channels across Gujarat, which were giving a
blow-by-blow account of the riots, blinked off
the television screens in several cities as the
police silenced certain channels.
On that fateful Saturday during the riots,
Ahmedabadis were cut off from the world in more
ways than one. Forced inside their homes for the
third consecutive day, desperate attempts of the
people to know what was happening in the city
were met with blank screens as the state
government blocked all satellite news channels
from beaming into city homes.
Exercising special powers, the then city police
commissioner PC Pande issued notices to cable
operators in the city, directing them to block
all programmes that could incite violence, enmity
between two communities and disrupt law and order
situation in the city. Those not adhering to the
directive would be subject to punishment, the
notice said.
Following the same, all three news channels were
pulled off air early morning by most cable
operators. Blank screens irked residents no end
who were depending on the news channels to
provide them with updates on the situation in the
city.
In Vadodara, Star News channel was blocked, while
authorities in Surat blocked two local channels -
MY TV and Channel Surat. In Rajkot, the then
police commissioner Upendra Singh directed cable
operators to block Star News and four local news
channels. He also banned publication of special
supplements of three local Gujarati eveningers.
Most of the control rooms in the city received
phone calls from the collector`s office to black
out Star News, Zee News, CNN and Aaj Tak,`` said
president of the Ahmedabad Cable Operator`s
Association Pramod Pandya.
According to the then Surat police commissioner
Vineet Gupta, directives had been issued to all
cable operators to refrain from showing anything
which was provocative. ``We directed them not to
show anything which could flare up communal
sentiments or cause a law and order problem,``
Gupta said. (A legal explanation of the
censorship.)
How can they black out the news channels when
news is what we need the most, Vipul Patel, a
resident of Manekbaug in Ahmedabad asked. An
inquiry made to his cable operator revealed that
the cable network hub near Dharnidhar Derasar has
been set on fire; so restoring the service would
take time.
Interestingly, most resident felt that blacking
out news channels was actually more damaging as
people then had no option but to rely on rumours.
``We are not getting the news channels.
Withholding information will only backfire as we
would be forced to believe in rumours that are
flying thick and fast``, says Jigna Shah of
Shahpur in Ahmedabad.
``We pay Rs 200 per month for cable services but
in the critical time when we need to know local
news, we are not getting the news channels. Right
to information is a basic right. How can anyone
snatch that right away from us,`` quizzed Shyam
Sundar of Vejalpur (Ahmedabad).
Cable service providers when contacted confessed
that they had received official notice ordering
to discontinue showing news channels in Gujarat
till the riots were fully controlled.
We need to sit up in alarm at what`s happening
because even as recently as the POTO standoff,
the Law Commission was cited by the very people
who have the least regard for it, to tell us that
the rights and privileges of a pressman in India
are no different from the rights and privileges
of an ordinary citizen of India. If the media,
with all its power and reach, can be treated with
such disdain; if the media is not free to report
what it sees and hears, unhindered; if the media
is not free to seek accountability from the
government of the day, how free is the ordinary
citizen we serve? And how free is the democracy
that hosts us all?
Mahatma Gandhi fired the imagination of people
with his non-cooperation movement. In his
Gujarat, the voice of dissent is dubbed
anti-Gujarat. It is an insult to 50 million
Gujaratis, the figure has not changed even after
the 2001 census.
In her paper for South Asia Forum for Human
Rights entitled as ``Militarized Hindu Nationalism
and the Mass Media`` Rita Manchanda wrote in May
2002 : `` The unsubstantiated statements of
political leaders reported by the media damn the
Muslims as ISI agents and the madrassas as hot
beds of terrorist subversion. For example,
fFormer Rajasthan Chief Minister, Bhairon Singh
Shekhawat`s claimed at a press conference that
12,000 ISI agents were operating in the border
districts of Rajasthan. The Hindu ( Jan 13, 2001)
reported his statement that `traitors` (Muslims)
who had helped the Pakistani army in 1965 and
1971 were active again. He ``alleged`` that 240
madrassas operating in the border areas were the
hot beds of fanaticism and Pakistani agents were
teaching there. There is no substantiation of his
claim. The report does carry an editorial
qualification - that this is the first instance
of Muslims in Rajasthan being accused of
cooperating with the ISI and assisting Pakistan
in the wars.
In the forth chapter of here paper Rita Manchanda
discusses ``The State of Siege & The Enemy Within``
In this final section, I want to essentially
focus on how the `India, a state of siege`
syndrome is worked through the media becoming an
accomplice of the intelligence agencies. Sections
of the mass media are implicated in representing
the privileged perspectives of the intelligence
agencies as established facts using phrases which
have come to be a classic of journalese -`said to
be`. Whether it is the reportage of north east
conflicts, the recent Indo Bangaldesh border
crisis (See Himal Magazine May 2001 )or the
activities of the ubiquitous ISI-RAW networks,
privileged perspectives - read derived from
intelligence agency sources -are camouflaged as
fact.
Take a recent TOI Guwahati datelined story `N-E
Rebels die in blast at Banga tryst` which reports
a bloodbath in a Bangladesh hotel claiming
several lives of representatives of extremist
outfits of the northeast, resulting from a fall
out between rebel groups. On the basis of unnamed
`reliable sources` we are informed of a meeting
in the Shah hotel somewhere on `Bangladeshi
soil`. Reliable sources`` are quoted that 15
`extremists` were injured and several succumbed,
though the exact number or names not known. The
new Bangladesh government is trying to hush it
up, it is said. Reports in the Bangladesh press
-Dainik Inqualab -obligingly described it as a
gas pipe explosion. Furthermore the correspondent
adds ``It may be mentioned that several militant
groups operating from safe houses and camps in
Bangladesh for several years now under the
official patronage of the ISI. It is well known
that several top ULFA leaders have invested in
real estateS.``(emphasis added).
The information may or may not be false, but the
process of reporting clearly is flawed. It is
reporting at a distance- based on non verifiable
intelligence agencies inputs. The framing is
imbued with the correspondent`s prejudices vis a
vis the representation of the `extremists`, the
Bangla press and India - Bangladesh relations
under BNP government. The construction of
sequence of events and the suggestion and
motivation is taken directly from intelli-gence
sources. The implications of the public discourse
of suspect communities, especially of the Muslim
community, in the changing terms of a militarized
Hindu nation-alist discourse is fatally visible
in the polarised public sphere of Gujarat and the
carnage there. However, the national media
reportage of the Gujarat car-nage, its exposure
of state complicity in the violence and the
genocidal na-ture of the attacks on Muslims in
Gujarat- testifies to the possibility and
capacity of a non communal national print and
electronic media to contest the making of an
exclusivist Hindu nationalist public sphere. The
challenge is for the national media to withstand
the anti democratic militarist impulse justified
in the context of national security and the
paradigm
Digant Oza (Editor - Jal Seva)
B-1, Neeldeep Apt., Opp. Sandesh Press, Laad Society Road, Vastrapur.
Ahemdabad-380015.
MEDIA IS THE MEDIUM OF COMMUNAL ``KHAUF`` IN GUJARAT
by Digant Oza
``Are you sure it is safe to organize harmony
program with Ramkathakar Morari Bapu in Juhapura
(Ahmedabad) notorious as Mini Pakistan ? Vishwa
Hindu Parished and Hinduvavadis would allow it to
pass peacefully?
Was the question faced by the group of NGOs who
had ventured to organize an event to jointly
celebrate Dev Diwali, Idd and Guru Nanak Jayanti
on 26th of November in the so called ``Border``
across Juhapura and Vejalpur Areas of Ahmedabad.
It was a first step by a Hindu religious
celebrity to reach out to the minority
communities.
