Secular Media Having a Field Day in Karnataka
Friday, 20. February 2009 - 8:07 PM
The secular media should actually be grateful to the BJP. I call upon the entire media spectrum to join hands and campaign for the BJP instead of falling behind the secular parties. If it’s already not obvious, here’s the reason: the “Saffron” party gives it the maximum revenue. These eminences haven’t had a single dull day in Karnataka ever since the BJP came to power. The Slimes especially is ungratefully delightful as we shall see.
The latest to hit the headlines is a furious remark by Minister of Medical Education Ramachandra Gowda on the lofty subject of modern art.
The opening of the southern regional branch of the National Gallery of Modern Art at Bangalore on Wednesday was marred by a snap protest by artists over a remark on modern art made by Karnataka Minister of Medical Education Ramachandra Gowda … “I regret to say some people like to run down ancient art due to their distorted and perverted thinking,†said Ramachandra Gowda.
This is exactly the spark that the media eagerly awaits. Now, all politicians are uniformly scatterbrained. However, it is an index of the media’s mental health when it unfailingly provides inordinate importance specifically to the idiocy of BJP politicians. So there we have: a misguided remark by an angry minister transmogrified into a life-threatening issue.
Actually, Ramachandra Gowda has a point about “distorted and perverted thinking.” Think MF Hussain’s visual assaults. Now, what is the bet that every “modern” artist worth his/her salt wouldn’t want to rake in the millions like Miyaan Hussain?
A sensible approach would have been to just report Gowda’s fulminations and move on. But, predictably, the media smelled blood. It instantly lowered its anchors on to the backs of the outraged modern artists, a breed akin to their literary counterparts in character, taste, courage, and political overtones. And so, we have the media reviving its golden tradition of supporting the Artists’ Birthright of Free Artistic Expression by liberally sprinkling its pages with such quotable gems as:
The artists were then forced out and some sections of the crowd too left the venue, saying, “we are with the artists, there is no need to be fascists.â€
We’d consider these gems as truly worthy if they were peddled by real luminaries. However, with the media’s immense capability for self-deception, it calls in obscure nonentities like K T Shivaprasad (huh?) and Radhika-what’s her name and bestows instant eminence on them.
Veteran artist K T Shivaprasad observes: “First, they said who should not sit together. Now, they’re saying what artists should not create. At this rate, they’ll tell us who to talk to next. Please note they’re targeting basic freedoms. It’s not horrible, it’s horror.” Shivaprasad adds: “The present dispensation is moving away from the legal, modern Constitution and its rights towards an ancient one — the Manusmruti which has a certain view of life. They’re in power now and groups close to them are taking the liberty to speak, act and behave in ways that furthers the idea of Manusmruti.”
He told TOI that Manusmruti prescribed certain ways of thinking and living that would not be part of the modern Constitution. “Their view of life is alarming, in fact unlawful. They seem to be running a parallel Constitution. To dictate who you should talk to and sit with is nothing else. I am very disturbed by what is coming.”
The Slimes as usual, leads the pack by showering these undeserved adjectives. “Veteran” in age or accomplishment is something it fails to disclose. That brings us back to my observation about the consistency in character, courage, etc of these artists. Now here’s an artist who, instead of restricting his rant against Ramachandra Gowda’s behaviour, takes off on a fanciful time-travel all the way back to Manusmriti. His time machine also enables him to paint a verbal picture of Doomsday. But wait, the Slimes is not done yet.
Artist Radhika Prakash points out that Indian culture could not be defined by any one person or group. “What is one to say about ancient works on Shiva and Parvati? The Khajuraho paintings? Or the sculptures at Belur? Will we disown all this? It’s ironic that we have progressive stone works, but they’re taking us back to a Stone Age. That is regressive.”
Such deep knowledge, just lights up the innards of your heart no? But we’ve heard this line before and know the shallow din emanating from its abysmal depth. Also notice the Slimes’ triumph. They got a lady artist who openly talks about sex and nudity as symbols of progressiveness. All hear! Applause!
