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Media reporting old wine in new sensationalized bottle, but BJP has got to act

Editorial Desk
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Media reporting old wine in new sensationalized bottle, but BJP has got to act

Indian Mainstream Media has been regularly reporting half-truths and whole lies. Till the end of August 2015, we could track a total of 134 lies printed in Indian Media. That is more than 1 lie every alternate day. And media is not stopping at that. Now they have devised new means to report half-truths: sensationalizing news items.

We have observed a trend, where various news, specially actions by Governments, are being reported in a sensationalist manner. The attempt being to project the news as something which is happening for the first time.

Clarification: We are not trying to say “Oh UPA did this so NDA can do it too”. We are only saying shit had happened earlier too, just the way it is being spun is different. Here are some examples:

1. Govt orders all officers to turn up for Modi’s I-day address. “Tone and Tenor of circular surprises many”

The Hindu published this news article a few days back. Apparently a Central Government circularUntitled mandated that all officials be present at the PM’s Independence Day speech. Not very alarming right?  Well The Hindu made it sure that it would alarm you by adding a theme to this news that suggested this circular had “surprised many by its tone and tenor”, thus trying to propagate the myth of “Fascist Modi” regime etc. Eventually, under “Letters to the Editor”, The Hindu carried a communication from the PIB which clarified that the circular was no different from those published earlier and that “The sub-headline that said, “Tone and tenor of Cabinet Secretary’s circular come as a surprise to many”, borders on sensationalism and an exaggeration of facts.”

2. Mumbai cops raid Hotel rooms. Seem to have declared war on an easy target: sex

A bit of background first: In 2009 a minor girl was raped in a Madh Island hotel in Mumbai. Locals then requested cops to conduct surprise raids on hotels to check crimes. As the years went by, a regime changed happened, and suddenly a raid in 2015 became “a war on sex”. Soon internet commentators began presenting the 2015 raid in isolation, questioning if we are “now becoming” a nanny state? Is the new Government indulging in Moral Policing etc. Again, a fact, taken out of context, spun and sensationalized, to target a Government. While random raids maybe justified, the haphazard handling of the suspects by the cops should have be questioned. But it soon turned into a slugfest accusing the new Maharashtra Government of moral policing. It is also important to note that the locals welcomed these raids.

3. Government issues notices to TV channels on Yakub coverage. 

The Government invoked Section 1(d), Section 1(g) and Section 1(e) of Rule 6 of the Programme Code prescribed under the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 and asked TV channels why they should not face action by airing certain content which “showed disrespect to the judiciary and the President of India”. Whatever be the merits of this case, the usual suspects began raising the bogey of “Modi Government throttling media” etc. Mihir Sharma even went on to challenge people:


And reminded he was. Rightly or wrongly, the current Government was just following cues from the past regimes. In 2012 an advisory was issued based on the same rule 6 (1) e. In 2013 an advisory from the Government “threatened TV news channels with cancellation of their licences for comparing the prime minister with leaders of other political parties“. So is this a a new problem? Or is it something all Governments in India have been doing?

4. Government blocks Porn in India

In an inept response to a PIL in the Supreme Court, the Indian Government went on to ban Porn sites in India. Stupid? Yes. Unnecessary? Yes. First time? NO. In 2013 too, the Government went for “a blanket ban on several websites” hosting Porn. Difference in reactions to both the bans is stunning. While media commentators linked the 2015 ban to a “cultural agenda” of BJP, did you hear such voices in 2013? Or did they echo in chorus that the 2013 UPA Government just doesn’t understand the internet? Two wrongs do not make a right, but wrongs done by different people need to be dealt similarly?

5. Meat ban in Mumbai during Jain festival

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is enforcing a ban on sale of meat in Mumbai on 4 days which are the days of Jain ritual of Paryushan. The action, seems retrograde considering why should an entire city suffer for the festival of a community. No sooner did this news come, we had MSM and other commentators again linking this to BJP’s “agenda”. But again is this something new? Apparently not. In 2004, during the highly secular rule of Congress-NCP, the State Government itself had passed a similar resolution, where the BMC was asked to shut down slaughter houses during the Jain fasting season. In 2011 too, another Municipal corporation had enforced similar bans for 3 days which Jains consider holy. This report suggests that such bans were in place from at least 2008. In 2012, even the High Court forbade the sale of meat during Paryushan.

These are just 5 recent examples, which were news from the past one month. If we want to go back further, we can talk about Maharashtra Beef Ban response, even when Beef was banned in many Indian states for decades. And these are only a few incidents. We’re sure we’d have missed a few. And we’re equally sure that many more will come.

The takeaways from this trend can be:

A. Ruling parties may change, but at least in some aspects “Governance” has remained the same.

Despite being traditionally the ‘conservative’ party, BJP of late has attracted support of constituencies that are libertarians, so the party should change its mindset if it respects its voters. Also, if the party speaks against ‘appeasement’ of Muslims, it can’t be seen doing the same to another group (as in the case of meat ban for Jain festival), even though this was done by past regimes. It is simple, if you claim to be different from the rest, you truly have to be different.

B. Media will try to link each and every happening to its narrative of a “Fascist Government” even without acknowledging that some or many of these actions may have been endorsed by “secular” Governments in the past.

Here again, one cannot muzzle the media, but BJP spokespersons have to be sharper. Many of them appeared clueless on some of the above issues and it was upto social media to dig up the archives.

Once again, we are not justifying actions of the current Government by showing the past. Each of the above action is debatable, some even grossly wrong. But it shows how MSM is ready to cherry pick data and create a new narrative or stick it to a narrative which has already been created. In this case the chosen narrative is “India is becoming a fascist country under Modi”. The last narrative was “Christians under attack” when robberies were called “communal vandalisms”.

Maharashtra Government’s words twisted in attempt to create “Emergency” by Rumour Landmines

Gaurav
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Maharashtra Government’s words twisted in attempt to create “Emergency” by Rumour Landmines

Recently, Director Vivek Agnihotri wrote about “Rumour Landmines” who used social media to spread untruths. The piece was in context of the “Naresh Kanodia heading Oscar Jury” rumour which we had written about. And now, the “Rumour landmines” were at it again. This time it was an alleged “undemocratic” order issued by Fadnavis led Maharashtra Government, which would lead the country to being another “North Korea”. So first let us meet the “rumour landmines”:


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(Tweet was later deleted)


Another highly misleading report was this one on India Today. So what did Maharashtra Government actually do? The Government’s circular (in Marathi) can be accessed here, The English version of the guidelines can be found at the bottom of the same file. We would like to present a brief summary of the same.

