An American filmmaker – visiting India hoping to get some footage of violence against minorities as there has been a furore in both Indian and Western media over ‘minority persecution under the Hindu fascist government at the center’ – took to social media platform Twitter on Wednesday to express his severe shock after he didn’t find “entrails of minorities hanging from trees” in India. He had prepared himself for at least a glimpse of a church or mosque being burned to the ground by Trishul-wielding Hindu militants, but he was left shocked even on that front.
“Reading about India from these news outlets, I came to India fully prepared to find entrails of minorities hung on trees. I had at least reckoned I’d get a glimpse of a church or mosque being burned to the ground by Hindu militants. But this trip has been nothing but a huge shock. The closest I came to seeing violence against minorities was when @bwoyblunder wrote a satirical piece on Saba Naqvi!” he said, clearly exasperated, before going ahead and cancelling his subscriptions of New York Times and other such news websites. He even proceeded to remove the phrase ‘News Junkie’ from his Twitter bio.
Saga Rita Ghost, a prominent journalist, said, “Is this how guests are treated in India? Whatever happened to Athithi Devo Bhava? It’s just simply unacceptable for the Modi government to shock an American filmmaker hoping to find real evidence of minority persecution!” When asked whether the media could be mistaken in portraying India as unsafe for minorities, she called a guy who started to punch this correspondent while repeatedly shouting “asshole!” This correspondent was forced to buy his book to get him to stop punching.
Sonia Singh, an Editorial Director in NDTV, has proudly posted a column – which is taken from her Keynote Address at UNESCO, India to observe World Press Freedom Day – on NDTV website. In the article headlined “Let Journalism Thrive – Television and Media Freedom“, she talks about freedom, challenges, choices, threats and violence associated with Press in India. Sonia talks about her journey from 1992, discusses evolution and proliferation of private channels in India, talks about World Press Freedom Index, and then quotes selective examples and scenarios to conclude dangers faced by press in India.
The interesting part of this philosophical and ethical discussion ending with thus quote of Camus, “A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad”, is to see patches of emotional spin smartly used by her to furnish her propaganda. While talking about indirect censorship techniques used by corporates and government, she abruptly mentions Gajendra Singh and glorifies his suicide story as a struggling saga of poor farmers faced in India:
So, sadly, yes, a farmer has to travel to Jantar Mantar to commit suicide to get his voice heard.
The story is still under investigation. Prima Facie, it is a stunt gone wrong, but Sonia Singh took the liberty to come to improbable conclusions to defame the country. NDTV is well known for preaching ethics which it doesn’t follow, however, the constant glorification and victimization of Gajendra Singh raises a couple of grave concerns:
Is media reeling under the pressure of AAP? Arvind Kejriwal has already issued diktats against media which puts them in pressure. According to a circular issued by the state information and publicity department, if any officer associated with the Delhi government feels that a published or aired item damages his or the government’s reputation, he should file a complaint with the principal secretary. This raises questions like, “Are journalists scared of talking truth about AAP now that Kejriwal has started issuing threats of defamation and more subtle other threats?”
Is NDTV trying to divert Gajendra Singh’s suicide as a non-political event? While preliminary investigations found AAP leaders guilty or provocation and negligence, Sonia makes it a totally different issue. OpIndia.Com pointed out some serious questions and evidences. Initial investigations have clarified that Gajendra Singh had political motivations and he was not a poor helpless farmer. Why is Sonia defending this fact?
@rupasubramanya Even if he slipped as you say, why did he choose to do this at Jantar Mantar and not Jaipur ? For the media cameras !
@rupasubramanya Rupa,the point you clearly miss by a mile is this 1) the man stood with a noose around his neck on a branch. Why ? — sonia singh (@soniandtv) May 10, 2015
@rupasubramanya And district administration has now given his family compensation for damaged crops ! Would they give this to businessman ?
While it is true that many farmers exasperated at the lack of support systems commit suicide, to spin a stunt gone wrong as a disgruntled farmer committing suicide to get heard in the heart of Delhi, that too at an International Event is nothing short of malevolence. Sonia also deliberately ignores the facts that the so called farmer later turned out to be a well to do entrepreneur and not a struggling farmer. One of this should surprise anyone, considering she is a senior editor at NDTV currently under investigation over money laundering.
. @soniandtv@rupasubramanya Sonia, i must tell you if you bring Pioneer into picture, i have to bring NDTV into picture. Better avoid that
Sonia talks about Freedom and Ethics of Press but dodges away from fundamentals of journalism. While she talks of conflict of interest by other media persons, she safely tucks away the truth that she is married to a minister of the Congress government that is largely responsible for rural distress even after almost ruling for 6 decades.
