The Pioneer: Media and Rioting

Yet another example of apartheid in India. Hindus have no rights. Period.

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Media and rioting
by M C Joshi

There was hardly any element of surprise when the national media and television channels turned a blind eye to the gruesome torching of Aadikanta Daliya, a Dalit and BJP worker, in presence of his wife, children, villagers and the State police by the CPl(M) workers in West Midnapore district of Bengal as narrated by S Gurumurthy in his article, "Had Daliya not been a Hindu..." (Op-ed, July 12).

Recalling the over-reaction of the media in the Graham Staines case, he asks whether it was a non-event for them because Daliya was not only a Hindu but also a "communal Hindu" in their eyes. No prizes for the correct answer! This very media would have raised storm targetting the BJP had Dalia done the same to a Muslim or a Christian.

The image-conscious "liberal" tiewallas in the media and intelligentsia are sharing space in the fraudulent secular-communal divide created by the "secular" political kurta-bushirtwallas who have irreversibly desecrated secularism in letter and spirit for garnering votes. For them, those pursuing Hindu cause are "communal" dhoti-knickerwallas deserving ridicule, hatred and condemnation. Sufferings of the Hindus are either totally ignored or brazenly underplayed, the aim always being to put the onus for communal distrubances on the Hindus themselves.

In the case of Sabarmati torching at Godhra, this combine not only refused to accept any link between the Godhra incident and Gujarat riots but also tried to make a case that the 58 Hindu men, women and children were never victims of any conspiracy but were themselves responsible for what befell them. The Railway enquiry now ordered into the case aims at somehow exonerating the accused and implicating the RSS, VHP, BJP and Mr Narendra Modi. Assembly elections in Bihar are ahead where Muslim votes count. The self-styled champion of secularism must, therefore, be seen fighting for the Muslims.

While discussing partisan and biased media coverage of the Gujarat riots, Anuradha Dutt, referring to a television channel, wrote sometime ago in The Pioneer: "...the reportage was clearly partisan. When every fact on the street indicated that the mayhem was triggered by the carnage at Godhra, perpetrated by members of the minority community, high-pitched projection of the events was weighed against the majority community. The channel's anchors took great pains to haul pro-Hindutva leaders over the coals, white treating their equally intransigent counterparts in the opposite camp with kid gloves.

Discredited Muslim rabble-rousers were allowed to vent their spleen." Television coverage of the incidents of police action against suspected Islamic terrorists was biased. The police was instantly castigated while the suspects were projected as innocent victims. The case of Ishrat Jahan killed with three others in the Ahmedabad police encounter on June 15 is the latest example. The television channels immediately started airing statements of the Congress leaders, calling it a Narendra Modi manoeuvre to garner sympathy, putting Godhra-Gujarat and Akshardham in the same category.

Unfortunately, the NHRC too jumped in and issued suo motu notice asking the Gujarat police to produce a time-bound report. Subsequently, Ishrat's terrorist links were confirmed that she was even a member of Lashkar-e-Toiba. Her diary revealed that Mr Narendra Modi, Mr LK Advani, Mr Bal Thackeray and Ms Uma Bharti-naturally all Hindus-were all on the hit-list of these terrorists. So what? Just forget it, if you are thinking for any word of apology from accusing politicians and their friends in the media.

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