Firstly, the Government referred to the sedition case which was filed against Aseem Trivedi for his cartoons, in 2011. It noted that after legal advice from the Advocate General, charges of sedition were dropped against Trivedi.

Next the Government said that in order to prevent such actions by police in the future, some guidelines were being issued to the cops now, which they should keep in mind while invoking section 124 A i.e. Sedition. The guidelines were:

1. In order to slap Sedition charges, words, signs etc must bring the state/Central government into hatred/contempt/disaffection AND must be with the intention of inciting violence/creating public disorder

2. Words or signs against politicians or public servants will be considered seditious only if the words or signs show the politicians and public servants as representatives of the Government.

3. Anything expressing disapproval of government and criticising government seeking a change via lawful means will not be seen as seditious.

4. Just because something is disgusting or vulgar it cannot be seditious

5. Before applying any charges of sedition, a written opinion giving reasons, must be obtained from the district law officer. Further, within 2 weeks, a written opinion must be taken from the Government Public Prosecutor.

The circular further said that the above guidelines should not be seen as all-encompassing and specific facts of the matter must be looked into before using section 124 A.

So in short, the Government tried to remove ambiguity in application of Sec 124 A, and gave clear guidelines which said that acts which incite violence, are not looking for legal means, are targetted at Government representatives, can be considered seditious, but only after a written opinion from district law officer has been taken. Sounds fair right?

Certain media reports, like this one, carried news very similar to the above translation. Yet “Rumour landmines” latched onto some obscure media reports or some ill-thought translation by some alleged journalist. No one bothered mentioning that the guidelines clearly stated that the cops must take a written opinion from a legal officer before enforcing such sections. No one bothered understanding that it was clearly specified that something can be seditious only if it incites violence or uses illegal means.

So what is it that makes some “journalists” blindly believe anything which can be said to be being anti a section of the Political class? Is this incompetence? Or something more?

Karnataka Doctors shouting for help but Indian MSM cannot hear them

Guest Author
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Karnataka Doctors shouting for help but Indian MSM cannot hear them

“Down with Fascism”
“Gajendra Go back”
“Smriti Irani Hai Hai”

The slogans rent the air in the FTII campus in Pune. Local, national and even international media followed the antics of a few middle aged students, ever eternal rebels without a cause, while political games were played and students willingly became pawns.

A few months pass, and there’s a similar protest against the government in Karnataka. Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors (KARD) have gone on an indefinite strike. But the contrast between the two couldn’t have been sharper.Services

No politician tweeted their support. No film celebrities attended the event. No minister or “social activists” bothered with us. And, India, once again proved that our bureaucratic DNA is that of any Soviet influenced, essentially socialist country. This in spite the fact that the just 2-3 days ago, the striking doctors were beaten up by the Karnataka Police.1

What are the doctors fighting for? A stipend hike, for Karnataka resident doctors are paid the least in India, and this is in spite of having such huge centres of medical excellence like Bangalore, Hubballi and Manipal. The average resident doctor in a state government hospital in Meghalaya earns more than twice earned by a similar resident doctor in Karnataka

Lest it be thought to be in a purely economic context, we have a more basic need too. Even as the country burns with suppressed anger over one sexual assault case after another, assault cases against Doctors, some even with sexual component, rarely get highlighted. Hospital administrations, with active support from civil authorities, suppress such news even as media in a well Orchestrated campaign, maligns doctors for so called “medical negligence”

Delayed, denied and murdered justice:

Karnataka govt has been sitting on this proposal for almost 2 years now. All assurances, all public statements have been pure face saving measures. There has been no increase in the stipend from 8 years now, and the steep increase in living costs is anyone’s guess

I write this article after having been made to wait for almost 4 hours by the authorities in Vidhana Soudha. I merely ask this one simple question: would a doctor making you wait for 2 years for his/her attention be worth the doctor Tag that they get?

– Dr. Aakash Raj

How long will Kalburgis, Dabholkars, Pansares of India be threatened for speaking against religion?

Rahul Raj
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How long will Kalburgis, Dabholkars, Pansares of India be threatened for speaking against religion?

On 30 Aug 2015, M.M. Kalburgi, a renowned Kannada writer, research scholar and rationalist was shot dead by 2 gunmen at his residence. Kalburgi, served as the vice-chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi had drawn annoyance of Hindu extremist groups for denouncing superstition and idol worship in the past.

After preliminary investigations, police has stated a possibility of property dispute within his family circle as a reason of his murder; however, they have also not denied the alleged involvement of right-wing fringe elements.

Interestingly, social media was quick to conclude that Hindutva Terrorists are involved in it. The conclusion was primarily drawn from a tweet of a Bajrang Dal activist who tweeted some spiteful tweets and later deleted it.

Bhuvith Shetty

The unfortunate event was very soon given a political color by the left-wing intelligentsia, senior leaders took no time to convert this into a BJP related news.


Surprisingly, many political and learned individuals, who jumped to conclude the involvement of fringe groups, didn’t even bother to acknowledge that U. R. Ananthamurthy died a natural death from renal failure and cardiac arrest on 22 August 2014, and was not killed by any fanatics.  Ramesh Kulkarni, a VHP state secretary, denied any role of rightwing groups and also said, “We condemn this killing, I guarantee you that no rightwing organization is involved in the killing. We train to protest, not to kill.”

Nevertheless, the involvement of extremist groups in society can’t be undermined. Kalburgi had been receiving threats from the fringe elements in the past. He was provided protection for 8 months, but he recently opted to remove special protection for him. He was not the first victim of social threats; before him, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare had been shot dead by some Hindu extremists organizations. A similar celebration was also seen among CPM followers for the death of RSS leader from Kerala.

The Bajrang Dal leader Bhuvith Shetty, who tweeted in celebration on the death of Kalburgi, was arrested by police on 31 August 2015. The CM of Karnataka has also assured that “Whoever is behind this, we will catch them and punish according to law”. Hope justice is served soon.

Did CPM “comrades” kill 3 innocent dogs to celebrate Kerala RSS leader’s death anniversary?

OpIndia Staff
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Did CPM “comrades” kill 3 innocent dogs to celebrate Kerala RSS leader’s death anniversary?

