There is no dearth of organisations that operate under camouflaged identities against the interests of the majority community in the country and to ridicule their faith. Pseudo-historians with unflinching loyalties to the ideology of the Left did it. Since the Left did not have faith in religion or God except the God they worshipped like Marx or Lenin or Stalin or Mao whose dubious record is extermination of sizeable section of the humanity in the name of their ideology, these historians also dubbed every faith and belief of the majority as mere “myth”. Therefore, Ram was a “myth”, Krishna was a “thief” or “womaniser.”They also endorsed the Raj’s “invention” of Aryn invasion which has now been conclusively proved to be unadulterated falsehood.
The second category of Hindu-baiters are the secular pretenders. Their only agenda has been to run down all those symbols of the majority community, their ethos and civilizational values. Hindus were mere pagans and they had no sense of history and their values do not go well with the modern civilization and scientific temper.
The third category is the so-called “civil society groups” or differently called “Human Rights Activists”. They won’t mind hobnobbing with the Left extremists or Jihadis and espousing their cause knowing full well that both these groups are anti-national and are working only to overthrow democracy. These groups, whatever their nomenclature, are the front organisations for the “destructive forces” that have been unleashed in this country.
If you have to list out such organisations this column is not adequate for me. But I can name only one organisation which has been in the news recently and which works against the faith and belief of the majority community in the name of science and spreading scientific temper among the people. If you scratch the surface what stands out is their anti-Hindu mindset. It is Jana Vignana Vedika (JVV).
JVV has been running a campaign against the “fish medicine” distributed free of cost by Bathini family to asthmatics for more than 160 years. First, the herbal paste that was given to lakhs of patients from all over the country and abroad every year was ridiculed saying that it was nothing but quackery or at worst, contained “steroids”. Lot of scientific tests were conducted and cases were filed in the courts to restrain the family from going ahead with the distribution of the herbal paste. Ultimately, the scientific tests proved that the paste did not contain “steroids” nor any harmful substance for human consumption. The cases were therefore disposed of.
But this organisation which swears by science could not stomach the clean chit given by scientific institutions. Therefore, this year they came with yet another excuse to stop the distribution of herbal paste. The outfit felt that administration of fish medicine in the manner it was done, could spread contagious diseases due to contamination of water and fish. It held a seminar in Hyderabad on the eve of the distribution of “fish medicine”. A dentist was drafted to endorse its “discovery” that mouth infections like oral herpes, ulcer and other communicable diseases could spread due to consumption of “fish medicine”. Therefore, the JVV wanted the government to take action against Bathina brothers for “exploiting gullible asthmatics”.
After all, you expect an organisation which operates in the name of science to be “scientific” in its approach. Since this practice of administering fish medicine with fish fingerlings as the medium has been going on for decades, do they have any well-documented case histories of patients who suffered contagious disease, oral herpes or other communicable diseases after the administration of medicine? Simply bringing in doctors to endorse the JVV’s prejudice or imagined fear is not science.
The JVV talks about “exploitation of the gullible”. However, media reports say that most of those who came to Hyderabad for fish medicine were not first-timers. Unless, they had reasons to believe that the medicine had some effect on them, they will not be “gullible” enough to come for the second time or third time from distant places. What right JVV has got to question their faith, assuming that it is just faith that may cure?
There are apostles in other religions who claim that they can make a dumb speak, deaf to hear, paraplegic to walk etc etc. They do it on public platforms in the name of “miracle cure”. What happened to the “Vignana” of JVV not to question such practices? Is it not exploitation of the gullible for “harvesting of souls”? Atleast the Bathini family does not have any such ulterior motive in the distribution of fish medicine. That is where the JVV stands exposed with regard to its real intentions. Will it undertake such a virulent campaign if the “fish medicine” were to be distributed either by a Moulvi or Maulana with the active support of MIM? No chance!
True, some of the allopaths also joined the campaign of the JVV. It is no surprise because they have not accepted any other system of medicine and they have been branding such non-allopathic system as “quackery”. If lakhs of people throng for cure in a different system, their branch of medicare is threatened. Some of them demand that the ingredients of the fish medicine to be made public. Well, will they get the Coke formula made public especially when it is consumed by millions of people all over the world and especially when it is proved to be harmful to human health?
Interestingly, some Jain organisations also joined the campaign for entirely different reasons. They were not against the medicine as such, but the fish that is used for administering the medicine. Their concern was for thousands of fish fingerlings that sacrificed themselves for the benefit of man. Understandable. But they can’t question the right of any individual to be a non-vegetarian just because Jains are vegetarians.