However, the gereral atmosphere in the city was
so created by earlier Media reporting that even
the activists themselves were not sure about the
outcome of what they had thoughtfully organized.
On 19th of Nov. Crime branch of Gujarat Police
told the local Court that there is No case
against pota lawyers and on 23rd Nov. the senior
Advocate H.N. Zala alsong with his juniors are
arrested. What does it mean? Is the crime branch
of Gujarat Police lying? Were they misleading the
Court while spreading reign of terror, was the
question in the minds of so many who were the
readers of Local Newspapers.
Needless to say that the POTA has been misused
ever since its enactment through out the country,
now it is the turn of lawyers to face the terror
of POTA, more particularly those who are
defending the accused under POTA. The arrest of
senior lawyer of Gujarat High Court H.N.Jhala and
his colleague Mustaq Ali Saiyed has sent a
shockwave in legal fraternity to Gujarat. It is a
threat to all lawyers defending POTA accused, and
yet print media went on publishing stories after
stories, without any crosschecking, which were
dished out by the crime branch of Gujarat police
to colour a senior Advocate as Anti-national and
Criminal Consperator.
The arrest of the lawyers under POTA is
absolutely unconstitutional, illegal, malafide
and aimed at terrorizing the legal fraternity and
therefore, we strongly condemn the arrest of the
lawyers under charges of POTA and demand their
immediate release and withdrawal of charges of
POTA said a communiqué by the same High Court
Advocate Association which till yesterday were
adopting resolution condemning supreme Court of
India for transferring Best Bakery case out side
Gujarat State.
Time and the compulsions of life have dissipated
the fires of hatred in Gujarat. But the editorial
ire of the English press is still raging,
prodding them to send squads of news dogs to
sniff relics of the old rivalry and report cases
of fresh villainy threatening what S Jaipal Reddy
pompously calls the secular fabric of the country
discovered by Jawaharlal Nehru. Every day, leader
writers, commentators and analysts remind the
reader of the real nature of our polity, our
society and our press. Obviously, their thirst
for bad news is unquenchable.
Riot after riot, the press repeats the
performance of our parliamentarians who stall
business in both Houses of Parliament to
prioritise religious issues. Like the sandhya
vandanam for the Brahmin, the editorial parrots
must chant the hate mantra every day.
Paradoxically, what troubles the English press
does not trouble the language press. Less
secular? Asked Dasu Krishnamoorty on the net
called rediff. It was April 26, 2002.
The media`s love for religion came in for
criticism by the Press Council of India, which
always included several leading journalists.
Pained by the new trend of conflictual
journalism, the Council pilloried the most
venerable English newspaper in the country and
its editor for its reporting of the Delhi riots
of 1984.
The, fundamental objective of journalism is to
serve the people with news, views, comments and
information on matters of public interest, in a
fair, accurate, unbiased, sober and decent
manner. Over the years, the press has become so
powerful that, it has soon acquired unique status
of ``Fourth Estate``. It is supposed to playa key
role and a crucial role of a watchdog, to see
that the other three institutions ``Legislature,
Executive, Judiciary`` function fairly within the
constitutional framework and serve the people for
whose welfare they were created said Justice K.
J. Reddy, at the ``Time of turmoil Godhra and
After`` while discussing the Role of Media at the
Inaugural function of Indian First Foundation on
April 6, 2002.
Justice Reddy further said, As a fourth organ the
press has also the responsibility (rather the
most important responsibility) to help build the
nation, to implement objectives of the
Constitution and to promote social justice and
equality, stability and unity and peace, progress
and happiness to the society at large. The
freedom that the media enjoys is the freedom for
and on behalf of the society. Media plays the
role of communicator and as such it has to inform
and not to misinform, dis-inform or non-inform
the people on issues of vital importance. It has
to educate, motivate, persuade and entertain.
They must have their fingers on the pulse of the
people and has a pious obligation not to
jeopardise or harm the welfare of the society.
Mahatma Gandhi said ``The newspaper/press is a
great power, but just as an unchained torrent of
water submerges the whole country side and
devastates crops even so an uncontrolled pen
serves but to destroy``.
In the midsts of the experiences of missing
social respon sibility of the media, One needs to
see the performance of Gujarat media in last
three years. Gujarat riots raised many issues.
Rakesh Gupta of center for political studies in
JNU, while discussing communalism asked several
questions thru Asianaffairs. Rakesh Gupta
questions : First, is India moving away from a
liberal political community, let alone liberal
democratic community, to a bizarre fascist
society and not the Anarchical Society that
Gandhi had visualized for the poor? Second, why
have those generations that were behind Sanatanic
but secular Gandhi failed to regenerate the same
Hindu ethos of tolerance, despite the caste
rigidity? Third, what has happened to the
different strata of Gujarati middle classes that
are mute spectators to this fearsome, diabolic
design and dance of death? Fourth, what is the
local media doing? Fifth, is this premeditated or
not? Sixth, what happened to the state of India,
its police and its army? Seventh, in the current
phase of globalized liberalization in India, who
needs endemic communal conflagration and to what
end? Eight, whatever happened to the morals and
ethics of a cultural milieu and the state is its
self-proclaimed purpose? Last but not the least,
what has happened to the constitutional right to
life? These issues relate to the matters of the
state, civil society, cultural communities,
citizenship and democracy. Answers to these
cannot be found in this brief exercise. But
Rakeshbhai should know that No one is bothered
about such issues, these days.
PUCL and Shanti Abhiyan, two NGO`s in Baroda
which undertook a brief analysis for the period
Feb 28 to March 24, 2002, gave a report under the
caption ``THE ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS DURING THE
GUJARAT CARNAGE`` in the report PUCL and Shanti
Abhiyan says, ``The purpose of our analysis was to
find out how the local press presented the riots
to the readers. The report further said :
``Gujarat has been ravaged by unprecedented
violence since 27th February sending shockwaves
all over the country. The spell of genocide that
followed the Godhra massacre have seen newspapers
playing a significant role in the long spiral of
violence. Shanti Abhiyan and PUCL (People`s Union
For Civil Liberties), two Baroda-based
organisations have been following the vernacular
press as well as the English newspapers to
analyse news reportage throughout this period.
Discussing the role of Local Newspapers the
report observed, ``According to our above
framework, the Gujarati newspaper Sandesh,
(Baroda) has crossed all limits of responsible
journalism and has been at its inflammatory best.
While it is difficult to give an exact
translation of the articles and news reports that
have appeared in the newspaper we have selected a
few reports and summarised them in
As Shanti Abhiyan and PUCL have formed a few
fact-finding teams, it has been possible for us
to compare facts unearthed during our field
visits with the news that has been reported.
The major characteristic of Sandesh, in the
period under review, has been to feed on the
prevalent anti-Muslim prejudices of its Hindu
readership and provoke it further by
sensationalising, twisting, mangling and
distorting news or what passes for it. The
average Hindu reader in Baroda feels that he is
getting value for money and `real` reportage`` the
report observes.
According to PUCL and Shanti Abhiyan on 6th March
the last page of Gujarat Samachar (Baroda
Edition) carried a report with the headline: THE
PLAN WAS TO TORCH THE WHOLE TRAIN, NOT JUST ONE
BOGEY. In yet another box item on last page a
report states that `a mob was ready for the
second attack.` The source of the information is
not mentioned. The question is how did the
reporter of a Vadodara based Newspaper knew what
was in the mind of people gathered on 27th
February 2002 at Godhra Railway Platform ?
