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Breaking Indian News
Somewhere
along the line, the only understanding of nationalism which seeped
through the mainstream Indian media is rabid nationalism. ‘Mera
Bharat Mahaan’, wrong or right be damned. We dissect here a splash
in The Indian Express this Sunday to show you how the Indian media
is cooking its own versions of Samosa Politics like stories
 During the years of militancy in Punjab, apart from
the grievances against the Indian state, the Sikh community largely
had problems with the Indian media. Even earlier, during the Punjab Suba Morcha, the Mahasha press in Punjab, egged on by the federal
Indian mind resolutely focused against the Sikhs, encouraged a large
number of Punjabi Hindus to state their mother tongue as Hindi even
though they could hardly even converse with the migrant laborers
from Bihar. This resulted in skewed census and eventually a skewed
and truncated state of Punjab from which vast swathes of Punjabi
speaking reas were carved away into Haryana. The late 1980s and
early 1990s witnessed the media, including the so-called elite
English language newspapers, taking a line that had a pronounced
anti-Sikh stance. The way Sant Bhindranwale’s image was projected
seemed to be a well thought out conspiracy to present a
Frankensteinian monster rather than a leader who had shunned power,
family, selfish interests, even the love of life for saying what he
believed in, and had chosen to lead by example. More than two
decades after the Operation Bluestar, the Indian media finds it very
important to report that posters of the Sant still sell at religious
congregations, but it does not think it fit to report why Shaheed
Bhagat Singh and Sant Bhindranwale are the only two iconic figures
in Punjab whose posters sell in huge numbers. This, when even
possessing or publishing the Sant’s pictures, is seen as a
problematic activity. Non-Sikh scholars have shied away from a
dispassionate analysis of the Sant’s speeches. Almost every word of
what he used to say is available on cassettes easily available, and
his actions remain unsung in the domain of mainstream politics
though people refuse
to forget the man and the movement that underlined a renaissance in
the Sikh society.
The Sant’s name is invoked by a motley group of people every year on
June 6 at a function at Akal Takht, and this year, like often
earlier,the jathedar of the Akal Takht referred to him as a great
martyr, but that is not how any leader of the Akali Dal, much less
Parkash Singh Badal, would ever refer to him. The Badals and his
Akalis, given a choice, would rather never refer to him. They have
the choice these days, and do exactly that.
But the media, off and on, continues to play its nefarious role. In
the wake of the Dera Sacha Sauda controversy, when the Sacha Sauda
head clearly imitated the tenth Guru, imitated the Amrit Sanchar
ceremony, even sartorial imagery, and his followers indulged in
violence and threats, the media found much to blame the Sikhs about:
“Look at the naked swords!”, it shouted across TV channels. At the
end, except for one Sikh killed by dera men, no violence had
happened!
But the trend continues. Most of the Hindi and English media have
sent a picture across the country which largely tars the Sikhs.
Outside Punjab, a simplified message is filtering down: “The dera
had supported the Congress, the Sikhs’ party Akali Dal was angry
with it. They have got it embroiled in problems. That is why they
are not accepting the Baba’s apology, and every time the Sikhs find
some fault with it.”Sections of the English media lose no
opportunity in harking back to the days of militancy and revoking
the image of the Sant and his men as some kind of monsters, or
fanatics. On Sunday, the Indian Express, a leading Indian English
daily, devoted two whole pages with damning text and hugely splashed
photos to connect fanaticism and the anti-Dera Sacha Sauda struggle,
and in the process, distorted the happenings. Devoid of any
perspective, young journalists fall in the pitfall of ultran a t i o
n a l i s m while editorial judgment either
remains in the hands of intellectual crooks or punysized
hair-brained men called “resident editors’.
“Decades after terrorism eased its grip in Punjab,the violent
controversy over Dera Sacha Sauda revived flickers of fear.
Extremism, it appeared, was returning to life; the Sikh right wing
seemed to be finding a new voice.” This is how The Indian Express
article began, clearly betraying the political bias of the writer.
Two sentences later, the article puts the Op Bluestar death toll at
600, something that even beats New Delhi’s claims. “Today, the
children of those who died then want nothing to do with extremism,
Dera Sacha Sauda or otherwise.” Perhaps the Indian Express is of the
view that ideological positions are hereditary in nature. While the
WSN has no comment to make if the reporter or editor has inherited
the rabid nationalism through genes, instruments of intellectualism
should keep pretences of neutrality to say the very least. “Normal
lives...includes good education, fulfilling careers and religious
restraint.” In Sikhism, that includes standing up for one’s rights,
even the other’s rights, and going to war to save peace
The Express makes a cursory mention of the fact that Bhai Amrik
Singh was doing his PhD when the Op Bluestar occured. But it does
not occur to the paper to understand why a doctorate student with no
known bad habits would prefer to die in an unequal war. The
newspaper rather talked about his family members and presents a
picture of normalcy. Here is the truth: Bhai Amrik Singh’s children
Paramjeet and Satwant are lecturers in zoology and English, their
younger brother Tarlochan is pursuing his masters degree in IT. Bhai
Amrik Singh’s wife Harmeet Kaur had to work in the fields after the
husband’s martyrdom, not even sure that he has been killed. Bhai
Sahib’s mother came to the help of daughter-in-law (The Express
forgot to ask what help did the all-caring government extend), the
family suffered constant harassment after her husband’s death. “If
guests visited us, the police would surround the house as if a
‘militant’ had come visiting,” the Express quoted Bhai Amrik Singh’s
wife. So what did that say about the Indian state? The Express is
silent.
This is what the Express wrote about the progeny of Sant
Bhindranwale: “After Bhindranwale’s death in Operation Bluestar, his
wife Pritam Kaur cameto Jalandhar from Rode village in Moga district
in 1989 along with her two sons, Ishar Singh and Inderjit Singh.
While Inderjit has been in Canada for the past six years, Ishar is a
property dealer who also runs a small finance company in
Jalandhar. Though himself a matriculate, he wants to provide
good education to his two children and doesn’t want to be involved
in any controversy, religious or otherwise. While Ishar refuses to
talk, according to his family, he has made a life for himself
without help from any radical religious group despite the funds that
his father’s name attracted. In fact, both the brothers are not
linked to any religious body.”
So what did the reporter deduce from the findings? That “A Radical
Change” has occurred. Have you heard of journalists trying to gauge
the fate of French Revolution from the state of the vocation of the
families of those who stormed the Bastille? Read the mainstream
Indian papers for such gems!
18 July, 2007
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