Lies, Distorted Truths, & The Hindu
An
independent press is one of the four pillars of democracy, a genuine one at
that. The press in India is free, well largely, of government control. But is
it free from prejudice?
The New Indian Express is largely anti-establishment while The Times of India is pro-whatever helps
generate bottom-line.
Even
regional newspapers have their own axe to grind. Take for example, the
Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle which
is pro-Congress while the vernacular daily, Eenadu,
is pro-TDP and vehemently anti-Congress.
Not that I
care about these newspapers. Newspapers tell us what they want to tell us.
When it
comes to reflecting bias and a deep prejudice, one newspaper, which calls
itself India’s only national newspaper, takes the cake. No marks for guessing
the name of the newspaper. Yes, I am referring to The Hindu.
The Hindu is owned, managed, and edited by
hardcore communists. Run like a family enterprise, The Hindu is unabashedly pro-Communism, pro-China, anti-Hinduism,
anti-BJP, anti-U.S., and anti-Capitalism.
Never mind,
the ‘liberal and secular’ media would have us believe otherwise.
Let me cite
a couple of examples. The Hindu advocated
a tough line against the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal. It said that the government
should not go ahead with the deal as it was loaded in favour of the U.S., the
epitome of imperialism. It also said that the deal impinged on our national
sovereignty.
However, The Hindu maintained (and still
maintains) an eerie silence on China’s nuclear deal with the U.S.. To get the
deal, China agreed to all terms dictated by the U.S. To propel its fast-growing
economy, China needs energy. So it got the deal, whatever be the conditions.
So what
about India? Well, The Hindu preaches
that India should rely on indigenous technology to get energy and also import
such resources from untrustworthy nations like Iran. China should progress,
India should not. Why? Because China is communist!
Look at
what’s happening in Tibet. While the current unrest and self-immolations by
Buddhist monks against Chinese tyrannical rule have been widely reported in
world media and by most Indian newspapers, The
Hindu didn’t carry any major news story on the explosive situation. The
commie mouthpiece simply toed the Chinese government’s line, copied reports
from the Chinese official media agency and published them in its pages.
The Hindu’s utter fascination with China has
blinded it to the atrocities committed by Beijing against the unarmed Buddhist
monks, protesting against the wanton destruction of their great cultural heritage
by China.
If you think
this is my rant, then you should read the letter written by N. Murali, one of
the biggest pillars of The Hindu, to
the staff of the newspaper a couple of days before he left the company.
Here
are some excerpts from N. Murali’s letter:
The Editorial side is run like a 'banana republic' with
cronyism and vested interests ruling the roost and finding space in the
editorial columns.
'Murdochism' with some of its most undesirable and
sinister features has taken firm hold of the newspaper.
Quite apart from the blatantly pro-CPI(M) and
pro-China tilt in coverage, Ram's abuse of his position in The Hindu and
influence peddling has been unrestrained by any ideology.
Two recent events have brought this to the fore.
The first is the coverage or non coverage of the
2G scam and turning The Hindu into a mouthpiece of accused A Raja, going out of
the way to organize an interview with him and publishing it on the day of his
resignation.
The second and most recent incident has been
brought out by the Gujarat police officer Sanjeev Bhatt in his affidavit filed
in the Supreme Court which shows Ram as being the recipient of an email on a
matter as sensitive and serious as the investigation and related matters of
post Godhra 2002 riots in Gujarat.
Sanjeev Bhatt has annexed an email to his
affidavit which is very revealing. In that email that S Gurumurthy sent to Ram
on February 17, 2010, he had annexed a note on the investigations into the
Gujarat riots case. “Here is the note, I would like you to go through it that
you understand the issues before you talk to the person concerned,” goes the
email. We all know who the “person concerned” that Ram was supposed to talk to
is.
The periodic and extensive friendly interviews of Sri Lankan
President Mahinda Rajapaksha done by N Ram and carried in full op-ed pages
served only as a smokescreen to hide the alleged war crimes that the UN
committee indicted the Srilankan government on.
In my book, the two major blots on the
journalistic record of The Hindu over the last forty years relate to its stand
on the Emergency that was in force between June 1975 and March 1977 and on the
largest scam in the history of independent India, the 2G scam.
Under its then editor, G.Kasturi, The Hindu
disgracefully extended tacit support to and even collaborated with the
Emergency regime. On the 2G scam, under the Editor-in-Chief N. Ram, The Hindu
shamefully acted as an apologist and mouthpiece of the prime accused A Raja. It
had only muted coverage of the 2G scam.
While The Hindu editorially asked for the
resignations of Ashok Chavan, Suresh Kalmadi and BS Yeddyyurappa, there was not
even a whisper about A Raja's resignation.
On the other hand, two obliging interviews of A
Raja were specially arranged to be done, not by the correspondent covering
telecom, but shockingly by RK Radhakrishnan who used to cover matters relating
to DMK. After A Raja's resignation and arrest, a change in stance reflecting a
shameless and seamless U-turn is all too obvious even for a school kid to miss.
When media is used as a means to achieve private
ends it undoubtedly becomes a calamity.
Primacy of editorial on which The Hindu has always
prided itself has been sacrificed at the altar of vested interests and crass
commercialism pushed by some directors who have scant regard for the legacy and
larger calling and ideals of The Hindu.
Any claim of professionalisation in the
appointment of Siddharth Varadarajan as Editor of The Hindu is a sham as
professionally qualified and experienced family members on the editorial side -
N Ravi, editor, Malini Parthasarathy, executive editor and Nirmala Lakshman,
joint editor - have been selectively targeted for removal.
Double standards of the worst kind are at play.
For several years now, I have saying these precise facts about The Hindu in my interactions with folks
around, especially the student community.
Let me conclude with one simple observation: Its obsession with the bankrupt ideology of communism has
coloured the way The Hindu reports
the truth.