Exactly a year back, an RSS leader from Kerala, Kathiroor Manoj was hacked to death by unidentified assailants. The cops had said that the assailants hurled a crude bomb at Manoj, who was travelling in a vehicle. Manoj lost control of the vehicle and it crashed into a pole. Manoj was then hacked to death by a group of men.

Two months back, the CBI narrowed in on ex CPM MLA and current CPM Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan and was likely to be made an accused in the case. Manoj, on the other hand, was an accused in a case of attempted murder of this same Jayarajan. CBI noted that all the accused in the Manoj murder case are either CPM members or sympathisers.

Last week, Thiruvonam, a small village in Kerala, saw violence, after the killings of a CPI(M) worker in Kasargod and a BJP worker in Thrissur. These incidents triggered a chain of violence in many parts of Kerala with the house of BJP Kannur district president K Ranjith coming under a crude bomb attack.

And today, on September 1 2015, the dead bodies of 3 dogs were found hanging from an electric pole. This is the exact same pole into which Manoj’s vehicle crashed into exactly 1 year back, when he was attacked by suspected CPM goons. The cops have till now claimed that some unidentified “anti-social elements” were behind this dastardly act of hanging dogs from the flagpost.

But a picture which has gone viral on social media may have clues as to who is behind this act.

Untitled

The post says:

“One year since the rabid dog is dead. Hundred red salutes to the Kathiroor comrades who did this. Comrade Kasim”

In what seems to be a reference to CPM (who are known to address each other as “Comrade”), the post seems to be celebrate the hanging of the dogs which were apparently hanged as a a grim reminder of the murder of RSS leader Manoj, which took place at the same spot, exactly 1 year ago.

Further, Jain Raj, son of current CPM Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan shared the following post on Facebook, and soon deleted it. This was reported by a Malayalam TV channel, Janam TV:

Untitled

 

The slogan in the image says:

“This day is an energy/power for us.This day is an enthusiasm /excitement for us”.

Does “This day” refer to Manoj’s death anniversary? Why does this day give them “energy”? One year back, when Manoj was killed, Jain Raj had hailed the murder in a Facebook post, which he later deleted. He had said:

“Since how long we have been waiting to hear this good news. Congratulations dear comrades. Feeling xcited,”

This is eerily similar to the case of the Bajrang Dal activist who had tweeted in celebration of the killing of a rationalist in Karnataka and had even threatened another rationalist with dire consequences. Bhuvith Shetty, the Bajrang Dal leader who had tweeted this was today arrested by the police. It remains to be seen if the above facebook post also leads to similar actions.

(with inputs from @RevolutionMonk)

Top Lies spread by Indian Media in August 2015

Gaurav
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Top Lies spread by Indian Media in August 2015

Big Lies:

1. 1 August 2015: India Today group – Salim Khan says Salman being targetted for his religion. 

India Today ran an interview of Salim Khan done by Rajdeep Sardesai and presented a blaring headline Screenshot_2015-08-01-22-54-06 that Salim Khan says Salman is being targetted because of being a Muslim. There were two interviews done, one in English and one in Hindi. Initially the English interview was released. In this version Salim Khan doesn’t even come close to saying anything like this. Yet, as seen in screen-grab of the same interview, the tickers claim he said something like this.

The 2nd interview in Hindi was later released. In this again, Rajdeep repeatedly goads Salim Khan to give him the answer he wants:

Rajdeep: Is Salman a soft target because he is a Muslim?

Salim Khan: Not only Muslim, Muslim and a celebrity. If an ordinary Muslim from behrampeda or bhindi bazaar would have given this statement, would this road be closed then?

From the above Salim Khan made it clear that If Salman was being targetted for being a muslim, other muslims too would have been targetted. But the difference between Salman and other muslims was he is a celebrity, hence he gets targetted. Editor of India Today, Shiv Aroor too accepted that since they have put it in quotes, it should have been an exact quote. Obviously it was a massively twisted quote. Perhaps this is what prompted India Today to later delete the tweet which said “Salim Khan says Salman being targetted for his religion”

2. 3 August 2015: Hindustan Times – Asaram turns saint in the pages of NCERT textbook

This story began with an ANI News report which said in Rajasthan in a class III textbook, Asaram was listed as Untitled“Country’s famous saints”. Hindustan Times went ahead with this story and for reason claimed that this was found in an NCERT textbook. They even got quotes from various individuals panning the NCERT board. Fact is, if one checked the NCERT textbooks for class III from Rajasthan, such a chapter is not present in any of the books. Eventually, the Hindustan Times published a small corrigendum apologising for their incorrect report, although the web version still carries the wrong report. This was after the MHRD forced them to issue a corrigendum.

3. 5 August 2015: The Hindu – Govt orders all officers to turn up for Modi’s I-day address. “Tone and Tenor of circular surprises many”  A Central Government circular

Untitled mandated that all officials be present at the PM’s Independence Day speech. Although this is a routine cricular, The Hindu made it sure that it would alarm you by adding a theme to this news that suggested this circular had “surpised many by its tone and tenor”. As it turns out, a few days after this front page burst, The Hindu had to publish a small clarification in the inner pages which said that their earlier story was an “exaggeration of facts” and that the circular in question was in line with the “standard practice”.

4. 6 August 2015: India Today – Sonia says Naga Peace deal Unacceptable.  India Today claimed that Sonia Gandhi had termed the Naga Peace Deal “unacceptable”. UntitledThey published a story with this title, but nowhere in the story was the exact quote of Sonia Gandhi given, where she claimed the deal was “unacceptable”. As it turns out, she never said this but it could have been said by Sitaram Yechury of CPI(M). Sonia on the other hand, seemed more miffed at being kept in the dark about this historic deal. India Today showed great speed an alacrity and deleted the wrong tweet and corrected the story on the very same day, and gave it a new headline “Sonia says Naga peace deal shows Modi govt’s arrogance”

5. 11 August 2015: TheWire.in – BJP, Including Modi when he was CM, blocked GST for political ends. This claim has been made repeatedly by Congress leaders but it was surprising to see a news site take this stand too. We had written a separate post on this, where we showed via news articles of the time, that Non-BJP states including Congress states had opposed UPA’s GST bill for various reasons. Also, the BJP states which did oppose GST then, had clearly spelt out their reasons and demands, and since these demands were now satisfied and the GST bill was amended, they had supported this revised GST. TheWire.in did not include both these facts in their one-sided post which was written by M K Venu.