The two NGO further reports : ``Sandesh`s sale has
reportedly fallen in recent times. It is
plausible that it has been resorting to
sensational and irresponsible reporting in a bid
to boost sales. Whether this is true or not,
Sandesh has consciously sought to project a
communalised version of events and inflicted
serious and long-term damage to a society already
fragmented along communal lines.``
As a rule, the mainline Gujarati dailies did not
print contradictions and clarifications given to
their inflammatory and half-truth reports. The
credit must go to the private TV networks which
brought the horror of the carnage let loose in
Gujarat to every home throughout India as
otherwise the people at large would not have
realised the gravity in the wake of Chief
Minister Narendra Modi issuing official
statements to deliberately underplay the shocking
violence.
Perhapes because of such behevier or the print
media well know historia. K.N. Panikar said at an
event celebrating the 125th anniversary of the
reputed daily ``HNIDU`` on increasing communalism
in the media. Panikkar warned of the increasing
acceptance and perceived respectability of
communalism, as well as its impact on the
rhetoric of nationalism:
Dr. Panikkar said that communalism had gained
legitimacy, often through crude and false
representations, as a result of which the popular
common sense about key concepts such as
nationalism and secularism were changing.
One of the several Paradoxes Gujarat of Gandhi is
facing to-day is that the citizens have lost the
voice of dissent and are silent against all the
injustices meted out to the Civil society in the
name of pride of Gujarat. Citizens of Gandhi`s
Gujarat do not have right to know and press is
not Free.
It was Gandhi who taught Gujarat and the country
to dissent, and have the courage to stand up for
it. It was from here that major national
movements took shape, and caught the imagination
of an entire generation. It was the courageous
journalist in Gandhi (of ``Harijanbandhu`` and
``Young India``) who pioneered the campaign for the
freedom of the press. He stood for these rights
when fellow countrymen were considered to be the
white man`s burden, and the dream of a free India
was nowhere in sight.
BETRAYAL OF SILENCE
Governance and the Media is not just about
Gujarat only. It is about all of us in the
context of a professedly multi -cultural society
which should conform to the constiutional
legitimacy of social, democratic puralist and
secular republic. Citizenry has to get its act
together and actively engage in the governance
process if these precepts are to be substantiated
by practice and not insidiously violated. The
events in Gujarat also clearly leave no room for
sitting on the fence. As Martin Luther King
pointed out long ago, `` A time comes when silence
is a betrayal.``
Public memory is notoriously short. This, coupled
with the lack of citizenry engagement has
contributed to lessons of the past being
consigned to the backburner, and history
repeating itself. Timely information,
communication, documentation and dissemination
can play a vital role in preventing mistakes of
the past from casting a long shadow. Media`s
role, both in terms of raising questions as well
as tracking events pertinent to governance, then,
assumes additional significance. It is against
this backdrop that the raison d`etre for the
current issue of this conference has taken shape.
Media is driven by communalism and Media is the
medium to spread communalism.
If irony had a synonym, it would be Gujarat. For,
today, the very same freedom, which Gandhi fought
and earned for the country is at stake. Infect,
like the father of the nation, respected
journalist Bill Moyers was also not exaggerating
when he told an audience that `the very soul of
democracy is at stake`. Gandhiji used to say that
suffering injustice is like commiting it. That is
what both media and the civil society busy with
in Gujarat to-day.
The field journalist has been virtually de-linked
from the editors-cum-owners of the media group
externally by a scheming political establishment,
which spends more time in studying the economic
dynamics of a running a newspaper vis-a-vis the
onslaught of 24-hour TV channels.
While this may be a trend catching up nationally,
the establishment in Gujarat goes one step ahead.
Having taken care of the owner-editors, the focus
is now on to clip the wings of the field
journalists, especially those covering the
government, which has juxtaposed the freedom of
the press as its own right to suppress the press.
Attempts are being made to ensure the reporters
covering the Secretariat go back in the evening
with an empty newsbag or are fed with
misinformation and disinformation.
DEPARTMENT OF CLARIFICATIONS
Different ways are being devised to frustrate
him. The government today has a section in its
Information Department whose job is to issue
clarifications and rejoinders to news reports on
a daily basis. The Chief Minister of Gujarat
spends more time in overseeing the press releases
of his functions, while the only department,
which seems to be `working` in the Gujarat
Government is the Information Department. What it
dishes out, as it was just mentioned, may be
both, `misinformation` as well as
`disinformation,` but you are disliked and
harassed if you dare say this.
Even political statements by the opposition
parties are replied back by the Information
Department of Government, along with the ruling
party. When one editor recently ``dared`` to ask
how could the government reply to the signed
press statement of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress
Committee president on his official letter-head,
it was treated like sacrilege. He lost government
advertisements for such a ``Gustakhi``.
IS GUJARAT READY FOR ANOTHER EMERGENCY ?
How would the Indian media react if the Emergency
were to be declared at midnight tonight, and if
the Freedom of Speech and Expression guaranteed
under Article 19 of the Constitution were to be
suspended?
If witch-hunts were launched against magazines
that refuse to parrot the establishment lineS. If
flimsy cases were foisted -- and dossiers built
up -- on pesky newspaper journalistsS If
trouble-making publications were so harassed that
they wouldn`t be able to function much less
surviveS If foreign correspondents were summarily
ordered to leave the country for filing
not-so-glowing reportsS If television channels
were banned for showing the other side of a
storyS If small newspapers were dis-empanelled so
that they wouldn`t receive government advertisingS
The good news is that it is a hypothetical
question. The brazenness (and the eventual
electoral backfiring) of Indira Gandhi`s
Emergency is still too fresh in the minds of our
political masters to attempt a similar
misadventure 29 years later. The bad news is that
a subtler, more sophisticated method of muzzling
the media has been mastered by the BJP-led
National Democratic Alliance government.
Each of the `Emergency` possibilities listed
above -- and each of which had the votaries of
Free Speech up in arms in 1975 -- has been (or is
being) played out in news and board rooms across
the country without so much as a squeak in
protest. More so in Gujarat. Guess who is the
loser.
As Former B.J.P. Minister Arun Jaitley once wrote
under the caption : ``Nazi priestess``, ``The German
Constitution was envisaged as one of the most
liberal constitutions in the world. Yet one man
motivated by the desire for personal dictatorial
power subverted it and presented to the world one
of the most disgraceful authoritarian regimes in
history. This man was Adolf Hitler.
How did he do this? He used the constitutional
provisions to declare a state of emergency. He
imposed censorship on the newspapers. He detained
his political opponents. He crushed all dissent.
He inspired the persecution of those he was not
prepared to suffer. He generated an environment
of terror and sycophancy.
And why did he do all this? ``To make Germany a
powerful nation,`` he claimed. To legitimise this
he announced a 25-point economic programme. He
claimed that it was discipline that he was
imposing, that it was the hallmark of the system.
Even Mussolini had claimed in Italy that the
effect of Fascism was that `trains were running
on time`. One of Hitler`s Nazi colleagues had
proclaimed: ``Adolf Hitler is Germany and Germany
is Adolf Hitler. He who swears allegiance to
Hitler swears allegiance to Germany.``
How is the todays Gujarat scenario is any
different? If personal political position of
present chief minister is threatened, one is to
belive that is was insult of Five crore
Gujaratis, and attack on pride of Gujarat. In
other words ``Narendra Modi is Gujarat and Gujarat
is Narendra Modi``.
As Arun Jaitley wrote about Emergency (1975),
every dishonest protagonist of the
``Mini-Emergency`` (Courtesy former CM Keshubhai
Patel) would argue that it was to save the state
from anarchy and to impose descipline on
democracy and save the interests of majority
community. The honest truth is very much to the
contrary.
