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Mainstream Media : The Enemy of the People

Our Temples are not a playground for your ideological battles. They are where our Gods reside. They are where we submit ourselves to worship them and gain their favour. What has happened in Sabarimala is an absolute disgrace. 

As I write this, I am terribly sad and upset with the events that transpired at Sabarimala yesterday. Two women are said to have desecrated the abode of Bhagwan Ayyappa and the Temple had to be closed for a while for Shuddhikaran.

Although I have good reason to believe that the women did not succeed in their endeavour, the manner in which it was done is disgusting. It wasn’t done with the intention to worship the celibate Avatar of God. It was done with the sole objective of breaking an age-old tradition sacred to Hindus.

The atheist Communists used the entire state machinery to destroy the sanctity of the Temple. They were aided in their efforts by people of other faiths, people who had no right to interfere with Hindu customs. The attack on Sabarimala was a concerted attack by a nexus of political ideologies that originated in a foreign land and have been trying for centuries to erase the existence of Hindu Dharma.

What has upset me more, however, is the conduct of the mainstream media during the entire charade. The media has been openly supporting such malcontents from the very beginning. And now that two of them claimed to have succeeded, they are unable to hide their glee and are celebrating their victory.

Arnab Goswami’s Republic has been calling it a ‘Victory’.


Another journalist, who doesn’t appear to be Hindu, celebrated the ‘fantastic’ start to the year.


Times Now calls it a ‘win’.


The mainstream media is not much different from the Mughals who revelled at the destruction of our Temples. It is not much different from the manner in which Christians in Pagan Rome insulted and mocked the polytheists for the rituals and traditions and celebrated their destruction of them.

Is this how you strive to achieve communal harmony? Is this how you expect coexistence to prevail? By taunting people at a time when their sacred traditions have been violated? By mocking people when the sanctity of the abode of their God has been desecrated? By punching people when they are at their lowest? These are common human decencies the mainstream media has merrily sacrificed at the altar of liberalism.

As is evident from the manner in which the media has conducted itself, their emotional investment in the affairs of Sabarimala was not about women empowerment at all. All of it was just a demonstration of power. It was about showing ordinary people their place in the social hierarchy. It was about the mainstream media, the Communists, the elitists in Lutyens Delhi and people of other faiths seeking to control and make Hindus bend against their will to satiate their thirst for power. It was about asserting the supremacy of their respective ideologies.

The journalists in the mainstream media are sadists, they appear to be really enjoying the misery they have put Hindus through. These journalists want to impress upon ordinary devotees that they stand no chance against their might. The Battle for Sabarimala is not about women empowerment, it is about the human desire to control others.

When it comes to mainstream media, it is never ever about any ideological motivations. It is always about power. When the cartoonists were massacred at Charlie Hebdo, many in the media huffed and puffed about Freedom of Expression, but how many really had the courage to reproduce the cartoons that they published? Of course, many even blamed Charlie Hebdo for the massacre.

The media is overjoyed because they have finally tasted victory and it’s been a long while they enjoyed a victory of any kind. They went to this extent only because they knew they are not risking any serious trouble. Their bravado disappears when it comes to other faiths which would kill and do kill, and frequently rather, over a perceived insult to religion.

The media preaches coexistence and harmony but what it really means is “Do what we say or we will make you do what we say.” Hindus in Kerala did not ask for much. All they asked for was to be left alone and observe their traditions and worship Bhagwan Ayyappa. If others cannot respect such basic boundaries if others cannot respect such small wishes of people, how does one expect communal harmony to prevail?

When I say Hindus here, I mean both men and women. Women devotees have pioneered the protests for the protection of Sabarimala. But journalists in the mainstream media turned a blind eye to them. And when they eventually spotted them, they proclaimed these devotees to be brainwashed by the patriarchy. Journalists also couldn’t see the women in Burkhas who had attended the Women’s Wall organized by the Communist government with the objective. They were not honest enough to ask the simple question, why were the most oppressed community of women in India interfering with a Hindu custom?

Media has also been observing silence over the fact that while the Communists were busy with the Women’s Wall, some Christian women were holed up in a Church in Kerala after being allegedly molested by DYFI activists and were afraid to come out because they feared for their lives.

The Sabarimala Temple is extremely sacred for Hindus. The pilgrimage has forever been peaceful and a source for immense spirituality for everyone involved. A nexus of people with very dubious background has recklessly turned the pilgrimage into a battle-zone and entire Kerala is now facing protests and violence has been reported in many places.

The Communists and Liberals by their zealotry have even justified violence. The political dispensation hasn’t hesitated to use significant violence against peaceful devotees. It is indeed baffling that they are willing to risk violence to have their way, that was how they conducted themselves from the very beginning. Historically speaking, Communists and Socialists preach equality in their attempt to grab power, Jihadis preach intolerance and oppression by their opposition in their attempt to gain recruits and grab power and Liberals preach coexistence all the while as they attempt to grab power and make others submit to their will. By fueling conflicts where there are none, this appears to be the grand plan the liberals have for maintaining communal harmony. Respecting boundaries is absolutely crucial for social harmony and respecting boundaries is the one thing universalist ideologies are incapable of.

Our Temples are not a playground for your ideological battles. They are where our Gods reside. They are where we submit ourselves to worship them and gain their favour. What has happened in Sabarimala is an absolute disgrace.  And it has the capability to destabilize the entire country, not just Kerala. I am not sure what the future holds but it certainly doesn’t appear to be pretty at this current moment. And I pray to the Gods above that better sense prevails among communists and liberals and they allow Hindus to continue with their traditions in peace so that peace once again returns to the land.

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K Bhattacharjee
K Bhattacharjee
Black Coffee Enthusiast. Post Graduate in Psychology. Bengali.

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