6. 15 August 2015 : Mail Online – The terrible plight of Indian elephants In the above piece, it was claimed that Elephants are tortured at the Guruvayur temple in Kerala. It claimed that Elephants were “Chained to the same spot for 20 years, Beaten into submission at secret jungle training camps.” All the claims made in this article were demolished in a detailed post by Prem Panicker on a blog.

7. 18 August 2015: All Media – Major relief for Congress in National Herald case, sources say Enforcement Directorate will close it We had written a separate post on this, where we showed how various news sites like CNN IBN, India Today, Firstpost and Zee News had misreported this news. First of all, none of the stories highlighted the fact  the National Herald case with the ED was different from the National Herald case going on in courts. Secondly the ED never had any open National Herald case, so question of “closing” it never arose. ED only refused to file a PMLA case in the issue on “technical grounds” and since it felt it was too early. Some reports suggested this was due to “lack of evidence”. Keeping in mind all these distortions, the use of the phrase “major relief” was highly misleading.

8. Reuters and then Indian Media – Pakistan cancels Commonwealth conference to highlight ‘Kashmir issue’ The story begins with Pakistan, the host nation, not inviting the J & K speaker at the Commonwealth conference in Islamabad. To this, India objected strongly and threatened to boycott the conference. Now, as per the Reuters report (which was written by a Pakistani journalist based on inputs of Pakistani officials), Pakistan cancelled the conference “to raise the Kashmir issue”. This was perceived as a “hardening of stance by Pakistan”, to “provoke India“, by many Indian MSM outlets. Fact is, Pakistan did not cancel the conference. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) issued a statement that the Executive Committee cancelled the meet because Pakistan did not invite the J & K speaker. In fact, certain sites like The Hindu and CNN IBN even reported that This should have been considered a  out of  members of the CPA executive committee voted to cancel the talks because Pakistan had ” violated the CPA constitution by not inviting an eligible member” . This was a diplomatic win for India, but it was portrayed in the media differently.

9. 21 August 2015: All Media – Misbah Quadri denied flat in a Mumbai colony for being a Muslim. This news broke in May 2015. Soon after it surfaced, follow up reports suggested the story was false but only now has the story been proved to be false. Quadri had then claimed that she was being discriminated against because of her religion and was not being given a flat in a colony. The media did not employ any sort of fact check and blared the story all over. Later some outlets like Hindustan Times & Mid-day decided to look at the other side and did not find evidence to back her claim. Now, the cops have finished the investigation and found no evidence to support her claim. There were other Muslim families living in the same colony and none had been persecuted.

10. 21 August 2015: Times Now Congress Sweeps Civic Polls in Rajasthan First the cold facts and figures: In the Rajasthan Civic Polls, BJP managed to win clear majority in 66 of the 129 local bodies, and claimed to be able to form the board in another 14 bodies. Even if we take 66, it is above the 50% of 129 and can surely mean only 1 thing. Yet, Times Now had this coverage: “Congress Sweeps Civic Polls, Makes Lalitgate Inroads “. To add to the joke, On the very next day, Times of India carried a story in print as well as online, which contradicted Times Now. It said “BJP sweeps Civic Polls in Rajasthan, Congress fails to capitalize on Lalitgate”. Yes 2 media outlets from the same group had 2 different interpretations of the same set of numbers!

11. 21 August 2015: PTI – India’s GDP Can Double in 3 Years: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu PTI claimed that Suresh Prabhu, at a fucntion in Kolkata claimed that India’s GDP can double in 3-3.5 years. Simple arithmetic would show that to achieve this India would have to grow at a minimum of 20 odd % per year (compounded annually). Even the improbability of this figure did not throw off PTI. Hence, Minister Suresh Prabhu had to clarify on twitter. He said this was a case of “complete misreporting” and he had said it would take 6-6.5 years for GDP to double. He also expressed his frustration that so many sites were carrying PTI’s wrong report. We could find 2 sites, which relied on an IANS report, which correctly reported that Suresh Prabhu had 6-6.5 years.

12. 21 August 2015: PTI – India calls off NSA level talks with Pakistan. PTI reported this Breaking News which was soon picked up by all media outlets. It was based on PTI’s interpreattion of India’s strongly worded response to Pakistan’s statement on the NSA level talks. India had only said that they cannot talk if Pakistan does not honour its commitments, but PTI in the hurry of being the first to break this news, misreported it completely. ANI News, was 3 minutes late as compared to PTI, but had the facts right after they confirmed the same with Government sources.

13. 22 August 2015: Janata Ka Reporter and Hindustan Times – Delhi court says Delhi police’s action was ‘actuated by political vendetta,’ on Commando Surinder’s arrest In what in reality is an exhibit of poor knowledge of English and legal terms, Janata ka Reporter and Hindustan Times claimed  that a Delhi court had stated that Commando Surinder’s arrest was “actuated by political vendetta”, and hence he was given bail. The exact statement of the court is as follows:

“Furthermore, it has been averred that this case is actuated by political vendetta. Thus, no prejudice is likely to be caused to the prosecution in case the accused persons are admitted to bail,”

The key word here is “averred” which both the media outlets seem to have misunderstood. “Averred” means to have been “stated” and in legal parlance, means “allege as a fact in support of a plea”. In the current context, the judge had said that the defendant i.e. Commando Surinder had stated that the case was of political vendetta. It was not the judge’s observation, as interpreted by Janata ka Reporter & Hindustan Times. Also, the reason for giving bail was that “none of the offences for which they have been booked were punishable with jail term for more than seven years and there was no chance of their absconding or fleeing from justice“.

14. 24 August 2015: All Media – The “Pervert” who “molested” Jasleen Kaur This case is far too well known now. Mid-day , DailyO & Times Now called him a “Pervert”. His crime was reported to be “sexual harassment” and “molestation”. These are just a few examples but media, relying only on the version of Jasleen Kaur branded a Delhi youth as a criminal. All this, even when Jasleen’s first tweet only claimed that the guy had made “obscene remarks”. Later, an independent eyewitness trashed Jasleen’s version and said although the guy might have violated a traffic law, it was a standard altercation between Jasleen (who was volunteering to be manage traffic) and the guy. Many more issues further came up and slowly Jasleen’s claims seemed to be exaggerated to the say the least. But MSM had ruined the “pervert’s” name on the very first day, without a basic cross check.