Newspapers, magazines, television channels,
web-zinesS a peevish and paranoid by those who
had amended the constitution in favour of Civil
liberties, has clicked a perverse `convergence`
of punishment. They are the one who wants POTO in
any form to be operationable, it not nationally,
atleast within Gujarat.
Remember Thomas Jefferson? `I would prefer a free
press without a government than a government
without a free press.`
Censorship in one way or another has always been
there. But, in Gujarat it seems to have acquired
draconian dimension. When it comes to media there
are number of instances which prove this point.
Censorship is generally at the other end. At the
place where information is being used. But the
Gujarat government has its innovative concept.
Check the free flow of information. So no problem
of `moral` policing at the user`s end. Put the
media at tenterhooks using all possible legal
(and Not so legal) means. Apparently it may sound
an exercise to clean the system, in reality it
turns out to be bashing by so called legal baton
without any legal sanctity to it. You may be
slapped a legal case to give the impression that
action is right. But a case on false premises or
illogical grounds can serve only one purpose. To
harass you. And that is what is happening in
Gujarat.
Here are some examples of what the media in
general and hapless Secretariat reporter in
Gandhinagar (Gujarat) particular, suffers and
stoically takes in his stride. The examples are
self evident :
DENIAL OF PRESS ACCESS :
If accreditation meant access, it is denied to
journalists in Gujarat. It has been 10 months
since the government has kept in abeyance
issuance of the new press accreditation cards to
journalists, while renewals are being given on a
provisional basis for a couple of months unlike
for a year as has been the practice all over the
country. All this is being done in the name of
framing a new media policy, which nobody knows
when would be finalised. There has been a
practice of issuing accreditation cards to
``Veteran Journalists`` in recognition of their
life-long services to the profession. They have
even been denied the respect of a renewal. If you
ask anyone in the government informally, he will
tell you, ``We are giving the cards and even
renewing it. Please come we will renew your
card.`` Which never happens and I know this from
personal experience. Insiders say the Chief
Minister has a special hatred for a couple of the
`Veterans`, so everyone must suffer.
Needless to say the accreditation is required for
security purposes as well as basic facilities of
moving in government departments and talking to
responsible officers.
Information department officials say the
government feels the need to weed out
``undesirable and corrupt journalists`` and deny
them the cards. There is already a set of norms
to provide the cards, but nobody in the
government would admit that it is neither being
monitored nor implemented. There is a special
committee, including senior journalists, to
verify and decide whom to give the card. The
norms are being violated by people from within
the government and not by the committee. If you
know a minister or MLA from your area, you can
get a card and you need a minister only if you
are an ``undesirable and corrupt journalist`` not
measuring up to the norms.
World over, governments and their spin surgeons
want a rosy picture to be painted in the media
regardless of everything. So, the BJP-led
government, which essentially believes in
governance by media management, cannot be accused
of doing something that others elsewhere have
not. But it is the method that exposes the
madness that has gripped its media-minders.
It is a different question as to what are the
professional bodies -- the Editors` Guild, the
Indian Newspaper Society, Journalist Association
etc. doing to ensure that media professionals are
not completely stripped and paraded naked for the
cardinal crime we are committing of carrying the
message?
And What is the role of institutions like
National Minority Commission and National Human
Right Commission in safe guarding the Civil
liberties of Fifty million Gujaratis.
PRESS (AB)BUS:
For the last almost two decades, media
representatives were traveling 28 km to and fro
Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in a government bus.
The present Chief Minister stopped this facility
on the pretext that most media publications now
have representatives in the State capital. Of
course, he has not bothered to inform the Press
about this reason and it was only after a
correspondent inquired that he was told about it
by an official. And this is how I also know it.
But this argument doesn`t work when the Press bus
operates on Wednesdays.
The fact is the Chief Minister doesn`t like the
sight of prying journalists, who refuse to be
spoon-fed. From the rest, he has a selected band
of loyalists who can take a mouthful from him
and still won`t mind eating his lunches.
Recently, a rumour was systematically spread that
the Chief Minister was to hold a press
conference, a rare event in itself. Usually, such
conferences are held with a proper invitation, so
those who had not got it wondered and started
inquiring. They were told, ``There is no press
conference, the Chief Minister wishes to meet
some selected journalists over lunch.`` How many
do you assume could be selected journalists?
Four, five, six? There were some 25 of them.
THE SECRETARIAT PRESS ROOM:
The PRESSROOM in the Sachivalaya has been locked.
Reporters have NO Place to work even if they
happen to reach Gandhinagar on their own, i.e.
without a state Government Vehicle. The entry to
non-accredited journalists has been prohibited,
while even those having the cards cannot enter if
they have committed the sin of forgetting it.
THE INACCESSIBLE CHIEF MINISTER:
The Chief Minister simply does not meet the
press, especially if you have written even one
piece against him. The customary post-Cabinet
meeting press briefing is generally not held. And
when rarely held, spokesmen of government will
not entertain questions with an air that you have
to write what has been handed out to you.
If you want to start a new publication and want
to file a fresh declaration what you need to do,
anywhere in the country baring Gujarat, is to
approach the district magistrate and apply in
prescribed profile with five suggestive names in
order of priority, than it is forwarded to the
office of registrar of Newspapers in Delhi for
further action. But Gujarat is an exemption your
papers will not be forwarded to Delhi unless
there is a positive report about the applicant
from Local Police Station. It is innovation for
gagging up the media even before its birth.
The Present Chief Minister is not accessible to
media in general and reporters in particular. The
organization called `Gujarat Dainik Akhbar Sangh`
( having membership of Gujarat dailies excluding
Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh ) which has a
history of having meetings with all the previous
Chief Ministers were deprived of a dialogue with
Modi till recently. Both Bhupat Vadodaria and
Ramu Patel, the past and present presidents of
Gujarat Dainik Akhbar Sangh requested for a
formal meeting with Modi, but in vain. However,
after it was presented at national level the
Chief-Minister had a formal meeting only last
month. Similarly, no access to any media person,
no dialogue with media person - All this in the
name of security.
Since Narendra Modi took over, his ministers do
not meet press. Though none admits, it is a fact
no minister is allowed to speak to press without
his permission. And his permission is rare. The
formal periodical News conferences, which are
denied more then they are organized, are a time
bound affair but they are invariably declared
over, even while reporters have just started
putting their questions.
As a result of this, even senior bureaucrats not
only run away at the sight of journalists but
they seek ``on Deputation`` transfer outside the
state. The overall effect of this style of
functioning is of censorship at the source. So
there is no need to go for open censorship.
A senior correspondent of a Gandhinagar based
daily once asked a rather longish question in one
of the rare news conferences of NAMO (as the
present CM is popularly addressed) and the
prompt reply came from Chief Minister, ``Tamaru
Chapun to nanu che ane Saval avado moto`` (your
Newspaper is small and you are asking such a long
question). The question was, however, not
answered.
ADVERTISEMENTS ARE SOURCE OF INFERMATION
Advertisements to newspapers have been reduced to
minimum while cases have been slapped against
number of newspapers on all kind of grounds. In
one of its judgements, the Court felt that
Government Advertisements are also a source of
information apart from income, but the Modi
Govt. denies these sources to all those
newspapers that the Chief Minister does not like.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu
organisation were publishing handbills suggesting
economic boycott of the minority during the
post-Godhra period in the year 2002, Similarly
the state Government puts economic sanction on
the Newspaper, to gag them. Gujarat Samachar got
the Govt. Advts. restored through a court order
and at present they are fighting a legal battle
for the compensation for loss of Advt. during the
period of stoppage. Jai Hind has filed a case in
Gujarat High Court. Rajasthan Patrika is before
Press Council of India, another Gujarati daily,
Divya Bhaskar, is yet to see Govt. Advts. in
their columns even after 15 months of its
existence. Both Rajasthan Patrika and Divya
Bhaskar are considered pro-BJP newspapers but
their guilt is that they are not toeing the
present CM`s line. One newspaper rented out a
part of the building it had constructed on land
bought from government in special category and it
was charged with commercial use of the building .
