Monday, April 7, 2014

Scare mongering by Indian media...


The following article was written for Niti Central. Pasting it here for reference:

“HATE SPEECH” screamed the ‘Breaking News’. The usual suspects jumped in immediately.
The Honourable Salil Tripathi:
Media deliberately misinterprets Amit Shah, maligns Modi campaign
The venerable Rana Ayyub:
Media deliberately misinterprets Amit Shah, maligns Modi campaign
Respected N Ram:
Recent developments, including the Parivar’s highly communal campaign in Uttar Pradesh and Amit Shah’s inflammatory rhetoric addressing a Jat audience, are intimations that the BJP, “the most prominent member” of the family of Hindutva organisations, is not about to change its spots.
The one, the only, Sagarika Ghose:
Media deliberately misinterprets Amit Shah, maligns Modi campaign
If you notice, the above snippets have links from The Hindu, The Indian Express and The Times of India. Essentially everyone jumped in telling us that Amit Shah told this to the Jats of Muzzafarnagar, in the most inflammatory tone ever possible, “You need to take revenge for your insult. Vote for BJP, so that we will take revenge.”
If he actually said that, you might ask, is not inflammatory. I agree with you totally. But let’s take a look at what he actually said. The image below is the exact Hindi transcript of what Amit Shah said.
Media deliberately misinterprets Amit Shah, maligns Modi campaign
If you think the above tweets don’t reflect the truth, please watch the video here put up on IBN.
I don’t think Sagarika Ghose watches IBN at all! Her own channel’s website carries out a video, but she links The Indian Express’s article to make her point. Earlier too, she lied that Modi did not take any question on a program conducted by her on channel, whilst he took multiple questions!
Anyways, coming back to the point – the English translation of what Amit Shah said reads:
People feel insulted in the entire UP. They have been treated as second class citizens. There is a feeling that justice has not been done. And the way to take revenge is not through swords and bullets, but by pressing the button. Press the right button and show them their right place.”
The context of swords and bullets came in because of the recent communal strife. He asked them NOT to wield swords but to use the ballot. In what possible way, does this even sound inflammatory? Why does Sagarika Ghose find this “SCARY”? Politicians are now not supposed to use alliterations? Such honours are reserved only for ‘intellectuals’ of a certain hue? These same folks urge people to go out and vote to send a message. These same folks tell us that vote is the most powerful weapon. Should we castigate them for the usage of the word weapon? That’s how ridiculous their argument is!
“Amit Shah stirs controversy” screamed the headlines – the talking heads of TV studios are not capable of realising that it is THEY who have created the controversy and not Amit Shah. In a brazen attempt to polarise the electorate, to win TRP ratings and to whip up passions, large sections of the Indian media have created a dangerous controversy to scare people of a certain community. Yes, make no mistake, this is a shameless attempt by the Indian media to polarise and scare people. Nothing less! Any amount of ‘we were merely reporting’ does not wash away this sin of theirs. They gave a weapon to the Congress party, which as always, has pounced upon this opportunity. There are talks that Amit Shah might be arrested. If that happens, nothing else is more shameful. Of course, the usual suspects will celebrate, for their mission to create and spread hatred has been accomplished.

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