By
New Age Islam Edit Desk
29 December
2020
• A Tale
Of Two Sacred Spaces In Ayodhya
By
Apoorvanand
• Pak
Moves Don’t Bode Well For Balochistan
By
Tilak Devasher
• The
Boot’s On The Secular Face
By
Mathew John
•
‘Strong’ Govt Not Enough To Secure Consent
By
Zoya Hasan
The Media
Must Become The Voice Of The People Again
By
Markandey Katju
----
A Tale
of Two Sacred Spaces In Ayodhya
By
Apoorvanand
Dec 28,
2020
Ayodhya, Dhamipur proposed Mosque
------
The
unveiling of the design of the mosque which is to be built at Dhannipur,
Ayodhya, has ignited a debate. This debate is not only about Muslims, but also
about others and India as a civilised space. Also, about the idea of the
relationship between the sacred and the worldly.
The ‘new’
mosque is located safely away from the site where Babri Masjid stood for more
than 500 years till it was destroyed under the watch of the Indian state and
judiciary. Twenty-eight years after that ‘crime’, its land was taken away from
Muslims to be given to the aspiring masters of the ‘New India’. The Supreme
Court very sagaciously thought that Muslims should not feel deprived and
granted them five acres of land in lieu of what was taken away from them.
Cheated in
1949, violated in 1992 and humiliated in 2019, Muslims have been asking whether
the generosity of the court should be accepted or not. There is a view that the
land of a mosque cannot be bartered. The Muslims lost in the Supreme Court,
justly or unjustly, and the matter ends there. There cannot be a mosque in lieu
of the Babri mosque. But another view, articulated by the Uttar Pradesh Sunni
Wakf Board is that this is a new mosque legally allotted and acquired by the
trust after paying a stamp duty of Rs 9,29,400. There is another view that the
land should be taken for a mosque that should come up there with a plaque
telling future visitors about the cause of its creation. That would be the
story of deception and destruction. This debate shows that Muslims think in
diverse ways and speak in different voices.
That apart,
the design of the planned mosque has been hailed as ‘futuristic’. It has three
elements. The rectangular layout of the complex at Dhannipur village includes a
multispecialty hospital, community kitchen and a museum housed in a
multi-storied vertical structure. These will be metres away from the mosque and
a century-old Sufi shrine will be in between. The designers have claimed, “This
round-shaped mosque imbibes modernity, breaking away from the past, and will
mirror the future in the truest spirit of Islam. We are also laying emphasis on
hospital, library and other facilities to serve society.”
That it
does not have a dome, which is stereotypically attached with mosques, has also
been noted. It is, however, ironical that the design of the Ram temple to be
constructed on the Babri mosque land has five domes. It boasts of being the
first temple in the world with five domes. So, you have a mosque without a dome
and a temple with multiple domes!
Another
curiosity is that is a mosque without a dome safe, by being less ‘offensive’ to
the non-Muslims? I recall Atali where poor Muslims were attacked even when they
were attempting to build a mosque which was not to have any dome! Only a
covered space! But that was not allowed.
The design
attempts to address the anxiety to shed the baggage of the past and also prove
to society at large that sacredness is entwined with service to the humanity,
even beyond the Ummah, for the kitchen and hospital would be available to all
irrespective of their religion. But mosques in the past and even in the present
have served this purpose. It was not very unusual to the Muslims to attach
education or scholarship and service with their sacred spaces.
The mosque
or masjid is a shared space where people get together to mingle with the
unseen, unfathomable, the Supreme. The aspiration to transcend is also because
of the awareness of the limits or boundaries of the individual self. Being
religious entails a ceaseless striving to free oneself of narrowness and
smallness. You cannot do this without sharing what you think is yours with
others. If you do not attend to the needy, your rituals go waste. The Quran
keeps alerting its followers of their limitation: “Man is by nature timid; when
evil befalls him, he panics, but when good things come to him, he prevents them
from reaching others.” So, a constant reminder to the Muslims that the main
objective is to reach out to others.
Feeding the
hungry and tending the sick are therefore the first religious acts. The new
design is essentially following the edict of Islam by attaching a hospital and
a community kitchen to the mosque. The design is cosmic, wishing to impart a feeling
of the whole earth by planting flora and fauna brought from all parts of the
world, including the Amazon forests. Zero carbon emission and powered by solar
energy are the other features which make this design modernistic.