A case was filed against a newspaper that had
bought a piece of land at a concessional rate in
the special category. The charge was that it did
not construct the building in the specific time
frame. The fact was that the newspaper had to
revise its building plan to meet post-Kutch
earthquake requirements. Though the paper won
the legal battle, the purpose of the government
was to terrorise with a kind of censorship that
is perpetrated against the non-accommodative
newspapers and journalists every day.
Notices for closure of newspapers are issued on
technical and legal grounds even when the point
involved is some thing like informing the
Magistrate about a change of editor or print.
The CM invites a team of selected journalists by
name for official briefing over lunch; something
never done in the past. He manages to get
invitations for the inaugural flight of Air India
for journalists of his choice. Certainly it was a
move to reward his own men in the media and at
the same time a move to create rift among
journalists by a policy of carrot and stick.
However, a national level controversy over the
issue led to cancellation of freebies to the
select journalists.
CENSORING OTHER MEDIA
Censorship today doesn`t necessarily need a pair
of scissors. It can be done by the click of a
button. Police across Gujarat, apparently on the
orders from the government in Gandhinagar, is
using its powers to gag the electronic media.
News channels across Gujarat, which were giving a
blow-by-blow account of the riots, blinked off
the television screens in several cities as the
police silenced certain channels.
On that fateful Saturday during the riots,
Ahmedabadis were cut off from the world in more
ways than one. Forced inside their homes for the
third consecutive day, desperate attempts of the
people to know what was happening in the city
were met with blank screens as the state
government blocked all satellite news channels
from beaming into city homes.
Exercising special powers, the then city police
commissioner PC Pande issued notices to cable
operators in the city, directing them to block
all programmes that could incite violence, enmity
between two communities and disrupt law and order
situation in the city. Those not adhering to the
directive would be subject to punishment, the
notice said.
Following the same, all three news channels were
pulled off air early morning by most cable
operators. Blank screens irked residents no end
who were depending on the news channels to
provide them with updates on the situation in the
city.
In Vadodara, Star News channel was blocked, while
authorities in Surat blocked two local channels -
MY TV and Channel Surat. In Rajkot, the then
police commissioner Upendra Singh directed cable
operators to block Star News and four local news
channels. He also banned publication of special
supplements of three local Gujarati eveningers.
Most of the control rooms in the city received
phone calls from the collector`s office to black
out Star News, Zee News, CNN and Aaj Tak,`` said
president of the Ahmedabad Cable Operator`s
Association Pramod Pandya.
According to the then Surat police commissioner
Vineet Gupta, directives had been issued to all
cable operators to refrain from showing anything
which was provocative. ``We directed them not to
show anything which could flare up communal
sentiments or cause a law and order problem,``
Gupta said. (A legal explanation of the
censorship.)
How can they black out the news channels when
news is what we need the most, Vipul Patel, a
resident of Manekbaug in Ahmedabad asked. An
inquiry made to his cable operator revealed that
the cable network hub near Dharnidhar Derasar has
been set on fire; so restoring the service would
take time.
Interestingly, most resident felt that blacking
out news channels was actually more damaging as
people then had no option but to rely on rumours.
``We are not getting the news channels.
Withholding information will only backfire as we
would be forced to believe in rumours that are
flying thick and fast``, says Jigna Shah of
Shahpur in Ahmedabad.
``We pay Rs 200 per month for cable services but
in the critical time when we need to know local
news, we are not getting the news channels. Right
to information is a basic right. How can anyone
snatch that right away from us,`` quizzed Shyam
Sundar of Vejalpur (Ahmedabad).
Cable service providers when contacted confessed
that they had received official notice ordering
to discontinue showing news channels in Gujarat
till the riots were fully controlled.
We need to sit up in alarm at what`s happening
because even as recently as the POTO standoff,
the Law Commission was cited by the very people
who have the least regard for it, to tell us that
the rights and privileges of a pressman in India
are no different from the rights and privileges
of an ordinary citizen of India. If the media,
with all its power and reach, can be treated with
such disdain; if the media is not free to report
what it sees and hears, unhindered; if the media
is not free to seek accountability from the
government of the day, how free is the ordinary
citizen we serve? And how free is the democracy
that hosts us all?
Mahatma Gandhi fired the imagination of people
with his non-cooperation movement. In his
Gujarat, the voice of dissent is dubbed
anti-Gujarat. It is an insult to 50 million
Gujaratis, the figure has not changed even after
the 2001 census.
In her paper for South Asia Forum for Human
Rights entitled as ``Militarized Hindu Nationalism
and the Mass Media`` Rita Manchanda wrote in May
2002 : `` The unsubstantiated statements of
political leaders reported by the media damn the
Muslims as ISI agents and the madrassas as hot
beds of terrorist subversion. For example,
fFormer Rajasthan Chief Minister, Bhairon Singh
Shekhawat`s claimed at a press conference that
12,000 ISI agents were operating in the border
districts of Rajasthan. The Hindu ( Jan 13, 2001)
reported his statement that `traitors` (Muslims)
who had helped the Pakistani army in 1965 and
1971 were active again. He ``alleged`` that 240
madrassas operating in the border areas were the
hot beds of fanaticism and Pakistani agents were
teaching there. There is no substantiation of his
claim. The report does carry an editorial
qualification - that this is the first instance
of Muslims in Rajasthan being accused of
cooperating with the ISI and assisting Pakistan
in the wars.
In the forth chapter of here paper Rita Manchanda
discusses ``The State of Siege & The Enemy Within``
In this final section, I want to essentially
focus on how the `India, a state of siege`
syndrome is worked through the media becoming an
accomplice of the intelligence agencies. Sections
of the mass media are implicated in representing
the privileged perspectives of the intelligence
agencies as established facts using phrases which
have come to be a classic of journalese -`said to
be`. Whether it is the reportage of north east
conflicts, the recent Indo Bangaldesh border
crisis (See Himal Magazine May 2001 )or the
activities of the ubiquitous ISI-RAW networks,
privileged perspectives - read derived from
intelligence agency sources -are camouflaged as
fact.
Take a recent TOI Guwahati datelined story `N-E
Rebels die in blast at Banga tryst` which reports
a bloodbath in a Bangladesh hotel claiming
several lives of representatives of extremist
outfits of the northeast, resulting from a fall
out between rebel groups. On the basis of unnamed
`reliable sources` we are informed of a meeting
in the Shah hotel somewhere on `Bangladeshi
soil`. Reliable sources`` are quoted that 15
`extremists` were injured and several succumbed,
though the exact number or names not known. The
new Bangladesh government is trying to hush it
up, it is said. Reports in the Bangladesh press
-Dainik Inqualab -obligingly described it as a
gas pipe explosion. Furthermore the correspondent
adds ``It may be mentioned that several militant
groups operating from safe houses and camps in
Bangladesh for several years now under the
official patronage of the ISI. It is well known
that several top ULFA leaders have invested in
real estateS.``(emphasis added).
