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

[Pawan Durani]

Compulsary revolutionary .....it is must to be an "anti" ...else we
loose our credibility and then what will 'they' think....



On 6/5/09, Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
> 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
>
>
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