I have a suggestion for JVV. Will it take the trouble of spreading scientific awareness with regard to some minor day-to-day issues? One could see even the urban elites spitting on the roads, public places and parks. Is it a healthy habit for the society? There are umpteen road side tiffin centres which are run on most unhygienic conditions leading to gastro problems among the people. Dairy farms are run in thickly populated areas leading to mosquito menace. These are happening throughout the year and not just for one day in a year. These are the issues, among many others, on which the society has to create scientific awareness among the people rather than running after a family which has been doing some service with all good intentions. There is no documentary evidence to prove their intentions to be otherwise except that they sport religious marks which becomes unpalatable to outfits like JVV.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
A NEW LOW IN JOURNALISTIC STANDARDS
With two Telugu news channels devoting almost the entire air time on Tuesday (June 1,10) on a non-issue, as if nothing else happened in the world, it becomes very clear that the powerful visual media outlets have become a tool in the hands of the proprietors to settle personal scores. Besides, television channels have come handy for the disgruntled elements in society to misuse this medium for their own personal agenda.
Let’s take the case of Nityananda. I am not here to hold brief for him. The very fact that he hid himself in a remote village in Himachal Pradesh for two months and chose to be in touch with the outside world through his website does not speak high of his personal character. You don’t expect this from someone who calls himself “Swami” and much worse, “Paramahamsa”. A disgruntled disciple in his own Ashram thought of using the television medium to “expose” Nityananda and a channel which allegedly had some problem with him on land deals, readily obliged the estranged disciple. The channel may claim that it telecast the tape showing Nityananda in a compromising position in “public interest”. May be. I am not here to dispute that. In the process, the channel only helped a grumpy disciple to settle scores with his master. In other words, the channel allowed itself to be used by someone who had a different agenda. Is it ethical?
Close on the heels of this episode, someone who did not like the style of functioning of a Swami in Shimoga, planned to prepare a CD using the look alike of the Swami and showing him to be in a compromising position with women and to circulate it among the television channels in Karnataka. Timely intervention by the Police saved the Swami’s honour. Otherwise, the channels in Karnataka would have gone to town with the tape without any verification.
Whatever may be the defence of the channels in obliging such interested parties, what is irrefutable is that it sets a dangerous trend in the media world.
What is that dangerous trend was seen on Tuesday when two Telugu news channels – NTV and ABN-Andhra Jyoti – kept on telecasting charges and counter charges throughout the day. The issue revolved around another Swami. This time, it was Swami Swarupananda of Vizag-based Sarada Peetam. This Peetam itself is a new one and may be, he is a self-styled Swami. That is beside the point. Bhakti TV, a devotional channel from the NTV stable, has been telecasting Swarupananda’s religious discourses in the channel. The charge by the Swami was that the CEO of NTV demanded one crore rupees for telecasting his discourses and blackmailed him. Incidentally, the same CEO had to quit two television channels earlier under a cloud and the allegations, (one does not know about the veracity of the charges) were similar – extortion and blackmail. The Swami recorded the telephone conversation with CEO of NTV and other business executives and gave the tape to ABN-Andhra Jyoti which readily obliged to telecast the audio tape.
Why did the Swami give the tape to this particular channel when there are twelve more news channels in Telugu? Thereby hangs a tale. Proprietors of NTV and ABN-AJ have long standing rivalry though both belong to the same caste. It appears caste does not seem to be a uniting factor when it comes to business rivalry. ABN-AJ found the tape a wonderful weapon to run down NTV and to paint the proprietor as a blackmailer.
How can NTV take it lying down? It started a propaganda war against ABN-AJ proprietor and Swarupananda. The channel, without any shred of evidence made all sorts of allegations against the Sarada Peetam chief, like land grabbing, misuse of funds donated by the devotees. NTV also carried a spoof in Telangana dialect poking fun at the Swami in a most disgusting language. It was a mockery of press freedom. It is for the legal pundits to examine whether the channel crossed all limits of press freedom and abused it for personal vendetta without any iota of public interest. To make matters worse, the channel used journalists to wage a proxy war against ABN-AJ proprietor and recalled all his past misdemeanours.
This does not mean ABN-AJ emerged as a paragon of virtues. The proprietor himself, a journalist of sorts in his “Poorvashram”, came on the screen in a Q&A programme and dared the rival channel to come out with evidence, if it has any, against him.
We have seen sensationalisation of news, trivialisation of news; but Tuesday saw a new low in journalistic abuse by the proprietors. If NTV blackmailed the Swami, he was free to approach the Police. Of course, he did it, but only after inflicting damage on the channel, for which another channel was a party. Thus, the channels, as I mentioned earlier, have become a tool for blackmail. It will be a misnomer to call them “news channels” or we may have to redefine the concept of “news”. There was a time when a newspaper will not even carry a clarificatory rejoinder if the original story appeared in another daily. But the competition and entry of people who have no commitment to the media except for the political clout one derives to erase the past , the rules of the game have changed. These proprietors have even usurped the office of “editor”. Editors’ prerogative no longer exists and this institution of “editors” itself is facing the threat of extinction.
