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At 60, India hunts
villains; avoid mirror
WSN Bureau
 Indian
Independence Day celebrations would have played out in myriad
colours a few hours before this issue reaches your hands. By all
available accounts, the blood and pain of dismembered Punjabis seems
to have been decisively left behind as Indian media searched for its
heroes and villains.
Not one of the mainstream Indian dailies even referred to the fact
that a brave nation of Sikhs went through hell and more and was
separated from its beloved Sri Nankana Sahib and other gurughars.
Not one news channel even broached the subject that every single
day, and several times in a day, every Sikh wants to be reunited
with its heritage and legacy left behind due to short-sighted
policies and ambitions of small men in the years leading to the
August 15, 1947 Partition.
Never has history witnessed so much of blood and shared pain going
waste amidst corporate din and crafty politics.
When the WSN team planned a Special Report on the State of the Media
in India as it marks the 60th anniversary of its Independence (see
page 15), it had no idea that a leading English language weekly
magazine will rush to vindicate that decision. Outlook magazine,
zeal overflowing in presenting the new India, drew up a list of
villains and bunged in Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and someone
it named "The faceless terrorist" along with the likes of Nathu Ram
Godse, etc.
How
seriously should one take this list is clear from the fact that
while recounting the difficulties of life in Kashmir for the common
people in another story in the same issue, it thought the long queue
at the airport is a major problem for the valley residents. Such is
the worldview of journalists sitting in Delhi’s cozy magazine
offices.
A
few years back, it was none other than the Outlook which had a
sketch of a donkey on the cover and a story called "Dumbing Down of
the Media" to go with it. It might as well have put the Outlook’s
thinking brains on the cover of that issue, or perhaps it did.
No
serious contemplation of the national or international problems was
undertaken before declaring that the unnamed terrorist is a villain
and "His existence is symptomatic of India’s hopes gone awry." Yes,
but how? Did Outlook even try to understand what it takes to tie
some RDX around your stomach and blow yourself up at a time when the
only punishment that the Indian justice dispensing system can think
of is capital punishment? In times of Jihad, capital punishment is a
temptation. Beant Singh was killed because the Indian state was
apathetic to a Chief Minister and a DGP letting loose a regime of
fake encounters, and the Centre was actively backing that. You can
call Dilawar Singh a terrorist, and hang Jagtar Singh Hawara and
Balwant Singh, but history’s verdict is still awaited. The little
kids in the streets of Gaza throwing but only a small stone at the
marauding tanks are the kind of terrorists such thinking is
nurturing.
Sant Bhindranwale refused to participate in the politics of
falsehood, and with his steadfast stance, exposed not only the
Indian establishment’s hollowness but also the falsehoods of some
fellow Akalis. Since when has Outlook carried a dispassionate
analysis to reach the conclusion that he ordered killings of Hindus?
But then its editor Vinod Mehta can’t be blamed in times when world
powers went with open eyes to look for WMDs in regions where their
best sleuths told them none existed. Oh, by the way, was that Mr
Mehta’s sketch on the cover about dumbing down of the media?
Outlook’s real face is becoming increasingly visible in recent
times. It did a story sometime back saying more than 80 per cent of
the Sikh youth are getting their hair cut, a clear lie. Then, while
painting the Sant as a hero, it says the Sant wanted to reform Sikhs
who "had taken to drugs and clipping their beards." We did not know
it was such a villainous aspiration. But this is exactly what the
Indian establishment had a problem with. A rennaisance among the
Sikhs would have been a real problem for New Delhi, and agents of
the establishment would paint anyone a villain. Mr Mehta, every son
born to a Sikh woman is a ‘Bhujangi’, so there you have all the
villains. How many photos can you publish in your magazine? Do look
up what ‘Bhujangi’ means in any dictionary, and you won’t be able to
get a good night’s sleep.
And
if you would just check how many posters of the Sant are sold at
every religious fair in Punjab, the Outlook might as well plan its
next issue in a new light.
Of
the 500 plus districts in India, more than 200 are directly affected
by naxalite violence, violence at the roots of which is poverty,
discrimination, stupid development policies, a stubborn refusal to
understand that other ways of life and living style exist,
officialdom’s apathy, and the Indian state’s decision that
everything can be handled by its security forces. In the north,
Kashmir has been in ferment for so long that no Urdu poetry about
the Dal Lake brings joy anymore. The north-east has been smouldering
for decades. In India's west, entire swathes of Gujarat and
Maharashtra are swamped in either rank communalism or parochialism
while the media focuses on the colour of Sanjay Dutt’s shirt. The
combined Indian opposition and sections of the ruling UPA are
accusing the Congress of flouting the will of the Parliament and
surrendering the sovereignty of the country. Every single protest is
handled now by the police, paramilitary and army. Fake encounters
are not stopping. Police custody deaths have stopped making it to
front pages. Hundreds of thousands are dying simply because they
want to cross rivers in rickety boats; hundreds die because buses
roll over into khuds regularly. Millions sleep on hungry stomachs
when grain godowns are bursting at the seams. Official India does
not hear the cries. It is dumb and deaf and blind but not helpless.
New Delhi talks of cell phone density when farmers commit suicide.
Landless labourers are unable to understand why every inch of
India’s visible skyline suddenly supports huge hoardings asking
everyone to buy foreign brands, wear Gucci shoes, sport Chanel bags,
and ad lib. This Independence Day, India’s Jana Gana Mana on myriad
TV channels was paid for by Airtel, a cellular provider company. The
state has turned on against its citizens so that a few can have a
good life, the state has obliterated the concept of human rights,
the state has given up the idea of welfare state, the state has
turned into an oppressor. Official India has taken a side, and it is
not in favour of the millions of oppressed, poor, deprived, and
discriminated against. If we do have an outlook, any Outlook would
have identified it as the villain. Some years ago, at least sections
of the media used to do that, but then Delhi’s cozy offices and nice
evenings among the Indian power elite do change a magazine man. Some
time he looks like the sketch on its cover.
15 August, 2007
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