15. 26 August 2015: All Media – Sensationalised reporting of Census data. “Lies, damned lies, and statistics”, is an age old phrase, and Indian MSM, when faced with huge data like the Religious Census figures, used all sort of twisted arguments to present whatever they wanted. Some like The Hindu and NDTV reported that “Muslim population growth slows” while not mentioning that Hindu population rate of growth also fell, and Muslim rate of growth was still the highest among all religions. PTI claimed that “Hindu population declined”, but the fact is the absolute population of Hindus grew, only the proportion of Hindus declined.

 

Miscellaneous Lies:

1. 3 August 2015: PTI – Sonia pulls up Agriculture Minister for ‘outrageous’ statement on farmers’ suicides This PTI report was carried by Mid-day as it is , and was later changed by Mid-day when the error they carried from the PTI story was pointed out. The report said “Sonia pulls up Agriculture Minister”. Since Sonia neither appointed the minister, nor is in power, she couldnt technically “pull up” the minister. Mid-day editor Sachi Kalbag accepted the error and changed the headline later.

2. 4 August 2015: CNN IBN – BJD joins JDU, CPI, CPM, RSP, NCP, TMC, AAP & Congress protest against suspension of MPs from LS IBN claimed that along with other UPA faithfuls, BJD too protested against the suspension of Congress MPs from the Lok Sabha for unruly behaviour. Fact is BJD did not join the protest. This was pointed out by numerous twitter users and even BJD MP Baijayant Jay Panda refuted this news.

3. 5 August 2015: The Hindu – Right-wing group attacks FTII This lie is actually from July but since we did not notice it then, it is being reported now. As can be seen from the attached screenshot, The Hindu had Untitled reported that “Right Wing groups” had attacked FTII. This is apparent from the google search result and the byline which appears with the post. But when one actually went through the post, one could see that it clearly mentioned “unidentified vandals”. The only mention of a “right wing group” was of some group called “Patit Pavan Sanghatana”, which as the report itself says, had only rallied behind Mr. Chauhan  and protested against FTII. Did The Hindu make the inference that this group itself were the vandals? If so, why did they later change their headline to: “FTII seeks police protection”. It seems The Hindu was caught on the wrong foot and then hurriedly corrected itself.

4. 9 August 2015: Dainik Bhaskar – Rahul Mahajan was a close friend of Radhe Maa. Rahul Mahajan was one of the few celebrities who openly came out against God-woman Radhe Ma, posting her pictures in “indecent clothing” on Twitter. Yet, Dainik Bhaskar in their report claimed that Rahul was once an “inseparable friend” of Radhe Ma. Rahul took objection to this false claim and clarified on twitter that far from being a friend, he had never even met Radhe Ma. Bhaskar subsequently updated their post.

5. 18 August 2015: Indian Express and ABP News (at least) – Preity Zinta to IPL officials: Some of my players may have been linked to suspicious activity

News reports from a section of media claimed that Zinta had told BCCI officials  that some players from Kings XI Punjab may have indulged in “suspicious activities” linked to throwing matches. The reports also claimed that Zinta had said that she had felt at times that some IPL matches involving her team had followed a pre-decided pattern. Preity in her response on twitter blasted these media houses for the “inaccurate & extremely irresponsible & malicious” story. She clarified that she ahd only suggested  random polygraph tests to prevent corruption. She also said “A constructive conversation to genuinely make a difference to the game is turned into a destructive article for sensational purpose“. She also said she was very proud of her team  and under no circumstance will she tolerate slander towards her or her team.

6. 25 August 2015: All Media: Sensex records biggest ever fall

Multiple media outlets reported that “Manic Monday” on 25 August the Sensex crashed to its biggest single-day fall ever. The Sensex fell by 1624 points, nearly 6%. But this was not the biggest single-day fall, neither in absolute terms nor in percentage terms (which is more important). One of the days when Sensex had logged higher intra-day losses was on 31 January 2008 when it lost 2063 points i.e. 10.8%. There other occasions too when it recorded larger falls.

7. 25 August 2015: All Media: Anurag Kashyap gets into a brawl with MMA fighter, gets injured!

Multiple Media houses (some have deleted the story now) reported that Anurag Kashyap got injured in a fight with a MMA fighter. This was absed on Kashyap’s Instagram posts where he posted pics of a bandaged eye. As a caption for one of the pics, he said: “Now they put a plaster, this is what happens when you get into a brawl with a MMA fighter”. MSM took off from here, did not bother doing a cross check into his claims and reported it. As it turns out, Kashyap revealed in a Facebook post that he was actually doing a prosthetics test for his eye and he planted the “MMA fighter” part to trap and expose the media. And the media obliged.

8. 25 August 2015: CNN IBN: OROP not financially feasible nor sustainable – Arun Jaitley

Late on 25 August, IBN group was the only one reporting this news. Instantly everyone 1 assumed that OROP had been shelved since IBN reported that Jaitley, the Finance Minister, himself had said OROP is not feasible. The odd thing here was nobody else was reporting this story, no other media house. Only Firstpost, which is a part of the IBN group, reported this, that too based on IBN’s tweet itself. After a few minutes IBN deleted the said tweet. This was after BJP National Gen Secretary Ram Madhav declared on twitter that the news is false. Further, a few days later, the Defence Minister made a statement saying that only “small gaps are being filled in OROP now”.

9. 27 August 2015: IBN 7: Syed Tarikh Pirzada says Rahul Gandhi and Kejriwal musy break Hindus on caste line to break India

Pirzada is a Pakistani commentator who often makes anti-India remarks. But this remark was not by him. In fact it was a tweet by a parody account but IBN 7 took it to be real and manufactured a news piece on it.

10. 26 August 2015: Hindustan Times – Muslims in Gujarat decreased by 34.52% between 2001 and 2011

In their print edition, Hindutan Times published the following infographic 1which said population of Muslims in Gujarat had come down from 45.92 lacs in 2001 to 30.07 lacs in 2011. This sort of data fits perfectly in the narrative that “Muslims are being persecuted in Gujarat”. But this data is totally false. A look at the official data released by the Census department shows that the population of Muslims in Gujarat in 2011 was in fact 58.46 lacs, and the figure of 30.07 lacs reported by Hindustan Times was only of Male Muslims in Gujarat. Unintentional error? which went unchecked at multiple levels? Even when the massive drop of 34.52 % would have raised alarm bells that something somewhere is wrong?