– Special thanks to @ajayendar for valuable contributions
According to reports published by many media houses, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Sadhvi Prachi has stated that Salman Khan got bail in the infamous 2002 hit-and-run-case because he is a Muslim. This is not the first time when Sadhvi Prachi has made some controversial remarks, however, this is not even the first time when media, even after already being criticized for misreporting her political rank, has promoted her to a BJP MP position.
As highlighted by us, in March 2015, based on a PTI report, many media houses published a story that a “BJP MP” has asked to boycott films by the Khan trio.
PTI News referring Sadhvi Prachi as a BJP MP
Sadhvi Prachi was never a BJP MP. In fact, she was recently hauled up by BJP UP president for her irresponsible remarks. After people questioned the media houses, they removed the BJP MP part from Sadhvi Prachi’s designation.
However, to our surprise, she was again elevated as a BJP MP, after her Salman Khan remarks, by many of those organizations who were slammed by people in March for misquoting the same mistake.
Times of India quoted Sadhvi Prachi as a BJP MPOne India quoted Sadhvi Prachi as a BJP MPThe New Indian Express quoted Sadhvi Prachi as a BJP MP
The Lok Sabha and The Rajya Sabha members lists don’t have any member named Prachi. It is not expected from journalists to remember names of all the MPs and MLAs, but it is expected that they confirm some basic details before quoting someone. The way media houses are coming up with articles having the same fundamental error again and again, the only consolation which most of these would be sharing after each misreporting is that they committed a blunder which other media houses also did, or have been doing.
They say, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing year after year and expecting different results“, andas the latest version of Rahul Gandhi is rolling out, we are getting a strong sense of Deja Vu.Is Rahul Gandhi going insane?
First Rahul tried the travel by train stunt. As we had shown earlier, Rahul had tried this very ploy 4 times in 5 years already. Not only is it boringly repetitive, it is the most common trick of politicians. While we had earlier blamed the media for regurgitating the same drivel of “Coming of Age” of Rahul Gandhi over and over again, this time it is Rahul who is guilty of repetition.
In his latest intervention in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi made a statement, which puzzled many people. He was talking on the issue of the closure of a food park in Amethi. First, let us see what he said exactly:
A few years back, I was on a tour in UP, and a farmer asked me: “Rahulji tell us, we sell potatoes at 2Rs a kg, but when our kids buy chips, the packet costs 10Rs and has only one potato. Tell us what is this magic?”
Rahul Gandhi then explained that the farmers believed that middlemen ate away their potential earnings. The solution to this was his Food park in Amethi, which would bring industry closer to farmers, thus eliminating middle-men. We will come back to the food park, but right now, its important to note that Rahul Gandhi used this potato analogy, in context of middlemen, and claimed that a farmer asked him this question
Cut to 2013. Rahul Gandhi is laying the foundation stone for this very food park. See his speech from that event:
Rahul began his address asking the people about the market price of potato and compared it to the price of branded potato chips. “How much is the price of potato?” asked Rahul. “It’s Rs 10 per kg,” shouted someone from the crowd while some others said “it’s Rs 6 per kg.” Rahul thereafter asked: “What’s the price of 1 kg potato chips.” As the crowd shouted it’s Rs 400 per kg Rahul said, “I know those who work hard in this chain get least (price). I want you to get maximum out of this Rs 400 per kg price.”
The example is the same, the context (of middlemen) is probably the same, but the figures change. Also, while Rahul Gandhi today is claiming this was a question posed by a farmer to him, in 2013, it was question posed by him to farmers, via a speech.
Rewind further back to 2012. This time Rahul Gandhi is in Gujarat, making an election speech. He invokes the same example again. See what he said then:
Rahul: *Asks crowd* How much does Potato sell for?
Crowd: 3-4 Rs
Rahul: 3 Rs? 1 kg Potato 3 Rs? How much does a Potato chips packet sell for?
Crowd: 200 Rs
Rahul: How many potatoes are there in a chips packet?
Crowd: 10 grams
Rahul: Who is losing?
He then goes on say, they (Congress) wanted to set up Cold storage and Food processing plants via FDI, near farmers, but BJP opposed it. So now, the same analogy was used for FDI by Rahul Gandhi. And again, it is Rahul Gandhi who raised the question not the farmer. Also, as the report says, in Amreli, where Rahul spoke, the minimum price for a kg of potatoes was Rs 10 at the wholesale market, and much higher in the retail market.