The design
looks magnificent. There are those who ask if the authorities would disapprove
of the kitchen and hospital as these might seem like ‘inducements’ to people to
come closer to Islam. There are others who think that at last Muslims have been
coaxed to accept modernity. One knows that there is a temptation for the
majority community in India to modernise Muslims and drag them out of their
‘backwardness’.
Ignoring
these cynics, one might say that the design of the new mosque is an invitation
to all Indians to feel affinity to the idea of the sacred in Islam, which they
think is foreign or alien to them or at the very least very different. It would
not be surprising if people compare the two ‘sacred’ places: one, a temple in
the name of Ram which would come up at the land of the Babri mosque which
disappeared in a serial act of wanton destruction. The other, a mosque which
would always be a reminder of this injustice. One which points towards the
infinity and unbeknown future and one which invents a mythical past, one which
has been achieved by undoing the past and present of another community. One
structure which thinks about human frailties and by addressing them seeks to
touch the divine and is based on the idea of openness and sharing, the other
which is exclusionary.
It can be
said that despite its magnificence, the design of the Ayodhya mosque is not
boastful. But it should not lead us to patronisingly applaud the designers for
having moved on, for de-stereotyping the Islamic practices. It must be a
reminder of the inability of the majority community to be at ease with the
notion of sacred among other communities, of an impoverished imagination which
cannot connect with any other, of a politics which has dug a chasm between two
neighbours, and therefore the need to again reach out, extend hands and
transcend. Because it is doing all this that defines humanness.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/a-tale-of-two-sacred-spaces-in-ayodhya-190343
---
Pak Moves
Don’t Bode Well For Balochistan
By
Tilak Devasher
Dec 28,
2020
Several
recent developments point towards an ominous plan that the hybrid
army-sustained Imran Khan government has devised to further subjugate
Balochistan in order to secure Chinese interests.
In 2015,
English daily Dawn had talked about a fencing plan to protect Gwadar from
attacks of Baloch nationalists whereby local residents would get residence
cards while all outsiders coming into the city would be registered at entry
points. An April 2016 article in the Wall Street Journal mentioned that the
Chinese were pushing for a 65-mile fence around the whole town for purposes of
security, with a special permit required by anyone— including locals— to enter.
The fencing
that was earlier talked about has now been initiated. While details are scanty,
it is believed that security fences with surveillance cameras would be laid
around a major part of the city. Two or three entry and exit points will
regulate the flow of people with residents being given a residence card,
without which entry would not be possible. Such a procedure would be akin to
the apartheid era system of passes that kept the native population of South
Africa under control by regulating their movement.
Curiously,
details of the Gwadar port are not in the public domain. A Senate panel was
informed in November 2020 that the contract governing affairs of the Gwadar
port was “confidential” and its details could not be disclosed publicly. The
local Baloch perceive lack of transparency and the fencing as a conspiracy to
displace them from the city, change its demography and ultimately separate
Gwadar from Balochistan.
Then there
is the use of the new term ‘south Balochistan’ to describe the Makran coast
that has crept into the vocabulary of the federal government. On a visit to
Balochistan on September 11, 2020, Imran Khan expressed his desire for
development of the southern districts. In November 2020, the federal cabinet
announced a Rs 600-billion package for development exclusively of the nine
districts of south Balochistan over the next three years.
Prior to this,
there was no geographical categorisation and for purposes of administration,
‘divisions’ and ‘districts’ were used. The army has a southern command based in
Quetta that was earlier commanded by Lt Gen Asim (Papa John) Bajwa who now
heads the CPEC Authority. The paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan was
divided into North and South regions in 2017. The areas referred to as south
Balochistan by the government are the same as those in the FC South.
Similar
past development packages of 2009 and 2017 have had a dismal history of
implementation. More than the fate of the package, however, the Baloch are
concerned and suspicious because it could well be the beginning of a conspiracy
to separate the coast from the rest of Balochistan in the name of development
and security. As a former chief minister put it: ‘There is only one Balochistan
and there can be no Southern, Northern, Eastern or Western Balochistan.’
Likewise, it is believed that the federal government would be in complete
control of south Balochistan and the province as a whole would lose its
precious coast and Gwadar port.
