Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? These are but predictable titles that have been given/will be given whenever this touchy subject comes up for “treatment” by our secular media. Repeated over and over, they verily become the truth. Gujarat=Hindu Fascist state ruled by a Mussolini named Narendra Modi. This theme is repeatedly hammered by progressives, intellectuals, and anybody who fashions himself/herself as espousing the cause of peace: from Praful Bidwai to Arundhati Roy.
How many look at, nay, even think that there is a possibility that another side exists? One which looks promising, which has the potential to heal wounds, and bring in prosperity and peace. For the record, visit these news items:
Gujarat garners investment promises worth Rs.871 bn
Gujarat gets investment promises worth Rs.515 bn
I found these news items only on Yahoo India’s news portal. Nowhere else. The other leading dailies from the Slimes of India to The anti- Hindu have failed to even mention this, even to tuck this piece away in a corner on say, page 5 or 7. No such luck. For these secular papers, Gujarat can signify only one thing.
In sharp contrast, the media is quick to report when one of its men an ardent Marxist is labelled the Best Chief Minister! Never mind that Bangladeshi terrorists “insurgents” routinely kill innocent citizens. The following is an example of a larger malaise that is eating away the country’s vitals but is safely ignored in the hope that it’ll go away.
The savage persecution of 20 families of Bauls in Murshidabad district’s Naoda block once again underlines the alarming extent to which fundamentalist Islam has established its stranglehold on West Bengal’s Muslim-majority border districts with Bangladesh. Bauls, wandering minstrels who sing of the common humanity that transcends religious boundaries and the virtues of tolerance and compassion, and preach that what matters is not the religious label one wears but one’s love for God, have been an integral part of West Bengal’s life for several centuries.
Unfortunately, their liberal Humanism has earned them the wrath of fundamentalist Islamist religious leaders. According to a report, they have organised religious courts that have proclaimed people with the ektara-the single-string musical instruments which Bauls play while singing-as Muslim renegades and issued fatwas ordering their social boycott. [...]
As a result, shops in local markets refuse to sell to them, big farmers who own shallow or deep tubewells deny them water to irrigate their fields, their children are debarred from coaching classes, a Baul caught talking to a Muslim co-religionist has to pay a fine of Rs 501 to the local Majlis or religious court. In one case, a father had taken back the plot of farm land he had given to his Baul son.
The fatwas against Bauls constitute a direct and flagrant attack on the Constitution of India which enshrines the right of every Indian citizen to pursue his or her own religious belief. Equally, they represent a parallel system of ecclesiastical legality that makes a mockery of country’s established judicial system. Unfortunately, Islamist fundamentalists in West Bengal and other parts of India have been, from time to time, issuing fatwas affecting not only their co-religionists but also national policies like family planning. In West Bengal, for example, they have been conducting a relentless campaign against the administration of polio drops to children on the specious ground that these contained anti-reproductory agents.
Talk about this to our secularists, pat comes the reply: oh! but it must the Bauls’ fault to enrage the “insurgents!” Do a Google search and please let me know if any major newspaper has as much as a mention about this ghastly incident. You won’t find media reports about this because it in no way threatens their version of secularism.
Returning to Buddhadeb, it isn’t strange that Manmohan Singh praised the man: it was in a way, mandatory on his part–the Red allies have to be kept in good humour from time to time. For a state ravaged for decades by Communism, bankrupt in all aspects–cultural, economic, and social–this is perhaps their last chance to set out on the “road to progress.”
In a direct distinction, Gujarat has always been one among the more prosperous states in India; in fact, the term “Gujju” stands for–among other connotations–a person who is shrewd, money-minded, and miserly. Yet, one riot was all it took to tarnish the image of the state as the Capital of Hell. The secular media had a field day, painting it in the darkest hues of black. It made doomsday predictions about how Gujarat would be unable to attract any investment in future, etcetera. Naturally, it remains mum because it has been caught with its pants down. Which it does anyway from time to time.
I’m curious to note (with some alarm) the sheer venality of our media that is being exposed at alarming regularity:
1. The Zaheera Sheikh incident
2. Scrapping of the enquiry commission against Tehelka
3. Turning a blind eye to the appalling proportions the Naxal menace is assuming
4. The Shankaracharya affair
5. The Adhikanta Dahilya killing, which no paper reported
6. The Marad massacre to which lip service was paid
7. And now, this piece of good news about Gujarat
I’ve lumped the last item together with the others because not reporting an incident also constitutes bias. However, one thing must go in their favour: the Indian media is consistent in its hypocrisy.
Tags: Commentary, Indian Politics, Pseudo Secularism Hall of Shame, War on Communism
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