We go 1 more year back in time, to 2011, and Rahul Gandhi is saying the same things. This time, he was at a meeting in Farrukhabad, the largest potato-growing district in the country. He said “farmers complained that the market price of potato was Rs. 2 per kilo while the big companies sold potato chips at Rs. 10 per packet.” He was again speaking in the context of FDI.
To recap, the same potato-chips analogy has been re-used by Rahul Gandhi 4 times in 5 years:
2011: Farrukhabad – in support of FDI
2012: Amreli, Gujarat – in support of FDI
2013: Amethi – in support of a Food Park
2015: Lok Sabha – in support of Food Park
This is what makes watching Rahul Gandhi go through the motions painfully excruciating. Its like watching a film over and over again, you know exactly what will happen, and you don’t like the film a lot either. Its just plain torture. Rahul Gandhi needs more intelligent people guiding him in his image-rebuilding.
Coming back to the Food Park issue, Rahul alleged that the current Government had scrapped the Amethi Food park out of vengeance. The real reason though was the fact that the project did not fulfil certain conditions, including possession of land within six months of the date of allocation, even after extension of deadline. The company which was to build the food park in fact “informed the ministry that the project is unviable if gas at subsidised rate is not provided for the captive power plant, for which he added there was no provision under the policies for food park”. A Ministry official said, “Even the deadline was extended to two years but the company was not able to fulfil the minimum criteria of 50 acres of land.”
Also on a side note, this food park was to be developed by the Aditya Birla group, an “evil corporate” if one is to follow Rahul Gandhi’s language. So was Rahul Gandhi, who has repeatedly accused the Government of being pro-corporate, of being a “suit-boot” ki sarkar, batting for a “corporate” in Lok Sabha? Time to have some potato chips while this episode pans out.
After the resignation (and withdrawal of it on the same day) episode of Rahul Yadav (CEO of Housing.com), internet was again flooded with an old familiar discussion – is the amount of resources spent by the government for nurturing IITians a huge wastage? The question raises many implicit concerns, of which, the two most prominent ones are: a) are IITians not contributing as much it is expected from them? b) is the government wasting lots of money on them?
I, being a Muggle-grad, who qualified JEE but studied in IT BHU (which now, as they say, is upgraded to IIT BHU) often feel exasperated when I come across such questions, less because I am a product of this system and more because of interpretations of contributions and social expectations put forward by people.
It would be rude on my part to state that most of the arguments against facilities availed by IITians are results of ignorance, hypocrisy or sciolism prevalent in the society. Let us go through some of the most common concerns:
Why does government spend crores on IITians?
Most of the unary calculations posted by people are so simplistic that they divide total budget by number of students to derive at cost per student, even without realizing that IITs support huge ecosystems which also include faculty members and lots of staff members.
Of the total expenditure, major fractions of money is spent on research labs and equipment – which are not only used by students of respective IITs, but also by students from other colleges pursuing research works in IITs, government projects and industrial projects.
If other facilities like campus, play-grounds, lecture halls, mess, etc. will be compared, IITs will not have huge advantages over other universities.
The percentage of budget allocated to research and development in India is meagre. In comparison to other developed nations, we are still much behind. If we expect IITians or top graduates from universities to contribute more to Indian organizations, we should ask the government to allocate more money to other organizations instead of cursing IITians and putting narrow-minded questions like, “Why does a Chemical Engineer start FlipKart?”
The ROI (Return on investment) is very low. What do we get in return for crores spent on them?
A report published in Business Standard states that “IITs spend Rs 3.4 lakh on a student yearly, while tuition fee is Rs 90k” People thus conclude that close to Rs 2.5 lakh per student per year is paid by the tax-payers; but do they get good value in return?
At one side, we want to create world class institutions that can ensure opportunities to all the candidates, irrespective of their financial conditions, and at other side, we question the intent? Irony is that we criticize capitalism, but we are uncomfortable with socialism too!
We ridicule our education system for acting as a stumbling block towards its objectives of achieving inclusive growth; we preach that the purpose of education is much larger than materialistic questions like “What is your CTC”; we talk about role of education in individual and social building and then we put a selfish question: “What do I get?”
And why is the same question not asked when it comes to other universities and institutes where education is ridiculously subsidized?
It would be illogical to compare contributions of IITians with contributions of other universities, but it would be insane if the contributions by IITians are understated.