Making
matters worse was the recent promulgation of an ordinance to set up a Pakistan
Islands Development Authority (PIDA) for “development and management of islands
in internal and territorial waters of Pakistan.” The people of Sindh and
Balochistan have seen this as Islamabad muscling its way into their coast and
taking control of their islands. Sindh is up in arms over the attempted
takeover of two islands off Karachi and now the Baloch are concerned over the
possible federal takeover of south Balochistan.
An
important question is about funding. The federal government is not only broke
but under massive debt and is seeking loans from all and sundry. It has just
secured a $1- billion loan from ‘iron brother’ China to repay the ‘brotherly
country’ of Saudi Arabia. So, the moot question is why announce a package when
there are no funds unless the intention was not development but creation of
south Balochistan?
These
developments confirm one thing above all: despite what the government and the
army have been saying, the Baloch insurgency is a major security challenge for
Pakistan and for the Chinese investments. The challenge is being met by fencing
Gwadar, the outlet for CPEC, and taking initial steps to divide Balochistan and
assuming control of the southern portion. The justification that these
districts are backward does not hold since all districts of Balochistan are
backward too. Thus, the underlying reasons for this package are strategic — an
attempt to pacify the Makran region that is believed to be the hotbed of
insurgency and so allow the CPEC projects in Gwadar to fructify without
hindrance.
Additionally,
there are massive human rights violations being committed by the army that
include thousands of Baloch who have been subjected to ‘enforced disappearance’
as well as the suspicious death in 2020 of at least two Baloch activists in
exile — Sajid Hussain in Sweden and Karima Baloch in Canada. It is clear that
the state has decided to go on an overdrive to impress the Chinese that their
investments and citizens are safe. In the process, the Baloch are being pushed
further to the wall.
Under these
circumstances, a mere development package is unlikely to tackle the deep-rooted
and festering political, economic and human rights problems of Balochistan. If
anything, attempts to fence Gwadar and bifurcate Balochistan would only
aggravate the feeling of alienation of the Baloch. The remedy can only be
political, something that the army is unwilling to understand just as they were
unable to perceive the political problem of the then East Pakistan in 1971 with
disastrous consequences for the country.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/pak-moves-dont-bode-well-for-balochistan-190342
------
The Boot’s
On The Secular Face
By
Mathew John
29.12.20
Insightful
commentators on our politics have tried to make sense of the unyielding vishwas
that people repose in the country’s leadership despite economic devastation, a
humiliating military setback, the mauling of the institutions of governance,
and policies that have impoverished and diminished us as a nation. The reason
ascribed to this devotion is an undiminished belief in a charismatic leader who
has sacrificed everything for the nation; who embodies a virile Hindu
nationalism and seeks common good; a visionary who stirs the imagination and
inspires trust even when the vision is flawed. This undying vishwas is shored
up by an unrelenting propaganda helmed by a servile media and is further
abetted by fanatical social media admirers. His invincibility has been
reinforced by a clueless Opposition and by the dissipation of class, caste and
regional affiliations.
This
melange of explanations for the infinite faith in our supreme leader obfuscates
the core determinant of this amaurotic vishwas. The cardinal inspiration for
this unswerving devotion to the leadership stems from what George Orwell calls
“an admiration for power and successful cruelty” against the perceived enemy.
Those occupying the command posts of the institutions of governance have shown
that they know how to deal with the ‘Muslim threat’. Devout bhakts cheer them
on, in much the same way the Roman mobs in the Colosseum did when people were
ripped to shreds by lions.
The last few
years have seen a sustained, wanton offensive against a community that has been
stigmatized like never before. The social terrorism manifested in lynchings,
cow vigilantism, ghar wapsi and love jihad campaigns is the new normal and
designed to consign Muslims to a ghettoized, pariah status. The abrogation of
Article 370 and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, apart from striking at the
heart of our secular Constitution, deliver an unambiguous message that Muslims
are second-class citizens who do not ‘belong’ to the idea of India crafted by
the ruling dispensation.
The
anti-CAA protests from December 2019 to February 2020 were a truly democratic
upsurge spearheaded by women and students who stepped forward to reclaim the
country’s egalitarian essence. The Preamble, the national flag and the national
anthem were the overarching symbols of this mass movement. The unexpected
solidarity across class and community rattled the government, which attacked
anti-CAA protesters as anti-national, tukde tukde gangs fanning anarchy and
endangering the rule of law.