The information may or may not be false, but the
process of reporting clearly is flawed. It is
reporting at a distance- based on non verifiable
intelligence agencies inputs. The framing is
imbued with the correspondent`s prejudices vis a
vis the representation of the `extremists`, the
Bangla press and India - Bangladesh relations
under BNP government. The construction of
sequence of events and the suggestion and
motivation is taken directly from intelli-gence
sources. The implications of the public discourse
of suspect communities, especially of the Muslim
community, in the changing terms of a militarized
Hindu nation-alist discourse is fatally visible
in the polarised public sphere of Gujarat and the
carnage there. However, the national media
reportage of the Gujarat car-nage, its exposure
of state complicity in the violence and the
genocidal na-ture of the attacks on Muslims in
Gujarat- testifies to the possibility and
capacity of a non communal national print and
electronic media to contest the making of an
exclusivist Hindu nationalist public sphere. The
challenge is for the national media to withstand
the anti democratic militarist impulse justified
in the context of national security and the
paradigm
Digant Oza (Editor - Jal Seva)
B-1, Neeldeep Apt., Opp. Sandesh Press, Laad Society Road, Vastrapur.
Ahemdabad-380015.
#144 Posted by omar_r_quraishi on December 21, 2004 6:40:50 am
no but i certainly have it figured what this delhi bear is up to
#143 Posted by ballukhan on December 21, 2004 6:40:50 am
Funny.....after raising the rabble the author refrains from providing the ``correct`` contextualization that he wanted to give to this film.................may be he wants it to be released as a `A` with `PG` for all the adults above 30 years of age.....and not to be shown in rural areas....to be screened in PVR-s only...........or perhaps...to be seen only by any one with a Phd in Social Psychology???
#142 Posted by ballukhan on December 21, 2004 6:40:50 am
Funny.....after raising the rabble the author refrains from providing the ``correct`` contextualization that he wanted to give to this film.................may be he wants it to be released as a `A` with `PG` for all the adults above 30 years of age.....and not to be shown in rural areas....to be screened in PVR-s only...........or perhaps...to be seen only by any one with a Phd in Social Psychology???
#141 Posted by DilipD on December 21, 2004 6:40:50 am
Rahul #128: You ask Has the media got any opinion on why did Gothra and Ahmedabad take place?
I don’t know about the media, but I suppose I have some opinions. Godhra: I don’t really know why Godhra took place. It’s not even clear exactly what happened and how, though our creaking investigative machinery should have tried to tell us by now. I know of some independent (and credible) efforts to find out.
That said, I’ve spoken to some victims – one who lost family in that carriage, one who was in the carriage with family and managed to jump out – and have some idea for myself of what was going on. They would rather I didn’t write about it, so I respect that.
The rest of Gujarat: it happened because many people decided that a horrible crime by some criminals who were Muslim warranted lashing out at hundreds of innocent Muslims. This feeling of collective guilt is not unique to Gujarat 2002.
dost-mittar #129: I had nothing to do with Swades, actually! But I think it is a good film, so see it and let me know what you think.
As for copouts, if you say so. Let me repeat my only point: not one Muslim I have met, including some who stoned us in Ahmedabad, said Godhra was justified. In contrast, plenty of Hindus have told me the subsequent violence was justified. I’m unable to see what’s the copout here, but as I said, if you say so.
The leftist theories: whether you like it or not, what happened in Godhra has never been satisfactorily explained. There are people trying to investigate and find out. Their being leftist or not is irrelevant to their efforts.
temporal #130: Thanks for pointer. Habit, I don’t know. Let’s see how it goes.
Yousuf #131: Indeed our society is complex. That’s just why there are no short-cuts. The fact that a discussion of your article about Khamosh Pani has evolved to opinions on Godhra is an indication of that. Which is fine with me. Discussing our differences is a damned sight better than acting on them as too many of us did in Godhra and elsewhere. I don’t know about you, but I don’t much want to be “lulled” from the violence.
sadna #132: It always happens. I mention that I visited Gujarat, and someone pops up to ask ``Could you visit Godhra too?`` I mention that I have, and that someone pops up to ask something else, for example “What are the socio-economic conditions in which the Godhra accused lived?” Answer that, and the question changes again. By now, after years answering readers, I’ve learned what this is: a search for the question to which I will say “No, I have not”, which is the “Aha” moment for the questioner.
So I know some bits and pieces in response to some of your queries, I don’t know the others. I would suggest that if you want answers to them all, you should go visit Godhra and ask for yourself. This is not a facetious suggestion. It’s sort of on the lines of what I did, which got me some of those bits and pieces of information.
I have no interest in putting you on the defensive or anywhere. I do, however, wanna know about realism from the movies.
mohar #134: Why should a muslim say Godhra was justified? At the minimum - it`s counter-intuitive.
Really? Why so counter-intuitive? After all, as I have said a couple of times already, plenty of Hindus told me the rest of the killing in Gujarat was justified. Didn’t seem counter-intuitive to them.
Ankit #136: Leftists have this notion of having been blessed with intellectualism
So what’s this all about, some sour-grapes yearning to also be blessed with intellectualism? Take it from me: you’re an intellectual.
nikki #138: The only shame that I can see around here, actually, is the stuff that you’re liberally plastering all over yourself with your postings.
Veeresh #140: As you know well, I can match your “you should have seen”s with my own “you should have seen”s! Bias is where you see it, where you want to see it. Me, I draw my conclusions from the fact that leftists see a rightist bias in the media and rightists see a leftist bias in the media – and my conclusion is that, by and large, the press sort of evens out.
As for the statement about Muslims condemning Godhra being fine and dandy in isolation, of course it is. After all, I also know of Muslims who were “proud” of the Bombay bomb blasts of March ’93, that they were “justified” by the preceding riots in Bombay. Is that statement fine and dandy in isolation? To me, it was every bit as repulsive as the Hindus I’ve now mentioned thrice who told me the killings in Gujarat were justified.
What this has to do with what happens in mosques, perhaps you’ll tell me over that rum you’ve long promised me.
But while I haven’t been to Friday prayers (only because I do my best to stay away from all religious places), the stuff you heard there sounds to me not a whole lot different from the stuff I have heard from the mouths of various defenders of Hinduism: you know, Sena, VHP, BD, BJP etc. I have copies of leaflets from Gujarat, for example, that are every bit as disgusting as what you heard in those mosques.
Where does all this leave us?
I don’t know. But my hope is that debates like this will eventually move beyond “your religion has these bad things”, answered by “well, yours has these others.” There are plenty of ordinary Hindus and Muslims, Pakistanis and Indians, simply going about their lives and not wanting to either feel victimized or point fingers or superior. Not necessarily “good” people, just ordinary people. My hope is that we might learn that they, too, characterize their religions/countries.
I don’t know about the media, but I suppose I have some opinions. Godhra: I don’t really know why Godhra took place. It’s not even clear exactly what happened and how, though our creaking investigative machinery should have tried to tell us by now. I know of some independent (and credible) efforts to find out.
That said, I’ve spoken to some victims – one who lost family in that carriage, one who was in the carriage with family and managed to jump out – and have some idea for myself of what was going on. They would rather I didn’t write about it, so I respect that.
The rest of Gujarat: it happened because many people decided that a horrible crime by some criminals who were Muslim warranted lashing out at hundreds of innocent Muslims. This feeling of collective guilt is not unique to Gujarat 2002.
dost-mittar #129: I had nothing to do with Swades, actually! But I think it is a good film, so see it and let me know what you think.
As for copouts, if you say so. Let me repeat my only point: not one Muslim I have met, including some who stoned us in Ahmedabad, said Godhra was justified. In contrast, plenty of Hindus have told me the subsequent violence was justified. I’m unable to see what’s the copout here, but as I said, if you say so.
The leftist theories: whether you like it or not, what happened in Godhra has never been satisfactorily explained. There are people trying to investigate and find out. Their being leftist or not is irrelevant to their efforts.
temporal #130: Thanks for pointer. Habit, I don’t know. Let’s see how it goes.