January 2015: 7 Lies

February 2015: 8 Lies

March 2015: 9 Lies

April 2015: 18 Lies

May 2015: 20 Lies

June 2015: 20 Lies

July 2015: 27 Lies

Farmer Suicides: Some Cold Hard Facts

Guest Author
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Farmer Suicides: Some Cold Hard Facts

“Decrease in number of suicides is not enough, there should be no case of farmer suicide in the country,” observed the social justice bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit as it pointed to the need to re-examine the National Policy for Farmers, 2007, saying that it may have some inherent deficiencies.

I read with great dismay these Supreme Court directions to the Government. Can any government assure the court that no man acting out of his own pent up emotions will henceforth commit suicide?

Let me say this upfront: Suicides are not a common cause of death. As per the data provided by the 2011 report of the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, they do not figure in the top ten causes of death in either rural or urban India. Diseases kill far more number of people than self-injury. The suicide rate in India is 10.9 per lakh population of which only 1.4 to 1.8 per lakh are in farming and related occupations.

60% of India’s population depends indirectly or directly upon agriculture for their livelihood. However, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (2013), farmer suicides account for only 8.7% of the total number of suicides in India – and this is not just for those who do it due to economic hardship but the overall number including those with family and other social problems. If 91.3% of suicides happen in areas with less than 40% of population, which segment of population is really at risk for suicides?

We look at some cold hard facts from the Government’s own data and analyze it in this article for the following:

  1. What percentage of population of the states stays in villages and cities, and whether it correspondingly correlates with suicide rates in those areas?
  2. Whether farmers are the most impoverished or are there other communities that are worse off financially?
  3. Whether financial condition correlates with suicide rates?
  4. Does education affect suicide rates?

We compare the data from the top twelve states in this regard.

TABLE 1: HIGHEST SUICIDE RATES VS HIGHEST URBAN VS HIGHEST RURAL POPULATION
TABLE 1: HIGHEST SUICIDE RATES VS HIGHEST URBAN VS HIGHEST RURAL POPULATION

As can be seen from the data, 4 out of 12 most urbanized states / Union territories appear on the “highest suicide rates” list as opposed to 3 of the most rural states. The indication is clear: it is not the most agricultural states that show highest suicide rates, but the urbanized ones.

TABLE 2: CORRELATION OF SUICIDE RATES WITH BPL STATUS
TABLE 2: CORRELATION OF SUICIDE RATES WITH BPL STATUS

The data thus indicates that states / union territories with high urban below poverty line status (4 out of top 12) have a higher incidence of suicides than states with high rural BPL status (3 out of top 12). Considering that 91.3% of all suicides happen in urban areas, the data does indicate that the highest risk population for suicides may actually be the urban poor. A dedicated study to document the incidence of suicides in urban poor population is strongly recommended.

TABLE 3: CORRELATION OF SUICIDE RATES WITH EDUCATION RATES
TABLE 3: CORRELATION OF SUICIDE RATES WITH EDUCATION RATES

CAUSES OF SUICIDES:One can logically assume that people with lesser education would be more prone to suicides due to lack of opportunities that education imparts. However, that is clearly not the case, as the above table shows. States with lower educated population do not fare any better on this account as well. It is reasonable to therefore infer that a higher level education does not afford any protection against suicides. It is intriguing that neither better financial condition nor a better education affords any protection against suicides. The data released by the NCRB for the year 2013 also shows an even spread of suicides proportionately across all segments of population.

1

As per the data put out by the National Crime Records Bureau (2013), the highest causes of suicide by far were family problems (24.3%) and illness (19.6%). Poverty and unemployment together accounted for only 3.4% of all suicides. In individual states, the highest incidence as a percentage of overall suicides due to “bankruptcy or sudden change in economic status” was seen in Andhra Pradesh (7.1%), Kerala (3.8%) and Maharashtra (3.7%) – which, though a cause for concern, is far removed from the kind of publicity received by this small percentage of victims.

TABLE 4: CAUSES OF SUICIDES (NCRB, 2013)
TABLE 4: CAUSES OF SUICIDES (NCRB, 2013)

 

CONCLUSIONS

The perception that “most farmers are committing suicide all across India due to economic hardship” is so inherently flawed that one wonders why the respected Judges go by media hype instead of looking at the facts that stare at them in the face. Contrary to popular belief, farmers are not an “at risk” community for suicides any more than their counterparts in the cities. Also contrary to popular belief, better education or better financial condition does not reduce the incidence of suicides as is seen from the much-higher incidence of suicide in urban communities than in rural areas. It needs to be understood that if farmers and those in allied occupations suffer from severe financial problems, so do the urban poor and that the bulk of urban poor are actually rural migrants who have as much right for a solution to their financial problems as do the farmers.

The perspective may become clearer when one considers how the hype created around farmer suicides has been systematically exploited and abused by the political class to further an agenda instead of devoting the resources to actually addressing the problems faced by them. The NREGA scheme was at least in part justified due to heavy projection of farmer suicides, which was also used to justify massive loan waivers to farmers.

There is a genuine problem in certain states with regard to the severe distress faced by farmers. However, this issue needs to be seen in the larger perspective of poverty alleviation without unnecessary media hype of individual incidences of farmer suicides for a more balanced perspective in this regard.

REFERENCES:

  1. No farmer should commit suicide, SC tells Government – NDTV report http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/no-farmer-should-commit-suicide-supreme-court-tells-government-1209745
  2. Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation report 2011 http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_new/upload/sel_socio_eco_stats_ind_2001_28oct11.pdf
  3. National Crime Record Bureau Report 2013 ncrb.gov.in/adsi2013/ADSI-2013.pdf

Contributed by: Dr Amit Thadhani (Consulting General & Laparoscopic Surgeon)

A Patel writes about Reservations, Hardik Patel and Police Action

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A Patel writes about Reservations, Hardik Patel and Police Action

Since the current issue of reservation is affecting my state and community I would like to express my thoughts on the issue. I am not a celebrity or anything but it is precisely because I am an ordinary citizen that I think I have to convey my thoughts, especially when opinion of few celebrities not in touch with ground reality is taken for truth by the so-called “national media” which rarely bothers to venture out of their studios in Delhi (“tyranny of distance”!!!). I don’t know whether my opinion matters or not but I can’t allow people like Hardik Patel and Aakar Patel and lutyenites acting as the representative voices on the issue merely because of their surname and “stature”. Let me also clarify that these are just my genuine thoughts based on my own observations and not the arguments based on statistics or any such thing.