None of this is new. The media has perfected its template for BJP/Hindu-bashing. A template for every occasion. It liberally quotes the champions of secularism, and progressive art and literature but gives short shrift to the likes of Arun Shourie who gave perhaps the best rebuttal to Hussain’s mass of multi-coloured liquid allegedly called high art. The coffin-like umbrella of Free Expression cannot shield their hypocrisy forever. Neither can free expression rest on a foundation of duplicity, which was glaringly evident during the Baroda controversy. See the template: Baroda is in Gujarat, Gujarat is ruled by the BJP. QED. But they didn’t bargain for the painting that showed Jesus Christ’s penis, which consequently inflamed the Christian lobby. And behold, the free speech fundamentalists self-vaporized.
The outrage of these self-styled defenders of progressiveness is mostly phony. There’s a simpler explanation for their self-righteous hollering. It lies in an irrational (premeditated, in several cases) hatred for the BJP. This hatred automatically unifies scoundrels of all hues, who are otherwise busy scheming against each other.
20. February 2009 - 9:26 PM
Sandeep, I doubt if it has anything to do with hatred of the BJP per se.
What remains consistent and shines through even their (Secular-Liberal) translucent talk of “ancient Temples” and such, is their abiding hatred of Hinduism.
The BJP gets done in only because it chooses to (very weakly in my opinion), identify itself with Hinduism/Hindus. – It’s more interested in portraying/advertising its “true Secularism”.
I say this because these self-same Secular-Liberals will gladly walk into any Muslim meet and agree that Hinduism is perverse because of these self-same Temples!
These fellows don’t fear the BJP. They fear the company it keeps.
21. February 2009 - 2:43 AM
And now they have found links between RSS and ISI. Narco mapping etc to follow soon. Italian Bahoo Zindabad. Votebank Zindabad.
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-96719.html
21. February 2009 - 9:00 AM
As Palahalli says above, there is a distinct calculated attack on ancient Indian culture.
Well, that has been happening for more than 1000 years now starting with the early Muslim invaders. But the British made a nuanced attack by creating an education system that produces mindless idiots brainwashed to look at their own culture with disdain.
The products of such an education system, notaby among the non-technical streams such as history, arts, journalism, law, social sciences, humanities and administration are very useful tools in the hands of those who want to destroy the indian culture.
The British also identified all the ills prevalent in the country an classified them as ‘hindu religion’.
So now a lot of ‘educated’ people consider that practices, developed in certain localities which were under muslim rule, such as sati, covering of face by women, female infanticide, child marriage etc., as sanctioned by this religion and thus feel revolted and guilty about their own religion.
It is the vocal lot among these people who consider it their duty to wean away their countrymen from this destructive religion and culture. The non-vocals feel guilty and try to forget their confusions through cricket, TV, films and money making.
The british also spread the propaganda that ancient Indian culture is all about superstitions, idol worship and primitive rituals, with the result that not even 0.001 percent of the present Indians have considered it necessary or advisable to read and understand even the basic scriptures such as Vedas and Upanishads.
The language Sanskrit which could have conveyed the meaning of these scriptures to Indians has been removed from the society first by the british and later by the offsprings of their propaganda education system.
An example of how Indian culture is demeaned by chritian propaganda is given here- http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0070/0070_01.asp
It is a mistake that this calculated assault is anti-BJP.
That party has not shown any interest to revive Indian culture. It used the sentiments of a majority of people regarding Ram temple at Ayodhya to gain political mileage. But when it was in power from 1998 to 2004, it did not show any interest in building the temple there.
I am reminded of the communist parties who have the need to preserve their ‘working class’ for their sustenance and therefore prevent people from acquiring prosperity lest they lose their political base and voters.
Similarly, the champions of dalits and oppresssed minorities ensure to preserve the oppressed conditions and feelings of victimisation among their vote bank for the same purpose.
It may be that the BJP wants to play the same game.