Yousuf #131: Indeed our society is complex. That’s just why there are no short-cuts. The fact that a discussion of your article about Khamosh Pani has evolved to opinions on Godhra is an indication of that. Which is fine with me. Discussing our differences is a damned sight better than acting on them as too many of us did in Godhra and elsewhere. I don’t know about you, but I don’t much want to be “lulled” from the violence.
sadna #132: It always happens. I mention that I visited Gujarat, and someone pops up to ask ``Could you visit Godhra too?`` I mention that I have, and that someone pops up to ask something else, for example “What are the socio-economic conditions in which the Godhra accused lived?” Answer that, and the question changes again. By now, after years answering readers, I’ve learned what this is: a search for the question to which I will say “No, I have not”, which is the “Aha” moment for the questioner.
So I know some bits and pieces in response to some of your queries, I don’t know the others. I would suggest that if you want answers to them all, you should go visit Godhra and ask for yourself. This is not a facetious suggestion. It’s sort of on the lines of what I did, which got me some of those bits and pieces of information.
I have no interest in putting you on the defensive or anywhere. I do, however, wanna know about realism from the movies.
mohar #134: Why should a muslim say Godhra was justified? At the minimum - it`s counter-intuitive.
Really? Why so counter-intuitive? After all, as I have said a couple of times already, plenty of Hindus told me the rest of the killing in Gujarat was justified. Didn’t seem counter-intuitive to them.
Ankit #136: Leftists have this notion of having been blessed with intellectualism
So what’s this all about, some sour-grapes yearning to also be blessed with intellectualism? Take it from me: you’re an intellectual.
nikki #138: The only shame that I can see around here, actually, is the stuff that you’re liberally plastering all over yourself with your postings.
Veeresh #140: As you know well, I can match your “you should have seen”s with my own “you should have seen”s! Bias is where you see it, where you want to see it. Me, I draw my conclusions from the fact that leftists see a rightist bias in the media and rightists see a leftist bias in the media – and my conclusion is that, by and large, the press sort of evens out.
As for the statement about Muslims condemning Godhra being fine and dandy in isolation, of course it is. After all, I also know of Muslims who were “proud” of the Bombay bomb blasts of March ’93, that they were “justified” by the preceding riots in Bombay. Is that statement fine and dandy in isolation? To me, it was every bit as repulsive as the Hindus I’ve now mentioned thrice who told me the killings in Gujarat were justified.
What this has to do with what happens in mosques, perhaps you’ll tell me over that rum you’ve long promised me.
But while I haven’t been to Friday prayers (only because I do my best to stay away from all religious places), the stuff you heard there sounds to me not a whole lot different from the stuff I have heard from the mouths of various defenders of Hinduism: you know, Sena, VHP, BD, BJP etc. I have copies of leaflets from Gujarat, for example, that are every bit as disgusting as what you heard in those mosques.
Where does all this leave us?
I don’t know. But my hope is that debates like this will eventually move beyond “your religion has these bad things”, answered by “well, yours has these others.” There are plenty of ordinary Hindus and Muslims, Pakistanis and Indians, simply going about their lives and not wanting to either feel victimized or point fingers or superior. Not necessarily “good” people, just ordinary people. My hope is that we might learn that they, too, characterize their religions/countries.
#140 Posted by veeresh on December 21, 2004 12:05:06 am
Omar/139 - in India, (and I suspect, also in many parts of non-Gulburger baba/baby log petting zoo Pakistan) dissent and disagreement between people is part of life. What Dilip says/writes does not impact anything else vis-a-vis many other people including me. What you are jumping up and down for is what I do not understand. And once and for all, please get the fable of the bear and the hunter correct. By the way, did you finally figure out who John Chiardi was?
nikki7777/138 - can you please stop generalising so much? You may have some points in your arguments, but do you have to foam and lather them so much? Do your fore-fathers remember when their caravan stopped wherever it did?
ysaeed/131 - it is called defending interjections nowadays. In the old days one could debate, pontificate and move on un-contested. Not anymore. Have you seen politicians squirming on television lately? So why not the media? Welcome to the new world of Internet, where you will have to defend your views if you want to propagate them on it.
And once again, while I thank you for your responses and do not mean to in any way belittle you by arguing with you, I do wish to state that I stand by what I said. And I also repeat that you, Sir, will have to accept that if you wish to succeed in any way whatsoever, you can not look down on your constituency, it is not your professional requirement as you stated.
Dilip/127 - you should have seen the write-ups I`ve seen during my stint with the Best of the Best that the PR companies have on media personalities in India which they then distribute to the vast variety of corporate and governmental clients who access and use these dossiers. According to them, even some of our right-wing journos are leftist, and I would take some names from MilliGazette as easily as from Pioneer. Nothing wrong with being lefitst, by the way, it all depends on where one sees the left from!
And for what it is worth, your statement about Muslims in India and elsewhere condemning Godhra is concerned is fine and dandy, viewed in isolation. Other people, in this case Hindus in India (as well as Jews and Christians and Sikhs and Jains and Ahmediyyas and Qadiyyanis and People Not Like Sunni Deobandis &c&c) are there to take stick when all else fails, sure.
But what happens during Friday prayers at a mosque not far from you as far as the rest of us Kafirs are concerned, Dilip? I have attended more Friday prayers with Muslim friends worldwide than I care to count, and only once did one of those Muslims have the gumption to stand up after prayers and challenge the leaders about the bit where the sermon goes on and on about how Islam needs to vanquish all others by any and all means possible and how the religion is served best by insulting kufr and kafir? But yeah, man, the Muslims you met were all very sad and contemplative about Godhra. Sure, they told you (and me) what they wanted us to hear.
``al-Shara` tahat al-sait`` can mean many things. One version is that this is about the Sharia, does not impact others, so let them go about their business. The version I hear stresses on this ``Allah has commanded his Prophet to command you wage jihad against infidels, and be harsh with them. The glory of Islam consists of the annihilation, humiliation and degradation of infidels.``
So a few nodding heads, left, right or centre, do not impact realities.
But I don`t see the author of the article objecting to daily entreatities by others to annihilate others. I do see the author, however, getting all ruffled up about a film and its financiers!!
nikki7777/138 - can you please stop generalising so much? You may have some points in your arguments, but do you have to foam and lather them so much? Do your fore-fathers remember when their caravan stopped wherever it did?
ysaeed/131 - it is called defending interjections nowadays. In the old days one could debate, pontificate and move on un-contested. Not anymore. Have you seen politicians squirming on television lately? So why not the media? Welcome to the new world of Internet, where you will have to defend your views if you want to propagate them on it.
And once again, while I thank you for your responses and do not mean to in any way belittle you by arguing with you, I do wish to state that I stand by what I said. And I also repeat that you, Sir, will have to accept that if you wish to succeed in any way whatsoever, you can not look down on your constituency, it is not your professional requirement as you stated.
Dilip/127 - you should have seen the write-ups I`ve seen during my stint with the Best of the Best that the PR companies have on media personalities in India which they then distribute to the vast variety of corporate and governmental clients who access and use these dossiers. According to them, even some of our right-wing journos are leftist, and I would take some names from MilliGazette as easily as from Pioneer. Nothing wrong with being lefitst, by the way, it all depends on where one sees the left from!
And for what it is worth, your statement about Muslims in India and elsewhere condemning Godhra is concerned is fine and dandy, viewed in isolation. Other people, in this case Hindus in India (as well as Jews and Christians and Sikhs and Jains and Ahmediyyas and Qadiyyanis and People Not Like Sunni Deobandis &c&c) are there to take stick when all else fails, sure.