The
anti-CAA protests filled Muslims with fleeting optimism of a more just tomorrow
but, tragically, this fight for equal citizenship rights was snuffed out by the
communal riots in Northeast Delhi that coincided with the deadly pandemic that
ended all protests. The restraints imposed by the pandemic have been used by
the government to tiptoe around its constitutional commitment to the democratic
values of freedom, equality and justice. Using the pandemic as an excuse, the
governing elite has done everything possible to discredit, delegitimize, even
silence the voices speaking for the dispossessed. Draconian laws like the NSA
and the UAPA have been used with devastating effect to stifle dissent. The transformation of the peaceful anti-CAA
protests into a ‘secessionist’ movement propagating ‘armed rebellion’, as
portrayed in the police charge sheets on the Delhi riots, is Kafkaesque in its
distortion.
The first
reports and reactions to a conflagration are often the most telling pointers to
what really happened. The graphic videos and reports of those nightmarish days
in February clearly suggest that the Muslims suffered far greater losses to
life and property than their Hindu neighbours. Three former Supreme Court judges
who visited the riot-hit areas for a personal assessment came away with the
impression that “Muslims seem to have been targeted in the riots.” Official
figures bear this out: around 75 per cent of those killed were Muslim and 85
per cent of properties damaged belonged to Muslims. Fourteen mosques and a
dargah were gutted. The home minister’s initial observation noted “that the
professional assessment is that the violence in the capital has been
spontaneous.” This statement was seen by many as a defensive feint against
allegations that the riots were the upshot of an insidious right-wing plot.
However, after the spin doctors had conjured up an alternative narrative, the
home minister informed Parliament that the riots were “pre-planned”. The
bloodletting had by then mutated into an anti-Hindu riot that was the handiwork
of an ‘Urban Naxal-jihadi’ network.
Muslims are
subjected to everyday harassment, denigration and discrimination. They are
stigmatized as purveyors of corona jihad; they are stopped from selling their
goods in non-Muslim localities; the chief justice of the Telangana High Court
asks in exasperation why only Muslims are pulled up for violating lockdown
rules — the list of woes is endless. Worryingly, the justice system has often
failed to respond to these depredations.
In a truly
egalitarian society, Muslims would fight for justice. But in the face of
institutional bias and a pathological social hostility, this is easier said
than done. Some optimists hope for our own ‘George Floyd moment’, but seeing
the ground realities today, I keep visualizing Orwell’s grim prognosis: “If you
want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face —
forever.”
https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/anti-caa-protests-were-a-truly-democratic-upsurge-spearheaded-by-women-and-students/cid/1801939
------
‘Strong’
Govt Not Enough To Secure Consent
By
Zoya Hasan
Dec 29,
2020
THE past
few years have witnessed unprecedented opposition on the streets from students,
farmers, workers, women, Dalits and Muslims. Farmers’ protests against
amendments to the Land Acquisition Act (2014); student protests against
unrelenting interference in universities (2016); protests against mob lynching
of Muslims (2015) and against the dilution of SC/ST Act (2017); the countrywide
protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019-20; and the
ongoing farmers’protests against the three agriculture Acts — all of these
provoked by controversial policies have generated mass demonstrations and
unrest.
While
public protests seem to have progressively increased in scale and intensity,
the government’s response has been predictable — ranging from reluctant
accommodation of some to largely ignoring others or brutally suppressing a few
with the help of heavy-handed crackdowns to branding opponents as
anti-nationals. The month-long farmers’ protest is the biggest so far and poses
the most serious challenge to the government’s economic agenda. But these too
have drawn a predictable response from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders
and its spokesmen in the media and from its troll armies. However, neutralising
these protests through the usual tactics of divide and rule hasn’t worked,
unlike the anti-CAA protests, which were brutally curtailed through such
tactics.
The massive
mobilisation of farmers rocking Delhi is different from most other protests in
recent decades. While the most visible face of the protests are Sikh farmers
from Punjab, they have been joined by farmers’ unions and trade unions from
various states. It is clearly not an identity or regional protest; it is a
protest about farmers and their concerns expressed through their singular
demand to repeal the three controversial farm laws.
