Let
us be intellectually honest about the situation in the media today. How many
right-leaning intellectuals occupy space in the mainstream media as on this
day?
How
many people in the main-stream-media (MSM) have the gumption to say that India
is secular because its rooted in its indigenous culture and not because some leaders in
1947 chose to be so or it is written in the Constitution? Our people wanted to
be secular.
We
constantly hear about the ills of casteism, which we all agree to, but how many
times have we heard about intellectuals appreciating universal outlook deeply
inherent in our culture that sees unity in both living and non-living things.
We don't need a constitution to tell us all religions are equal - we have
followed it, enforced it, fought for it, and upheld it for eons. India is
secular because people of India want it to be secular. We are secular because
majority is Hindu.
The
mind space that Babri Masjid demolition and 2002 riots occupies in the minds of
people of my generation, does Kashmiri Pandit genocide occupy even an iota of
that? Even though it was a far far far far more gruesome tragedy. What hurts me
more is that whenever someone tries to talk about KP exodus, people start
shouting him down saying one cannot compare one riot to another etc. Till today
I don't know any details about KP exodus, although it happened not too far
back. But I am always reminded about the details of Babri Masjid, how it happened,
who said what, who was allegedly behind it.
I
have intellectuals in the media tell me that Jehadi terrorism gained roots in
India after Babri Masjid demolition. People like Amartya Sen, Ghulam Nabi Fai
and others openly blame the demolition for the subsequent terror attacks in
India. That incident created divide in the society and became the roots of
terror in India. And MSM relays that effectively. Not once noticing that KP
exodus in 1989-90 was just prior to that. How many temples must have been destroyed
during the exodus, does anyone know? Has anyone seen Hindu terrorist outfits
(if it exists) throw bombs every other month the way and the frequency at which
it has happened with Jehadi terrorists over the last decade?
I
have the west cry foul about Wendy Doniger's book withdrawal shouting for
freedom of speech, but no one raised a voice when Modi was denied speaking at
the Wharton university, or when Subramanian Swamy was banned from taking
courses in Harvard for an Oped he wrote in India.
We
hear paeans about Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru but nothing at all about Sardar
Patel. We hear all sorts of perverse insinuations and expletives about RSS, but
no one talks about the amount of relief work they have done in all the national
tragedies and calamities, be -it earthquake or tsunami, or the Uttarakhand
disaster. No one talks about how RSS workers were active in protecting the
Sikhs during the 1984 riots.
An
Imam on Timesnow newshour as a matter of fact says that for Muslims - Islam is
greater than the country and justifies not singing Vande Mataram. But still
goes on to argue how Modi is communal. These are the people who are given voice
by the media to preach us secularism.
If I
was not an alert reader, I would have fallen for all this nonsense and
concluded that 2002 was the greatest tragedy in the history of India, RSS
harbor terrorists, Hinduism has nothing good in it - only filled with caste
divisions and other superstitious ritual nonsense, Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru are
the only supreme leaders of India's conscience. And trust me, I know of many of
my younger friends, my cousins who tend to think this way because that is what
OCCUPIES MOST of the media-space.
It's
about time right-leaning minds find their legitimacy in public discourse, and
their voice respected and heard without branding them one way or the other, or
making them feel apologetic about their views.
Background:
This is an old Facebook post that I wrote long back. Putting it on the blog for
reference.