Because, before raking up the Ram Temple issue as a poll plank now, it has done nothing in the past 10 years to arrive at a solution.
So it would appear that keeping alive the issue is all that they want.
Those of us who think that voting BJP is the solution to all ills of our country would do well to reconsider that notion.
So what is the solution?
I think the solution is for Indians to understand that ancient Indian scriptures are their own and not of any religion. Because those ancient scriptures do not mention any religion.
Indians need to understand that the so-called ‘hindu religion’ is a creation of the british who made sure to identify and classify all the ills prevalent in society as having been sanctioned by that religion and assigned it as ancient Indian religion; whereas actual fact is that such a word is not found in our ancient scriptures.
We who are born in India are Indians and by consequence all ancient scriptures of India are our own.
Only when we acknowedge this fact are we able to benefit from the wisdom of our scriptures; and they are really full of wisdom.
That is real meaning of secularism.
So long as we in our mind consider ourselves and our fellow Indians as christian, muslim, sikh, buddhist, hindu or dalit, brahmin, and so on, and assign some historical personalities and texts as ours and theirs, ancient Indian culture will disappear and with it India will disappear.
There is a false thinking among some of us that ancient Indian civilisation has been around for some 10,000 years and will continue to withstand all attacks and survive for another 10,000 years.
When the river Saraswati that was the cradle of ancient Indian civilisation dried up, the people moved on to other more hospitable areas but they took their spiritual wisdom with them and passed it on to subsequent generations in the form of Vedas, Upanishads etc.
Unfortunately, Indians now living in India are turning away from this almost infinite treasure trove of wisdom.
Unless we Indians appreciate our scriptures and understand the wisdom they contain, we as human beings will not fulfill ourselves spiritually. Moreover, we will deprive our future generations of this immense wealth of wisdom. And that will be the end of the ancient Indian civilisation.
It is my conclusion that there was no ‘hindu’ among the people of Saraswati river civilisation, if there was, it would have been mentioned in the texts they created.
This land we call India was their home as it is our home now. And therefore, we Indians, regardless of the religious or political beliefs that we may hold, are really the civilisational succesors of those ancients and thereby, their inheritors.
It is thus our duty as Indians to appreciate the spiritual wealth of our inheritance, respect it for its infinite worth and discover unity among ouselves by thus identifying ouselves with this land we call India.
21. February 2009 - 11:34 AM
very true exactly what i was thinking sandeep i assume you are also born and bought in bangalore i assume like me true blue kanndadiga !!! correct me if am wrong ..
anywaz coming to point .. now after the talibaninaztion of karnataka by secular media with trival issues like these these super duper “intellectuals ” who cant digest that savi nadu karnataka is now ruled by BJP .Serioly now if this is hindu taliban that am living in i have to doubt what really in gujarat in 2002 !!!! was it over hyped by secualr media ?? coz i find no difference in MG Road kormangala etc so where is so called taliban??
21. February 2009 - 1:30 PM
Tamil issue: TN political parties call for US intervention
http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/5FFA4B43CD668ED065257563005CEDD7?OpenDocument
Where is NDTV?
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?
Mr. Eramadachu(Ramadoss) of PMK was among those presented the memorandum to the US consulate.
23. February 2009 - 10:16 AM
If anybody thinks that The BJP has done something to revive the HIndu tradition(Sanathana Dharma) then it would be just like believing a mirage in a desert. The crooks & goons in the BJP are no less when compared to the crooks & goons in the Congress(lets completely keep the left and the “Third” front out of this) .
An indepth study of BJP’s victory in Karnataka would shed light on the tricks played and finks placed by the BJP coterie. No, I am not telling all this based on the readings from Slimes or Chindu these are my findings based on what has happened in the state.(The congress & JDU are equally worse, and I am speaking only about the BJP ’cause this was the party that I voted for)
Wait till May and we will get to see the entire alliance patterns and don’t be surprised if the BJP joins hands with Karuna-”the dirty”-nidhi if Jaya goes with UPA and vice-versa.