First of all let me specify that I am completely against reservation for Patels. By any standard Patels aren’t backward at all… neither socially nor politically nor academically. Yes in the past their condition wasn’t much different from the farmers of rest of the country. “Manavini Bhavai” (translated in English as Endurance – a droll saga) a novel written by eminent author Pannalal (a Patel himself) vividly depicts the tragic condition of farmers in 20th century rural Gujarat. Demand for reservation would have been justified at that time. However hard work of elder generation of Patels, along with strong emphasis on education of their children has yielded fruits and as of now they are a prosperous community by the standards of our country.It is also completely wrong perception that being in general category they are at disadvantage.

I studied in BJ Medical College, Ahmedabad and almost every batch has sizeable no. of students who are Patels (around 50 by very rough estimate). Almost every batch has one division invariably known as “Patel batch” since almost all the students of that division have Patel surname!!! It does include other castes like Kolis who also have Patel surname and enjoy benefits of reservation but Patidar Patels still have a sizeable presence. And situation was same even in 60s. Same scenario is probably applicable for other well-known institutes of the state including school level education.  As such they are already doing well without any advantage of reservation. In fact rather than lamenting the lack of reservation they should feel proud of the fact that they prospered without any advantage of reservation. Not to mention that the reservation issue will actually weaken their political dominance even if accepted by drifting lower caste voters away from BJP.

Also I don’t completely agree with this “a person of SC/BC category with 45% marks can easily get admission in medical school while those in open category with 90% can’t get admission in well-known institutes” rhetoric that is being repeated in local newspapers. It is in fact one of the most potent propaganda tool being used to convince people to join their cause. I have many friends who got admission into medical schools via reservation and not all of them had low score. And even in college their performance is as good/bad as other students from open category.

Granted there are students who get admission with 45% marks but they don’t form the major bulk and their exclusion won’t change the picture drastically at all. Overall students from open category do have some disadvantage (including not getting any generous scholarship) but not all the people with 90% will get admission in their desired institutes even if reservation will be removed. Lets not live in any sort of delusion that only people in open category can achieve 90% score while rest are unable to do so. The root cause of that problem isn’t reservation but horrible deficiency of institutes for higher studies. In such situation reservation is rather an excuse or short cut approach for not developing proper education infrastructure. So lets agitate for better Education facilities in our country – a rather basic necessity that has been denied to poor citizens of this country for a very long time.

Another important point that I want to highlight is dubious role played by media. Normally any caste based politics should have been heavily criticized. But thanks to almost pathological obsession with Narendra Modi, they are glorifying this intellectually barren person in a hope to create a Gujarati Kejriwal. In a way it has always remained their fantasy to see the Patels shifting their support to somewhere else as it forms the significant portion of BJP votebank.It is because of the exact same intention that time to time they have come up with rumours that Patels are angry with Modi for the way he mistreated them by sidelining stalwarts like Keshubhai or are frustrated by a person like Modi from lower caste dominating them and other such funny things.

In reality however, Patels have remained loyal supporters to BJP.  And in no way they have been sidelined in the party. Not only Anandiben but some 6-7 ministries of state are being controlled by Patels as of now. So they will keep supporting BJP irrespective of the current agitation since alternative is KHAM politics of Congress. While fortunately Gujarat hasn’t seen the horrible days of jungle raj of Bihar, KHAM politics created enough issuesin Gujarat and people still haven’t forgotten it. Let’s not forget that even in last state election when it came to choosing between stalwart Patel leader like Keshubhai and Modi they chose later. (I recall even at that time Anti Modi brigade from Delhi was encouraging Patels to leave BJP for Keshubhai). So there isn’t any reason to believe that they will rally behind some young goon in next election.

Most of the Patels that I have talked with are, either in favour of abolition of reservation or demand the reservation based on financial conditions or complain about “post mandal injustice” as mentioned in the recent blogpost of Mr. Rahul Roushan. It mentions how at one time Patels were agitating against reservation while today they are asking for reservation. It can’t be denied that there is indeed an element of truth in that observation but I personally think that even for the current agitation the root cause is same feeling of injustice as it was in the past. In the days of KHAM politics all the core members of the alliance except the Muslims were lavishly compensated by Congress with the reservation quota. Rather than any greed for reservation for themselves, it is the same feeling of injustice that other well to do communities like Choudharies unjustifiably got the advantage of reservation for political reasons, which is motivating Patels to support the cause. Unfortunately however when some mediocre person like Hardik Patel, who uses analogies with naxals and terrorists, is leading the movement, it is very hard to expect any proper articulation of the demand. Also many people are being delighted with the prospect of another agitation like Navnirman Andolan. It will just remain their fantasy. Navnirman was a result of genuine anguish of people against corruption aggravated by other factors like famine. Current agitation based of narrow caste based politics can not turn into such widespread movement in absence of any support from other communities especially when led by goons.

However the main issue that concerns me as a supporter of BJP government is rather worrisome reports of rowdy behaviour by police force of the state. I want to add or rather urge people not to discard the news of rowdy behaviour of police as rumours. I am not in Gujarat right now, but I was informed by my parents last night that police did indulge in vandalism at the night of rally. In my own housing society they came at midnight and in revenge mode broke cars parked inside the premises (half of the residents are actually not even Patels or even Gujaratis but apparently Police didn’t believe in caste discrimination I suppose!!!) and vandalized the private property while shouting “Who wants reservation?”. The same thing was repeated in many other societies in same locality. While punishment to those goons who supposedly assaulted police and damaged public property is desirable, it is completely unacceptable behaviour to harass normal citizens in such horrible.

Unfortunately Media has created such a bad reputation for itself, (especially when it comes to reporting Gujarat) that once media reports something, people tend to believe opposite. And that is exactly what has happened in this case. Since people like Rajdeep Sardesai has reported police breaking vehicles of ordinary citizens, people are now discarding it as rumour. In fact even I would have done exactly same thing. But these brutal steps taken by Police will hurt the reputation of BJP even more by creating bitterness among public than those hollow rallies of Hardik Patel, which would have been just a temporary affair otherwise. So it can’t be ignored merely for the purpose of saving face on social media. The government shouldn’t make hero out of Hardik Patel which is exactly what the government is doing right now. Rejection of demand for reservation won’t affect the prospects of BJP much but such injudicious use of power will certainly antagonize the people and may lead to serious repercussion.  So it needs to be heavily criticized and thoroughly investigated before it creates more bitterness among people.

