Or The Fine Art of Misreporting
Okay, you’ve all read the papers.
A 12-year-old boy was killed and over 22 others were injured when police opened fire on an angry mob which had gone on a rampage burning several vehicles, pelting stones and closing shops in the Shivaji Nagar area of Bangalore on Sunday. The condition of one of the injured was said to be critical.
Eight of those injured were police constables. The mob also stabbed a police constable, Thimmaiah, in the Shivaji Nagar area. The injured have been admitted to Bowring Hospital.
Night curfew has been imposed in the city from 2200 hrs (IST) on Sunday till 0700 hrs (IST) on Monday. After a day’s lull since Friday’s group clashes, violence broke out in many parts of the city on Sunday afternoon, with east and north-east Bangalore being the worst-hit.
Now let me recount what I saw on Friday, 19th January 2007.
Time
: Around 3 P.M.
Location: Brigade Road/Hosur Road, near Baldwin Boys School
My Health: Horrible stomach pain, en route to the doctor
Traffic Health: Clogged, blocked roads
Average Speed: 0.342923477234 KM/Hr
Reason: Rally protesting Saddam’s hanging
About a week earlier, an outfit curiously named People’s Front, began to suddenly plaster all major intersections, and building walls with HUGE posters and hoardings. In general, little in this city interests me. Protest notices are dime-a-dozen and attract no attention from a commoner like me. This is how I viewed it.
But this was different.
The poster had a black background with LARGE text in (obviously) white. Nothing special even there. What WAS special was the prominent photo right at the top of the poster. Equally huge, it had the face of a grimacing Saddam Hussein.
That was when I stopped to read. It said something along these lines:
Good friend of India, Saddam Hussein was killed unjustly. Saddam is a great martyr. Let’s protest his unfair killing. Long live Saddam. USA is our enemy. Down with USA. Down with Bush. [followed by details of venue, date, and time and signed by People's Front].
Interestingly, the same text in Urdu (Arabic?) appeared below the one in English.
When I dug a trifle deeper, I found it was sponsored directly by an old Family Loyalist, Jaffer Sharief, who was the Union Railway Minister several times.
Back to Friday, the 19th of January 2007. What was interesting in on the traffic-jammed Hosur Road was the number of “protest-rally” vehicles coming from the opposite direction. It beat even the President’s convoy: they kept coming. And then I paid attention to the consistent, sonorous chant. People peering from inside, from the rooftops of the moving vehicles, and waving green flags, placards and other protest paraphernalia denouncing Bush and celebrating Saddam’s martyrdom.
George Bush Down Down! USA Down Down! We hate USA!
At the end of each of these slogans boomed an Allahu Akbar!
I gave no further thought to this but kind of expected some violence. Which happened on Friday, about which the media made a passing mention.
But then when a Hindu procession passed in the Muslim-dominated localities of Shivajinagar and adjoining areas, trouble began. For this reason.
The trouble erupted at about 3 pm, when news spread that an idol, at a place of worship on Seppings Road, had been defiled.
And the media’s glee was boundless. It had just the perfect excuse to paint the Hindus in the vilest of colours. Look at the headline from the Mother of All News Agencies, Reuters:
Hindu activists riot in India’s Bangalore
Just so that the report must appear balanced, it says in the third or fourth paragraph:
On Friday, thousands of Muslim demonstrators protesting against last month’s execution of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, clashed with police and destroyed shops and cars in the city.
But the preceding paragraphs are nothing short of damning:
Hundreds of Hindu activists burnt shops owned by Muslims and set vehicles ablaze in the southern city of Bangalore, India’s technology hub, on Sunday, police and witnesses said.
The violence occurred as activists moved through the city to join a rally organised by the right-wing Hindu fundamentalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS — National Volunteers’ Corps).
CNN-IBN and NDTV are overjoyed. Ever since I switched on the TV, and even at work, I see the dismayed, horrified faces of news anchors’ spin going on an overdrive. They term this incident as “Bangalore Burning,” “Bangalore Ablaze,” “IT Capital on Fire,” and other jingoistic adjectives. The reality is entirely different. BARRING SHIVAJINAGAR, FRAZER TOWN AND OTHER AREAS, LIFE IN THE ENTIRE CITY IS NORMAL.
But gentle reader, what would you, in Los Angeles, Sydney, Cape Town, Mumbai, New Delhi, Baroda, conclude?
The People’s Front meet also brings us more interesting tidings. Prominent among the eminences that graced the solemn occasion are the Congress party leader, Mallikarjun Kharge, and two former Chief Ministers, S.Bangarappa and N. Dharam Singh.
Here’s another question to ponder: is it mere coincidence that the People’s Front meeting was scheduled at almost the same time as the meeting of the Hindus? The date for the Hindu Samajotsav was fixed about 3-4 months ago…
It is secularism as usual.
Note to media barons: let the op-ed spin begin.
Tags: Indian Politics, Media Watch, Pseudo Secularism Hall of Shame, Society & Culture, War on Communism
On 01.22.07 shadows says:
Yep, its the Hindus who are to blame for Saddam’s deaths, as usual.
Why? they are absolutely at fault here. Why didnt we do a little nuclear sabre rattling or protest more vehemently to get Saddam released. We should have helped our Muslim brothers to get Saddam released. Khilafat 2 anyone?
On 01.22.07 Bangalore Forum says:
[...] Violence in Bangalore [...]