23. February 2009 - 3:25 PM
Varun,
I feel the question is not that whether BJP has done anything to Hinduism. The issue is with the policies followed by pseudo secular parties like Congress which are directly against Hindus. I will be happy with a political party which can consider all religions equal because then ‘Sanathana Dharam” will survive any other threat. Here we have political parties (Congress, Commies etc) which directly attack Hinduism by taking advantage of cacophony among Hindus. They allocate funds and provide reservation on the name of religion and still call themselves secular. In my view, we (Hindus) are pathetic creatures. We (Hindus) never learn from history. The history of Prithviraj Chauhan will repeat as long as majority of Hindus have Jaychand-like attitude.
(Sorry if I am being a bit Harsh here) Don’t think that you are being kind to Hinduism by voting for BJP. You have done that because survival of Hindu society is in your interest as any other Hindu’s. Even if all other humans abandon Hinduism I will still work for it. Because I don’t want myself to be in a society where my thoughts will be controlled by some illiterate creatures or some ‘businessmen’ who claim to have authority to ’sell’ god.
23. February 2009 - 10:11 PM
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/karnataka-govt-to-wash-sins-by-gangajal-distribution/86069-3.html
more media witch this time sadly lord shiva included !!! alas when its going to stop
27. February 2009 - 6:42 AM
Sandeep,
Did you hear the latest from the National Newspaper of China:
http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/27/stories/2009022755511900.htm
1. March 2009 - 11:32 AM
Well Sandip I share half a name with you and substantial views with you. I have been regularly writing about this “Secular Media” in my blogs.I only fail to comprehend the reason behind this Anti BJP or Anti Hindu single minded tirade of this uniformed media. Unless of course they have sold their shares or their soul to some aliens.They are so far removed from the national psyche and yet go around creating decibels and column cms.In the morning walk on 27/11 and 28/11 every one I met from Sr. Bureaucrats to businessmen were talking against muslims. Do they all come from RSS stable.NO.Request viewing of my blog:: kuldipgupta.blogspot.com
2. March 2009 - 12:13 AM
Here is a link http://www.investigativeproject.org/1002/are-acts-of-staged-controversy-an-islamist to an interesting article which shows how organisations inimical to the host country or the majority community use the media and human rights group to further their cause by deliberately presenting one sided or highly distorted view of an incident to silence the majority. This article gives a a good understanding of the working of minority community in India which has used isolated or fabricated cases to drum up support for their cause or to escape closer scrutiny to their nefarious activity.
4. March 2009 - 11:56 AM
http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/Briefingpapers.htm
Someone please grab a copy of this and counter the propaganda of this organization called South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC)
4. March 2009 - 7:14 PM
Sandeep,
More than once I got the advise “this site may install malware on your machine” when I visited you site. Please check. (I personally do not care, because I have a Mac.) It may be some “slurdesai-types”:)
4. March 2009 - 7:34 PM
Sundeep – nothing about the attacks on SL in Pakistan? Check my post about it.
18. March 2009 - 8:58 AM
The Dork media were celebrating the break of BJP-BJD alliance in Orissa.It was headline news for 3 days.They are now making a hoopla about some differences between Jaitley and Rajnath Singh.
On the other hand,NDTV calls the RJD-LJP decision to allot 3 seats to Congress as ‘BETRAYAL’.Pranoy Roy is shameless.
What was wrong in Varun’s speech?I didnt find anything objectionable.He said that Hindus have the right to retaliate.Is that a crime in a campaign meeting?The EC is made of spineless people
If the sekuloor,social justice crooks bash up ‘upper castes’ that is fair game,for these thugs.
27. March 2009 - 6:20 PM
An investigation needs to be done of the role of English Media during Godhra Riots.
It’s a common believe in Indian Masses that English Media provoked the common masses to murder each other. This should be investigated and the Journalists/Anchors who spread lies and rumours should be put behind bars.