[Reader-list] Media Circus and Beyond!

[srirang jha]

*Dear All,
*
I read 'Media Circus at Jamia' and subsequent comments. Interestingly, all
of us crave for truth. And yet criticize media. While we are dicussing the
issue of encounter at L-18, we are using online media. And no one has any
problem. But when TV channles try to provide minute by minute account of any
event/accident/mishap/genocide/encounter etc. we are bothered. We are more
bothered becuase in a particular case, it reinforces a defined "stereotype".

My dear friend Dr Shams Eqbal, Urdu Editor, National Book Trust, Delhi lives
in that area. And he had expressed his angst three-four years ago. He said
that no one knows when anyone's house may be raided by the police. He said
that many law-abiding and pious Muslims stay in that area. It is evident
from  the fact that the owner of L-18 had let out his house only after
getting the poice verification of the tenants done. In the TV, the local
citizens' anger against the police action during Ramadan was also shown
which Yusuf may have missed. Immdeiate reaction of the the community may be
due to the grudge held by Shams (and many others). The grudge against police
may also be the result of usual inaction and corruption in the police
establishment.

But then, we must appreciate the role of Media which reached the site and
provided every bit of information about the encounter. It is thanks to the
Media that police actions, police inaction and police excesses are exposed.
If Media stops functioning, people would not know about any human rights
violations. So if we are interested in a report on Human Rights violations,
we must have the guts to see the police action against the "conspirators" of
Delhi blast.

Every conscientious citizen of Delhi, whether Muslim or Hindu, must be
interested in knowing what the police is doing. And Media was just doing
that. In the process, if it casused a little inconvenience to the local
community, it should bear it with patience rather than expressing angst. It
is not the routine raid that Shams is annoyed of. It is an extra-ordinary
situation.

Second thing that I wanted to say is that whenever such incidents as riots,
bombing, genocide, etc occur, we (intellectuals of both the communities) try
to justify or at least cover up the act by inventing appropriate rationale.
And this is why we loose sense of objective reality. That has happened to
the author of 'Media Circus'. We need to understand the roots of terrorism
and casuses of stereotyping. The Muslim intellectuals can use this (Delhi
Bomb Blast) as an opportunity to debunk the stereotype by speaking in one
voice against terrorism and fundamentalism. They are often misunderstood as
they start talking about Human Rights and draw a rationale on the basis of
some past incident (as if they intend to justify the acts of terrorists!).

Again, it is possible that the Muslim intellectuals may say that why should
they take initiatives when the Hindu intellectuals are sitting idle? (I am
using Muslim and Hindu prefixes just for convenience implying the religion
they follow rather than suggesting any fundamentalist overtones).

So we need to introspect why our youth are loosing the righteous path and
trying to achieve an impossibel task (such as establishing an Islamic State
as per SIMI  objectives)by means of a wrong roadmap (bombing)?

I invite all the intellectuals to consider what can we do to save our nation
from all sorts of fundamentalist and terrorist forces?

Can we really move beyond criticizing the media, the police, the state, the
religious institutions, the unknown forces?

I am myself a victim of the Delhi Blast. And I am looking for an objective
reality. Few of my dear friends who happen to be muslims -Qamar Javed
(Dehradun), Md. Firoz (Dubai), Nasiha Munib (Pune), Faruque Ali (Bhagalpur)
and many others are concerned. Please do something so that the scenario of
distrust does not develop.

Best Regards,
Srirang Jha