Someone asked me what is the remedy for this disturbing trend. We need a media council with enough teeth and powers for punitive action to closely monitor these channels and pull them up whenever they go astray. In a democratic set up, we can’t prevent anyone from starting a channel or launching a newspaper. We can only activate the civil society to form media vigil groups so as to create awareness among the readers and viewers to shun those rogue media outlets. Of course, this is easier said than done.
Let’s take the case of Nityananda. I am not here to hold brief for him. The very fact that he hid himself in a remote village in Himachal Pradesh for two months and chose to be in touch with the outside world through his website does not speak high of his personal character. You don’t expect this from someone who calls himself “Swami” and much worse, “Paramahamsa”. A disgruntled disciple in his own Ashram thought of using the television medium to “expose” Nityananda and a channel which allegedly had some problem with him on land deals, readily obliged the estranged disciple. The channel may claim that it telecast the tape showing Nityananda in a compromising position in “public interest”. May be. I am not here to dispute that. In the process, the channel only helped a grumpy disciple to settle scores with his master. In other words, the channel allowed itself to be used by someone who had a different agenda. Is it ethical?
Close on the heels of this episode, someone who did not like the style of functioning of a Swami in Shimoga, planned to prepare a CD using the look alike of the Swami and showing him to be in a compromising position with women and to circulate it among the television channels in Karnataka. Timely intervention by the Police saved the Swami’s honour. Otherwise, the channels in Karnataka would have gone to town with the tape without any verification.
Whatever may be the defence of the channels in obliging such interested parties, what is irrefutable is that it sets a dangerous trend in the media world.
What is that dangerous trend was seen on Tuesday when two Telugu news channels – NTV and ABN-Andhra Jyoti – kept on telecasting charges and counter charges throughout the day. The issue revolved around another Swami. This time, it was Swami Swarupananda of Vizag-based Sarada Peetam. This Peetam itself is a new one and may be, he is a self-styled Swami. That is beside the point. Bhakti TV, a devotional channel from the NTV stable, has been telecasting Swarupananda’s religious discourses in the channel. The charge by the Swami was that the CEO of NTV demanded one crore rupees for telecasting his discourses and blackmailed him. Incidentally, the same CEO had to quit two television channels earlier under a cloud and the allegations, (one does not know about the veracity of the charges) were similar – extortion and blackmail. The Swami recorded the telephone conversation with CEO of NTV and other business executives and gave the tape to ABN-Andhra Jyoti which readily obliged to telecast the audio tape.
Why did the Swami give the tape to this particular channel when there are twelve more news channels in Telugu? Thereby hangs a tale. Proprietors of NTV and ABN-AJ have long standing rivalry though both belong to the same caste. It appears caste does not seem to be a uniting factor when it comes to business rivalry. ABN-AJ found the tape a wonderful weapon to run down NTV and to paint the proprietor as a blackmailer.
How can NTV take it lying down? It started a propaganda war against ABN-AJ proprietor and Swarupananda. The channel, without any shred of evidence made all sorts of allegations against the Sarada Peetam chief, like land grabbing, misuse of funds donated by the devotees. NTV also carried a spoof in Telangana dialect poking fun at the Swami in a most disgusting language. It was a mockery of press freedom. It is for the legal pundits to examine whether the channel crossed all limits of press freedom and abused it for personal vendetta without any iota of public interest. To make matters worse, the channel used journalists to wage a proxy war against ABN-AJ proprietor and recalled all his past misdemeanours.
This does not mean ABN-AJ emerged as a paragon of virtues. The proprietor himself, a journalist of sorts in his “Poorvashram”, came on the screen in a Q&A programme and dared the rival channel to come out with evidence, if it has any, against him.
We have seen sensationalisation of news, trivialisation of news; but Tuesday saw a new low in journalistic abuse by the proprietors. If NTV blackmailed the Swami, he was free to approach the Police. Of course, he did it, but only after inflicting damage on the channel, for which another channel was a party. Thus, the channels, as I mentioned earlier, have become a tool for blackmail. It will be a misnomer to call them “news channels” or we may have to redefine the concept of “news”. There was a time when a newspaper will not even carry a clarificatory rejoinder if the original story appeared in another daily. But the competition and entry of people who have no commitment to the media except for the political clout one derives to erase the past , the rules of the game have changed. These proprietors have even usurped the office of “editor”. Editors’ prerogative no longer exists and this institution of “editors” itself is facing the threat of extinction.
Someone asked me what is the remedy for this disturbing trend. We need a media council with enough teeth and powers for punitive action to closely monitor these channels and pull them up whenever they go astray. In a democratic set up, we can’t prevent anyone from starting a channel or launching a newspaper. We can only activate the civil society to form media vigil groups so as to create awareness among the readers and viewers to shun those rogue media outlets. Of course, this is easier said than done.
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