28 February 2012

India's Paid Media



The secular Indian media, especially the electronic media, are trying to outgun each other to flaunt their secular credentials in their portrayal of the 2002 riots in Gujarat. Its been ten years since the riots took place. I will not do a post-mortem  of who's right and who's wrong. 

The self-styled guardians of our secularism - NDTV, TIMES Now, CNN IBN, The Hindu, The Hindustan Times - are busy raking up the ghosts of the Gujarat riots. All they rant is how the Muslims were killed, how Muslim women were raped, how Muslim homes were burnt down.... and on they rant in endless debates, with conscience-keepers of our society -  Brinda Karat, Javed Akhtar, Manish Tiwari, Abhishek Singhvi, Suhel Seth, Teesta Setalvad, and other 'secular' folks.


Why don't Barkha Dutt, Prannoy Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghosh, and Arnab Goswami ever 
raise questions on the 

(a) role played by Congress party leaders in the
1984 Sikh Riots in Delhi, which saw the deaths of more than 3000 Sikhs, in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards;

(b) plight of the
Hindu Pandits of Kashmir who are living like refugees in their own country after being driven out by Muslim terrorists and hardliners;

(c)
ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Christians in Kashmir Valley by Muslim radicals;

(d) evangelical activities carried out by Christian
 missionaries in several parts of India, especially in large parts of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Kerala;

(e)
farmers' suicides in Andhra Pradesh, the so-called 'rice bowl of India', because of the nefarious policies of the Congress government.

Yes, there are several other uncomfortable questions that are never raised on the Newshour, Big Fight, Question Time India, Face the Nation. 


Selective amnesia 
on the part of the Indian media is sowing seeds of hatred between different communities. What the media in India is peddling is half-truths and lies. They act more like spokespersons of the Congress and less like protectors of public interest.

To hell with public interest, as long as I get my kickbacks and paid holidays, seem to be the silent refrain of the secular media houses. So much for 'whatever it takes' to 'experience truth'. 




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

wat do u mean by evangelical activities...all they have done is setting up schools which in no way is bad

Anonymous said...

very true, am from gujarat and am tired of media racking up the riots even after 10 years, seems politically influenced, even a layman would understand, grow up i wanna tell the media houses !

Anonymous said...

The author was being polite when he mentions evangelical activities, To put it more bluntly and without ambiguity - He is referring to forced conversions from other relegions to Christianity

Anonymous said...

The evangelical activities were done with the consent of the person who is going to convert, and they have done several developmental Activities as well nothing wrong in that.They are educating, developing the lifestyle of people which the local authority or Government has failed to do since decades.

Ben said...

Gujarat riot has much more relevance than any of those incidents that you mentioned because from birth to till now BJP govt is doing the same exploitation against the minorities.In all BJP governed states they are spreading their saffron agenda in the same sense all the cultural exploitation are happening in those BJP governed states.So this mentality of people should be uprooted otherwise it will affect the secular behaviour of our nation and no point in paid or paid less media.(I am not a congress activist)

Anonymous said...

please change the wrong idea about evangelical activities.nobody is forced to convert.only after a person accepts Christ as his/her Lord and saviour he/she becomes a Christian.and noone can forcefully make a person Christian.and there are millions of lives that changed positively after they got Christ in their life.take care.