But what happens during Friday prayers at a mosque not far from you as far as the rest of us Kafirs are concerned, Dilip? I have attended more Friday prayers with Muslim friends worldwide than I care to count, and only once did one of those Muslims have the gumption to stand up after prayers and challenge the leaders about the bit where the sermon goes on and on about how Islam needs to vanquish all others by any and all means possible and how the religion is served best by insulting kufr and kafir? But yeah, man, the Muslims you met were all very sad and contemplative about Godhra. Sure, they told you (and me) what they wanted us to hear.
``al-Shara` tahat al-sait`` can mean many things. One version is that this is about the Sharia, does not impact others, so let them go about their business. The version I hear stresses on this ``Allah has commanded his Prophet to command you wage jihad against infidels, and be harsh with them. The glory of Islam consists of the annihilation, humiliation and degradation of infidels.``
So a few nodding heads, left, right or centre, do not impact realities.
But I don`t see the author of the article objecting to daily entreatities by others to annihilate others. I do see the author, however, getting all ruffled up about a film and its financiers!!
#139 Posted by omar_r_quraishi on December 20, 2004 11:24:54 pm
shri veeresh jee -- here is an indian journalist disagreeing with you on your characterization of indian media being dominated by leftists -- i thought as much as well -- so much for one more flimsy unsubstantiated argument by the bear -- when will he ever learn
#138 Posted by nikki7777 on December 20, 2004 8:59:15 pm
=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts
view this users filtered interacts
#137 Posted by arjun_m on December 20, 2004 4:25:11 pm
=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts
view this users filtered interacts
#136 Posted by ankit on December 20, 2004 1:20:09 pm
``The rest of the crowd here are trying to make him see the horizon, which will eventually prove to be a futile excercise. ``
I agree. Leftists have this notion of having been blessed with intellectualism, or whatever. Some kind of superior race theory.
It is also a hogwash to say that these ppl want free flow of ideas. The leftist flagbearer Outlook recently came out with a piece where they asked why Ram Madhav ( RSS spokesman) was `allowed` to speak in some US universities. Guess that is their notion of free flow of ideas.
``It`s about the chicaney practiced by media by papering over muslim fundamentalism. ``
Absolutely. If the media has a bias, and nurtures communalists of one group, it shares the largest blame as the principal opinion maker of the society.
I agree. Leftists have this notion of having been blessed with intellectualism, or whatever. Some kind of superior race theory.
It is also a hogwash to say that these ppl want free flow of ideas. The leftist flagbearer Outlook recently came out with a piece where they asked why Ram Madhav ( RSS spokesman) was `allowed` to speak in some US universities. Guess that is their notion of free flow of ideas.
``It`s about the chicaney practiced by media by papering over muslim fundamentalism. ``
Absolutely. If the media has a bias, and nurtures communalists of one group, it shares the largest blame as the principal opinion maker of the society.
#135 Posted by stuka on December 20, 2004 12:10:57 pm
131:
Yes, your point was well understood and it is valid. Don`t be put off by the belittling. Its normal.
Yes, your point was well understood and it is valid. Don`t be put off by the belittling. Its normal.
#134 Posted by ysaeed on December 20, 2004 11:29:22 am
I was put off from this discussion due to the amount of time we waste on misunderstanding and belittling each other, but have been tempted once again to make a last ditch attempt to clarify myself:
- Let me say it the ten-thousandth time that I am not stopping anybody to watch any film (I never said that). I AM AGAINST CENSORSHIP. AND I LOVE DEMOCRACY. I am only talking about putting things in context. And I am not dictating anything - only expressing a dilemma. (if I wanted to stop people from watching this film, I shouldn`t have written this kind of review on Chowk - a large number of people told me they saw the film because of my write-up. Sabiha Sumer must be grateful to me).
- My write-up is not only about Khamosh Pani - it may apply on many other films or situations
- I am not looking down on any `constituency`. I am talking about `audience` from the media`s perspective, just as a doctor would talk about his patients, a shopkeeper would talk about his cleints, or a teacher about his students. Its a part of my job - nothing Brahmanical about it. One has to understand one`s `client` before `serving` them favourably. So, it is my professional requirement to `look down` on my constituency, if you please.
- Mass media is POWER, and with power comes responsibility. And if the media can play positive roles such as resolving conflicts, breaking stereotypes, healing bruises, reducing prejudices, bridging gaps, and so on, what`s wrong with that. Of course exposing the fundamentalists is also required. And nobody should stop from doing so. But I hope we know that local newspaper and TV did play a negative role (besides positive) in much of the communal violence in south Asia, and continue to do so. Should we be proud of their freedom?
- Yes we should expose our dark past and present (instead of suppressing it) and debate it openly and `get it out of the system` as someome suggested here. But at this rate, these things will never get out of the system. Our society is toooo complex to debate and resolve anything in a jiffy. This is just a chowk with 150 odd people bent upon misunderstanding and belittling each other. Imagine 1.5 billion south Asians discussing these issues - we won`t reach anywhere until eternity. So are there any short-cut ways to at least live with each other peacefuly. Can media play a role in that? That`s all I asked.
- One last mundane wish/suggestion: since the news channels/reality TV is telling us the BAD NEWS in any case, maybe our fiction/art could tell us some GOOD NEWS, to lull us from the violence?
Yousuf
- Let me say it the ten-thousandth time that I am not stopping anybody to watch any film (I never said that). I AM AGAINST CENSORSHIP. AND I LOVE DEMOCRACY. I am only talking about putting things in context. And I am not dictating anything - only expressing a dilemma. (if I wanted to stop people from watching this film, I shouldn`t have written this kind of review on Chowk - a large number of people told me they saw the film because of my write-up. Sabiha Sumer must be grateful to me).
- My write-up is not only about Khamosh Pani - it may apply on many other films or situations
- I am not looking down on any `constituency`. I am talking about `audience` from the media`s perspective, just as a doctor would talk about his patients, a shopkeeper would talk about his cleints, or a teacher about his students. Its a part of my job - nothing Brahmanical about it. One has to understand one`s `client` before `serving` them favourably. So, it is my professional requirement to `look down` on my constituency, if you please.
- Mass media is POWER, and with power comes responsibility. And if the media can play positive roles such as resolving conflicts, breaking stereotypes, healing bruises, reducing prejudices, bridging gaps, and so on, what`s wrong with that. Of course exposing the fundamentalists is also required. And nobody should stop from doing so. But I hope we know that local newspaper and TV did play a negative role (besides positive) in much of the communal violence in south Asia, and continue to do so. Should we be proud of their freedom?
- Yes we should expose our dark past and present (instead of suppressing it) and debate it openly and `get it out of the system` as someome suggested here. But at this rate, these things will never get out of the system. Our society is toooo complex to debate and resolve anything in a jiffy. This is just a chowk with 150 odd people bent upon misunderstanding and belittling each other. Imagine 1.5 billion south Asians discussing these issues - we won`t reach anywhere until eternity. So are there any short-cut ways to at least live with each other peacefuly. Can media play a role in that? That`s all I asked.
- One last mundane wish/suggestion: since the news channels/reality TV is telling us the BAD NEWS in any case, maybe our fiction/art could tell us some GOOD NEWS, to lull us from the violence?
Yousuf
Interact Index
Latest Interacts
- MeiraJ08: Even in poetry it... Honor Killings in Babakot
- MeiraJ08: There is no way... Greek Tragedy
- allah001: Tahmed32: Getting bombed back to... US Commando Strike in
- allah001: Naeemchaudary, If you are... US Commando Strike in
- allah001: hamidm: "the way i see... US Commando Strike in
- tahmed32: #40 majumdar bhai: rest... US Commando Strike in
- hamidm2: Re: # 44 naeem mian, ........ US Commando Strike in
- tahmed32: A dose of reality... US Commando Strike in