Farmers
from India’s granary are indubitably unhappy with these laws passed hastily in
the middle of the pandemic without proper consultation. Pleas for consultation
were brushed aside before the ordinances were converted into laws by
short-circuiting established processes and voting procedures. Above all, these
laws weren’t discussed or debated in any meaningful and sustained way with the
groups who stand to be affected by them. This undemocratic approach has
precipitated the present crisis compounded by the manifest intent to make
far-reaching changes in Indian agriculture by removing the State from the
equation and encourage corporatisation which many farmers fear will ultimately
drive down crop prices, devastating their livelihoods.
Even though
the two protests are dissimilar, commentators have drawn comparisons between
the farmers’ protests and the Anna Hazare movement which contributed to the
collapse of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The Anna movement was
dominated by the urban middle class and promoted by the media while the
farmers’ protests which cut across caste, class, and religious identities is
not backed by the mainstream media. The Anna movement was much smaller in
scale. Yet, it had a major impact on the political fortunes of the UPA
government and in shifting the political discourse to the Right.
The Anna
movement had apparently positioned itself in the non-political space, denying
its platform to any politician. But it’s evident that it had the backing of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates and sympathisers. The
movement helmed by India Against Corruption (IAC) was propped up by the RSS-BJP
to finish UPA-2. They succeeded despite Manmohan Singh conceding to all of
Hazare’s demands — Joint Drafting Committee (JDC); holding a special Parliament
session; and passing the Lokpal Bill. The JDC comprising Hazare’s nominees and
ministers for drafting the Bill was termed by the UPA government as an ‘extra
layer of consultation’ and a ‘new experience’, thus according unelected
activists the same legitimacy as elected representatives. Additionally, the UPA
government sent its emissaries to the Ramlila Maidan for mediation with Team
Anna and senior ministers, including Pranab Mukherjee, went to the Delhi
airport to meet Ramdev in a bid to persuade him to call off his impending fast.
The salient
difference between the response of the two governments relates to their
fundamentally different approach to dissent and protests. The space for dissent
is much narrower under the present dispensation. Thus, the BJP has tried to
weaken and defame the agitation by labelling it as anti-national, Khalistani or
ultra-Left and blamed political opponents, namely Congress and Left leaders,
for their bid to ‘mislead’ farmers. This government is generally not inclined
to concede political space and will not allow its opponents to gain an upper
hand. Whereas there was no attempt by the previous government to
institutionally subvert the Anna movement, in fact, the latter faced no
obstacles in bringing the corruption issue to the political centre stage which
crystallised public opinion against the UPA and ultimately hastened its
downfall. The BJP is also not bothered as it believes alienating farmers is
unlikely to dent its winning spree in elections.
However,
because people in large numbers support the position taken by the farmers, the
centrality of agriculture to the Indian economy, not to speak of the huge
numbers involved in agriculture, the farmers have managed to compel the
government to hold talks with them. A ministerial panel has held negotiations
with the farm leaders, whereas nothing of the sort happened during the anti-CAA
protests which suited the BJP politically in polarising and consolidating its
Hindu vote bank. But even while engaging with farmers, the government has
insisted that it will talk to them mainly to remove their ‘misconceptions’
about farm laws, and not to repeal them. The farm unions, on the other hand,
are unwilling to settle for anything less than complete repeal. This is a
gridlock the government had not bargained for when rushing through the farm laws.
The
downside of an insensitive and unyielding government which functions through
fist and force is obvious. That the BJP’s moves so far have failed is also
evident. That’s why it will not emerge unscathed from this crisis even as
people who are struggling will gain strength from the resilience of this
historic protest. The sizeable pushback from farmers and other groups over the
past few years shows that ‘charismatic’ leadership and a ‘strong’ government
are not enough to secure consent, leave alone support. The refusal of farmers
to budge in the face of structural, physical and symbolic violence from various
quarters indicates the limits of ‘majority rule’ and ‘dominance without
hegemony’.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/strong-govt-not-enough-to-secure-consent-190773
-----
The Media
Must Become the Voice of the People Again
By
Markandey Katju
29 December
2020
The Fourth
Estate in India must attack feudal forces like casteism, communalism, religious
bigotry and attempts to polarise society
Today a
large part of the Indian media has lost its voice and the trust of the people,
too. It has become a “godi media.” Instead of being the Fourth Estate and
serving the Indian people, it has largely become part of the First Estate, as
stated by eminent journalist and Magsaysay Award winner Ravish Kumar. This
brings us to the key question: What is the role of the media?
