[Reader-list] ‘As Hindus, We Were Expected To Further The Cause With Our Stories’

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear all,

I find it surprising how any expression of difference with the  
received wisdom of what exactly happened in Jammu during the days of  
the Amarnath agitation last year must be treated with this kind of  
callous and ad hominem attack. And since when do journalistic ethics  
include an endorsement of covering up the reality of the reporter's  
own experiences. I think the journalist in question has displayed a  
rare courage in breaking ranks and talking about the reality of the  
atmosphere of a news room as she saw it through a crisis situation. I  
wish there were more, not less people like her, in every newspaper  
and magazine.

Notice, that once again, no effort is made by those on this list who  
are heaping abuse on Simple Pani to rebut the arguments or  
observations made by her on their own merit. All that is done is a  
blanket denial of any credibility simply on the grounds that a  
different voice has made itself heard. And that voice is given the  
distinction of treason. She is all the more dangerous because she is  
not the notional other.  First we heard - from the partisans of the  
Amarnath agitation - "no one knows what is going on in Jammu, because  
none of the people criticising the Amarnath agitation are in Jammu".  
Now, that we have heard from someone who was in Jammu in that  
critical period, she must be discredited on specious grounds that  
have nothing to do with what she has said.

A loud voice does not make for a sound argument.

best

Shuddha


On 04-Jun-09, at 4:48 PM, Aditya Raj Kaul wrote:

> Wonder how many days the so called "ïnsider" has worked in Jammu.  
> Sitting in
> the air conditioned office and filing stories is an altogether  
> different
> deal. She seems to have not left the four walls or else confined  
> herself to
> Orissa.
>
> The Jammu based media friends deny this allegation. This includes her
> colleagues in the newspaper she worked for.
>
> The National media was anyway openly biased against the Jammu  
> agitation
> against religious propaganda initiated by PDP and separatist elements.
>
> Simple M Pani should join Kak 'sahab' in documentary making. The  
> "valuable
> insider account" (well thought, infact) may just lead to another  
> well funded
> propaganda masala movie.
> Such immature tales put the media to shame. Horrible.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 11:52 AM, Sanjay Kak <kaksanjay at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
>
>> As an 'insider' account of the workings of India's mainstream press,
>> and its professionalism and politics, this is a most valuable  
>> account.
>> Best
>> Sanjay Kak
>>
>>
>> From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 22, Dated Jun 06, 2009
>> CULTURE & SOCIETY
>> personal histories
>>
>> ‘As Hindus, We Were Expected To Further The Cause With Our Stories’
>>
>> Simple M Pani
>> Is 32. She is a journalist based in New Delhi
>>
>> Illustration: UZMA MOHSIN
>>
>> EVERY YEAR, I look starry-eyed at the awardees of the Ramnath Goenka
>> Excellence in Journalism Awards and at the stalwarts handing over the
>> honours. For grit, hard work, tenacity and honesty to the trade,
>> without a care for reward, getting richly rewarded. But this year, I
>> couldn’t quell a queasy feeling in my stomach when the virtues of  
>> fair
>> reporting were spoken about at the event. This has been happening
>> since the Amarnath land agitation, when I was reporting for the Jammu
>> bureau of a leading national daily. It visited Jammu like a gale,
>> sweeping away in gusts the sense of fair play and discrimination of
>> many scribes. In our morning meetings, it was assumed as a given that
>> being Hindus, we (reporters, photojournalists and other staff)
>> supported the agitation for restoration of land to the Amarnath  
>> Shrine
>> Board. Not only were we expected to support it whole-heartedly but it
>> was considered our ‘moral’ duty to further its cause through our
>> stories. It was routine for our editor to ask, “So how is the
>> agitation faring in xyz place?” and an over-zealous colleague to
>> answer passionately, “Excellent. It’s got a tremendous response  
>> there”
>> and for the editor to rub his chin and say, “But find out what
>> challenges they are facing in abc place and how it could be
>> strengthened there.” If you were in Jammu, you had to sing paeans to
>> the agitators. What smacked of fascism was that no other line of
>> thinking, let alone criticism of any sort, was brooked. The few media
>> houses that did judge it critically, were a woeful minority.
>>
>> Two quixotic features of the agitation stood out. First, to refuse to
>> recognise the real. To pretend not to see something as stark as an
>> economic blockade of the Valley, imposed by the stone-pelting
>> agitators by attacking and burning Valley-bound trucks. (I’ve seen
>> trucks burnt to rubble by agitators, on the Jammu-Pathankote National
>> Highway, but naturally, it wasn’t considered newsworthy in several
>> publications because the Jammu media had decided there was no
>> blockade. This assumption ruled out any question of trucks being
>> attacked.) This kind of dangerous, deductive logic crafting an
>> alternative reality was rampant at the time. The storyline would be
>> decided in the office and reporters would be asked to select data  
>> from
>> the field to support it. For instance, to prove the nonexistence of a
>> blockade, we would be asked to report that medicines were  
>> available in
>> plenty in Jammu. If there were a blockade, then Jammu would be  
>> equally
>> hit, ran the specious logic. In reality, Jammu faced a severe  
>> shortage
>> of medicines!
>>
>> Second, to fancy the unreal as real, by drawing parallels between
>> itself and the India’s Freedom Movement. Like praising the Emperor’s
>> new clothes, which despite any empirical reality, were extolled to  
>> the
>> skies. Eulogies of “those brave, nationalist, heroes,” the agitators,
>> who went about uprooting railway tracks, smashing windows of public
>> transport that dared to ply on the roads in defiance of the bandh
>> call, and violently attacking trucks entering the state, filled reams
>> of newsprint every day. Strangely, the mute common man of Jammu, the
>> poor news vendor and hawker on the streets seemed to be more
>> discerning than the city’s intelligentsia. They knew that there was
>> much more to nationalism than flag-waving xenophobia. That sporting a
>> ‘Bhagat Singh moustache’ wasn’t enough to equate one with the martyr.
>> They knew that vandalism couldn’t pass for bravery and that they  
>> would
>> have to repay the loss caused to the state from their pockets; all of
>> which the intelligentsia missed, in a misplaced fervour.
>>
>> Despite the claim that the struggle was solely for the restoration of
>> land to the Amarnath Shrine Board, the fact is it did degenerate into
>> hate for the ‘other.’ Gujjars’ kullas were burnt in hundreds. The  
>> word
>> “Kashmir” was knocked off from the Kashmir Square Mall, a Delhi-style
>> mall in town, and was rechristened ‘City Square Mall.’ Such  
>> sentiments
>> are dangerous for any civilised society, more so when the media, the
>> supposed watchdog of liberal values, is gung-ho about it.
>>
>> From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 6, Issue 22, Dated Jun 06, 2009
>> _________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Aditya Raj Kaul
>
> Freelance Correspondent, The Times of India
> Cell -  +91-9873297834
>
> Blog: http://activistsdiary.blogspot.com/
> _________________________________________
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Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net