Negationism in Indian media

Submitted by B.N.Gururaj (India), Feb 18, 2009 at 04:59

The author is quite right. People at the helm of government machinery, who are unable to handle the crises, deny that there is crises at all. The media in India lends a big helping hand. Whenever a terrorist attack occurs in India, first advise of the media in India is to ensure that "none exploits the situation to cause divide between the Hindus and the Muslims". It is a denial of the fact that there is almost unbridgeable gap between the two communities. There are also very voluble NGOs run by Muslims masquarading with Hindu names, pretending to be human rights activists. They are most concerned about the terrorist's rights than about the plight of victims of terrorism. "Communal Watch" run by Teesta Setalwad is an example.

The media in India does not sympathise with the victims. Instead, they enthusiasticaly jump into blame game, especially blame the Hindu organisation for alienating the Muslims by their militancy. In the Mumbai attack, the failure of the central government was collosal. It took over nine hours to send the first contingent of NSG to Mumbai! Instead of coming down heavily for the Government's irresponsible act, the newspapers criticise Mr.L.K.Advani for visiting the place!

Atrocities on the Hindus are reported without mentioning who the attacker is and who the victim is. If the Hindus retaliate, immediately, the victim's religion finds prominent place in the news. This happened during the Bombay riots of 1993, which ensured after Babri Masjid demolition. First three days, Muslims ran riot. They undressed men and examined men for circumcision before stabbing! But, identity of rioter's community was not mentioned. After third day, when the Hindus retaliated lead by the Shiv Sena, immediately, the victims were identified as Muslims. Thus, the picture painted before the world media is that the muslims are always the victims of communal violence. The fact is that in the post-partition independent India, far greater number of the Hindus have died at the hands of muslims than vice versa. Still, a few deaths of muslims is labelled as 'pogrom' by the Indian media.

Though it is clear as day light that all the terrorists caught are Muslims, the media in India continue to mouth the platitude that "terrorism has no religion". Caught terror accused are masked and brought to the courts so that their muslim beards are not seen by the public! The degree of negationism practised by the Indian Government and the Indian media has to be seen to believed. Now that Col. Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh are caught, the Indian media speaks of Hindu terrorism. But, unfortuntely, the fact is that the Hindus always react, they never act.

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