This was
explained by Justice Hugo Black of the US Supreme Court in The New York Times
vs. US, 1971 (the Pentagon Papers case) in these stirring words: “In the First
Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free Press the protection it must have
to fulfil its essential role in our democracy. The Press was to serve the
governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the Press was
abolished so that the Press would remain forever free to censure the
Government. The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the
Government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained Press can
effectively expose deception in Government. And paramount among the
responsibilities of a free Press is the duty to prevent any part of the
Government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to
die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell. In my view, far from
deserving condemnation for their courageous reporting, The New York Times, The
Washington Post and other newspapers shoud be commended for serving the purpose
that the Founding Fathers saw so clearly. In revealing the workings of the
Government that led to the Vietnam war, the newspapers nobly did precisely that
which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do.”
Historically,
the media arose in England and France in the 17th and 18th centuries as an
organ of the people against feudal oppression. At that time all the organs of
power were in the hands of the feudal authorities (kings, aristocrats and so
on). Hence,the people had to create new organs which would represent their
interests and the media (apart from the Parliament), was one of these new organs.
In Europe and America, it represented the voice of the future, in contrast to
the old, feudal organs which wanted to preserve the status quo.
Great
writers like Voltaire, Rousseau, Thomas Paine and so on used the media (which
was then only print media and that, too, not in the form of regular newspapers
but pamphlets and leaflets) to combat feudalism, religious bigotry and
superstitions.
Thus, the
media was of great help in transforming European society from the feudal to the
modern age. India’s national aim is to transform itself from an underdeveloped
to a highly developed and highly industrialised country. If we don’t do so, we
will remain condemned to massive poverty, record unemployment, appalling level
of child malnourishment, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good
education for the masses, among other things.
Our media
must play an important role in this historical transformation, as the European
media did. But for that it must stop behaving like a mouthpiece and serve the
governed, not the governors (as Justice Black said in his judgment). The Indian
media must attack feudal forces like casteism and communalism, condemn
religious bigotry and attempts to polarise our society. It must promote
scientific ideas, social harmony and the unity of our people. It should stop
diverting attention from real issues and focusing on relative non-issues like
the lives of film stars and cricketers (e.g. the suicide of Sushant Singh
Rajput, allegations made by Kangana Ranaut, Kareena Kapoor’s second pregnancy
and Virat Kohli’s decision to take paternity leave and so on), petty politics,
astrology, among others, and instead focus on the real issues, which are mainly
socio-economic. This includes the problems of unemployment, malnourishment,
lack of healthcare, price rise, the agrarian crisis and so on.
For years,
the Indian media turned a Nelson’s eye
to the large number of farmers’ suicides in our country, until a brave
journalist, P Sainath, revealed the sad truth through his persistent reporting.
It was only then that the rest of the media began reporting the agrarian
distress in the country.
Some years
ago, a fashion show was held in Mumbai during the Lakmé Fashion Week in which
the models wore cotton outfits. This event was covered by over 500
fashion/lifestyle journalists while the farmers who produced that cotton were
committing suicide just an hour’s flight away, in Vidarbha. No one covered
those suicides except for a few local journalists.
Many TV
anchors forget their journalistic ethics and just indulge in propaganda. To
give an example, some time ago an organisation called the Tablighi Jamaat was
lambasted by the media as spreaders of the Coronavirus. They were even given
despicable names like “Corona jihadis” and “Corona bombs.” I made a personal
investigation into this and found that the allegations against the Tablighi
Jamaat were false. The Tablighi Jamaat is a religious organisation which meets
at its Markaz in Delhi once or twice a year, where Muslims come from several
countries. This year, too, many people came from Indonesia, Malaysia,
Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates and so on. Some of them were apparently
infected with the virus, without being aware of it. But to say that they
knowingly brought the disease with them to spread it in India, as propagated by
certain sections of the media, was patently false (as indeed the court has now
found).
Another
example of the partisan behaviour of the “godi media” is the way they have
characterised the ongoing farmers’
agitation as a movement of Khalistanis, Pakistanis, Maoists and anti-nationals.
Countless examples of this kind of biased reporting can be given.
One can
only hope that the Indian media will some day get over its sorry plight and
emerge as a champion of the people instead of being, to use US President Donald
Trump’s words, “an enemy of the people.” Only then will it earn the people’s
respect.
----
Markandey
Katjuis a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. The views expressed are
personal.
https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/columnists/the-media-must-become-the-voice-of-the-people-again.html
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