-Jinit Patel

Rajdeep Sardesai – an accused in a Defamation case

Guest Author
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Rajdeep Sardesai – an accused in a Defamation case

An overwhelming majority of journalists love giving sermons on morality. They preach transparency in public life. They hound politicians & public figures on any & every trivial issue. And all that while they pretend to be sitting on the high horses of morality. But when it comes to practising what they preach, their hypocrisy and sheer brazenness of it is unparalleled.

A few days ago I stumbled upon some interesting facts about Rajdeep Sardesai. I was routinely reading a law journal that reports judgments of Supreme Court & High Courts. What I read left me in disbelief. It was a judgment of Supreme Court related to Rajdeep Sardesai. The interesting facts emerging out of the said judgment are summarised as under –

Rajdeep Sardesai has never publicly revealed the fact that he is an accused before court of law. Mr. Rajiv Trivedi, a high ranking IPS Officer has filed a criminal case for defamation against Rajdeep Sardesai & several others in Hyderabad.

The criminal case pertains to an alleged defamatory news run by Rajdeep Sardesai led CNN-IBN in the year 2007 with regard to encounter of Sohrabuddin Shaikh. In 2007 Rajdeep Sardesai led CNN-IBN ran a story accusing IPS Rajiv Trivedi of playing a role in the events leading to Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter. In the said criminal case Additional Metropolitan Magistrate, Hyderabad passed an order summoning Rajdeep Sardesai & others to face the prosecution as accused.

Rajdeep Sardesai challenged the said summoning order by filing a petition in AP High Court. Vide said petition Rajdeep prayed that the summoning order of the lower court be set aside & the criminal case against him be quashed. However AP High Court found prima facie merit in the criminal case & accordingly dismissed Rajdeep’s challenge. Thus the High Court put it’s seal of approval on the summoning order against Rajdeep which requires him to face prosecution as accused.

Rajdeep carried the challenge further before the Supreme Court & sought to quash the criminal proceedings against him. By an elaborate judgment dated 14th May 2015 the Supreme Court also dismissed Rajdeep’s petition. Thus order summoning Rajdeep to face prosecution as accused became final after receiving approval from the Apex Court of land.

It was argued by Rajdeep’s counsel in Supreme Court that criminal proceedings will hamper the “freedom of press”. Supreme Court rejected the said argument by observing that individual reputation is equally important & cannot be trampled in the name of freedom of press.

However in a last ditch attempt Rajdeep Sardesai has filed a fresh petition in SC contending that provision making defamation a criminal act be done away with. Therein the SC has stayed the proceeding in the court of Additional Metropolitan Magistrate, Hyderabad. His petition has been tagged with the petitons of Dr. Swamy, Kejriwal & others seeking decriminalisation of defamation. But it must be remembered that the order summoning Rajdeep as an accused has become final on merits. His latest petition is based only on the larger & generalised argument that defamation be decriminalised. That argument is akin to allegedly committing an act which is a crime under existing laws & then seeking decriminalisation of the act.

The lack of MSM coverage in this case sheds light on media hypocrisy. In the case of others, media does not even wait for any judicial order or legal action. A mere allegation is enough to hound politicians & public figures. Chants for resignation grow loud. But when one of their own is found in such situation media goes mute.

Why didn’t media apply same yardstick to Rajdeep Sardesai? Why wasn’t Rajdeep chased by cameras? Why weren’t tough questions asked to Rajdeep? Will anyone even flirt with the idea of Rajdeep’s resignation? What does India Today group have to say on this? Were they in the know of things? If yes, why did they keep mum? If no, what is their reaction now?

These are tough questions no one is willing to ask Rajdeep. And now that they have been asked here, Rajdeep will not reply.

– @BhateKetan

Government doesn’t choose films to be sent to Oscar, but journalists whine on Twitter

OpIndia Staff
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Government doesn’t choose films to be sent to Oscar, but journalists whine on Twitter

Oscar, or Academy Awards, is a prestigious award related to movies. Oscar is a private event, like Golden Globes, or back home Filmfare Awards. It is organized by Academy of Motion Picture Arts (AMPAS) and Sciences – a private society based in US.

It sounded absurd to us at OpIndia.com when some people on Twitter claimed that BJP government was appointing its own man – a BJP MLA and Gujarati actor Naresh Kanodia – as head of the committee that would select India’s official entry to Oscar.

It sounded absurd because we wondered why was the government involved in something that was essentially a private event – the Oscar awards.

And why just Oscars; why does the government not send an official entry to Golden Globes, or for that matter any other prestigious movie awards functions?

And our doubts were right. The Government of India indeed has no role to play in selection of movie that becomes India’s “official” entry to Oscars. This was a public knowledge earlier this year when filmmaker Hansal Mehta got this reply from the government to an RTI query he had put:


India’s official entry to Oscar is selected by a committee chosen by the Film Federation of India (FFI), which is a private body of Indian film producers, distributors, exhibitors, and studio owners. FFI has been authorized by AMPAS to select Indian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at Oscar.

So it is a deal between two private and professional organizations, and the government has got nothing to do with it. Yet, it created outrage and controversy.

Here is a Senior Associate Editor working at the Outlook magazine, who blamed the government without checking facts:


There were numerous others who blamed the government and equated this appointment with appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the FTII Chairman. It is worth mentioning here that Outlook has put the FTII issue on their magazine cover for the latest issue, so maybe their journalist was looking for more ‘masala’ to add there.

Thanks to such comments by journalists, the issue was soon latched up by AAP and Congress supporters on Twitter, who made fun of Naresh Kanodia – without knowing a thing about his work – and cried “Saffronization” and “Emergency”.

This morning, it was reported that not Naresh Kanodia, but veteran actor Amol Palekar, whose credentials are beyond question, was the one who would head the committee to choose India’s official entry to Oscars.

So the entire controversy was based on a lie and spin about government’s involvement.

The most unfortunate aspect of this outrage and controversy was that it was choreographed by many who are part of Bollywood and perhaps knew that the government had got nothing to do with the appointment. Many of them are friends and associates of Hansal Mehta. But even Mr. Mehta didn’t bother to correct his colleagues.

Why let facts come into the way of a good outrage? eh?

Finally, some from inside the Bollywood spoke up against it, and conceded that it was part of a larger agenda:


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