On 01.22.07 Kuttan says:
I was waiting for your comment on this. I did sense a tinge of spookiness in all the articles in the news media about this. Everyone like to a punch at the Hindu’s don’t they? I can’t imagine how congress can let their underlings carry out these kinda things when the higher ups hobnob with the Who’s who of US govt. Its a total shame.
On 01.22.07 RS says:
What the Paki backed terrorists have failed to achieve till today has been fullfilled by India’s dear friend the late Saddam Hussein.
If the violence continues MNCs will simply bid goodbye to Bangalore as cost of business will spiral up.
On 01.22.07 Colour me shocked - RSS linked to sectarian violence says:
[...] From the field http://www.sandeepweb.com/2007/01/22/violence-in-bangalore/ [...]
On 01.23.07 Ravindra says:
Sandeep,
Until I read your post, I too (not being a Bangalorean) was not very clear about the exact cause of the riots. I vaguely thought it was sparked off by some Hindu procession in a Muslim infested area.
But the reality appears to be completely different - and the way the “secular” media has projected is, well, as is their wont.
I wonder if we will ever have a balance in the Indian mediasphere! Even in the heyday of the BJP-NDA rule, the slant in the media was similar, though a bit toned down.
On 01.23.07 JK says:
Did these guys come to know only yesterday that Saddam was hanged? News travels slow to Bangalore.
On 01.23.07 Sandeep says:
Ravindra,
Absolutely! That’s what media spin does to you. It’s so unfailingly easy.
JK,
Are you serious? LOL
Here’s the line in my post which should answer your question:
No clues to guessing who’s the master brain behind this: Jaffer Sharief and his other cohorts in the Congress party.
On 01.23.07 RR says:
>>Did these guys come to know only yesterday that Saddam was hanged? News travels slow to Bangalore.
Any excuse will do for those who wanted to instigate riots.
Sunday’s Hindu rally was advertised long, long ago. Banners were put up announcing it as far back as the beginning of the new year. The Saddam rally was conjured up just a few days ago, strategically timed to occur just a couple days before the Hindu rally. During this Saddam rally, a dispute was deliberately provoked by pulling down banners of the Hindu rally. There was trouble on Friday itself; the reporting of which seems to have been deliberately suppressed in the media.
On 01.24.07 jk says:
Sandeep, I was just kidding.
On 01.24.07 Harish Duggirala says:
The violence did not start during the Hindu procession, it started a day before on Jan 20 when the protester’s against US removed posters concerning the Hindu gathering, here is the confirmation:
“The trouble broke out when a banner relating to “Virat Hindu Samajotsav” was removed by a group of people on way to attend the rally, which led to tension and stone-pelting, police said.
http://www.timesnow.tv/Sections/News/Bangalore_on_alert_after_violence/articleshow/1327105.cms ”
I am guessing that the Hindu gathering was to be held on Jan 21, on the first day Muslims attacked Hindus and destroyed several shops and vehicle’s, so on Jan 21 Hindus replied the same way by torching a few Muslim shops but the spark was lit by the secular party on Jan 20.
On 01.24.07 Harish Duggirala says:
INJURED LIST
Bangaloe, dhns:
The thirty-one persons injured in Sunday’s violence in the city are: Jabbar (18), Imran (20)and 29 others…
The thirty-one persons injured in Sunday’s violence in the city are:
Jabbar (18), Imran (20), Rizwan (20), Ateek (40), Thimmaiah(42), Umesh (30), Shameem (37), Idayat (24), Aiyappa (21), Malle Gowda (30), Nagarajappa (49), Narayana Swamy (40), Nadeem (21), Rafi (45), Ramachandre Gowda (38), Premanath (25), Jaleel (65), Abida (45), Irfan (20), Nagarajan (43), Renuka Prasad (27), Firoz (22), Nagesh Rao (29), Prakash (41), Ashwathaiah (47), Siddesh (38), Narayana Swamy (44), Venkatesh Naik (29), Chandrappa (37), Muniraju (28) and Kumar (19).
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jan222007/city220592007122.asp
19 of the 31 appear to be Hindus going by their names so the violence is not one sided and there is no “innocent as a lamb” minority in Bangalore as projected by the media.
On 01.24.07 Harish Duggirala says:
On a related note here is a clash that happened in Indore on Jan 22, 2007:
“The trouble erupted when a group belonging to the minority community brandished swords in front of an office bearer of a saffron outfit, Superintendent of Police Anshuman Singh Yadav said.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1905914,0009.htm ”
All this confirms to the general tradition of riots in India (i.e Muslims start most of the riots despite being a minority).
On 01.24.07 Sandeep says:
Harish,
Great follow up, thanks
On 01.24.07 The Spin Begins : seriously sandeep says:
[...] Violence in Bangalore [...]
On 01.24.07 Pioneer on Bangalore Violence : seriously sandeep says:
[...] Violence in Bangalore [...]
On 01.25.07 varnam says:
The 1921 Model…
It was on March 3rd, 1924 that Kemal Ataturk abolished the Caliphate and transferred the power to to the Turkish Grand National Assembly. But sometime in 1921, rumors spread in India that the Caliphate was abolished and violence erupted in….
On 01.27.07 Sameer says:
Sandeep,
Great job and nice to read the views of real people of Bangalore than the bastardised ‘Secular’ ‘Mainstream’ media.
Keep it up!!
-Sameer