Why do IITians move to high paying jobs instead of joining DRDO, ISRO or Indian Army?
I read an article on Scroll in which the author mentioned that “The army doesn’t get engineers and officers from the IITs. Between 1986 and 2006, not a single IITian has joined the Indian army,” and also added that “The DRDO has a shortage of more than 2,700 scientists, and it is stretched and overworked, but our world-class engineers don’t find it challenging.”
I can understand that some people can never get out of the perception that science and technology don’t only restrict to car repairing, missile designing or electric wire testing, but I expect them to understand that ISRO and DRDO use many components which are created by engineers, many of whom graduate from IITs.
However, the problem is bigger. Indian organizations fail to attract not only IITians, but creamy layers of any top universities. My friends had bad experience working with defense organizations. I, while doing my summer internship in SAIL, was suggested to choose MNC jobs over government jobs like SAIL Engineering, which not only pays you less, but also ensures that your motivation and talent is trapped forever in the labyrinth of bureaucracy.
And above all, graduation doesn’t define paths of your life, it shows you different paths you can choose.
Why did you they join MBA after wasting resources in metallurgy engineering?
This is the most common and in a way most unfair question ever asked. Why should IITians not join MBA? Is MBA reserved for people from some particular educational backgrounds? Will an IITian with an MBA not be a better manager of a tech company? Why shut off management to engineering graduates?
But if you still insist on that question. Yes, maybe an IITian joins MBA due to lack of opportunities, or maybe due to realization that he or she was not meant to become an engineer. Grant that freedom?
IITs act as Center of Excellence which attracts top talent from different part of the nation who together create a culture – much larger a job platform – and then they spread across the globe to contribute, as per their willingness. These people start companies like Infosys, Sun Microsystems, FlipKart, HCL which provide opportunities to many people; these people lead global giants and set high admiration for all types of graduates from India; these people lead MIT, Stanford, Bell Labs, Google, Tata Steel, Vodafone, Reserve Bank of India, etc. and inspire thousands of kids to go beyond regular jobs; these people become badass civil servants who die for their moral values, setting examples for many.
I did not expect Goods and Service Tax (GST) to be discussed by public at large, given its vastly technical nature. But people are quite interested in this “elixir” to Indian economy, and quite a few pieces on GST have been written, some accurate, some speculative. As a Chartered Accountant, I couldn’t possibly comment on the economic effect of GST, which is for trained economists to comment on, but I can definitely throw light on some of the technical issues.
First of all what is GST? Think of it as a super-all-inclusive tax, which will eliminate most other Indirect taxes. Its aim is to standardise taxation across the country and remove cascading effect of taxes i.e. Tax on tax egs: VAT is charged on Excise too. It is expected to increase ease of doing business in India greatly. GST is already in place in over 160 countries world wide, so India is late to the party. Experts say, GST could increase GDP by 1-2% and reduce costs of inputs by around 10%.
Taxes expected to be subsumed are:
Although this is quite a long list of taxes which will be unified, thus simplifying many processes, there are some taxes which will continue like: Basic Customs Duty, Road Tax, Property Tax etc. The main contention of many GST nay-sayers is the fact that taxes on Alcohol, Petroleum and Tobacco will be kept out of GST. They argue that this makes GST imperfect and such an imperfect system could be worse than the current system.
Firstly, we must understand an Ideal GST would cover all products, but we do not live in an ideal world. Waiting for an “Ideal GST” in order to start implementation is basically saying goodbye to GST forever. Getting into specifics, Alcohol and Tobacco are generally not raw materials for any process, so the cascading effect of taxes will be minimal. Petroleum too is generally not traded at as many levels as other goods, it generally is sold from the Petroleum company to your petrol bunk in maximum of 3 levels. So cascading is not a real issue.
Here we must also know why these goods are kept out of GST. Again, we go back to concept of GST. By eliminating state taxes like VAT, what GST says to states is “Hmm so you were earning good money on goods sold by your state. From now stop that, Centre will collect all taxes and give you pocket money.” Yes, GST directly affects a state’s power to earn revenue (thus being an attack on federal structure). Hence many states for the longest time were anti GST. It took some hard bargaining to convince states to come under GST, and keeping products like petroleum out of GST was part of this deal. States will still have an avenue to earn some tax revenue via these products. So again its a trade-off, do you want to wait for the “Ideal GST” or get on with a near perfect GST and tinker it later.
Even in the case of VAT implementation, which is basically State-level GST, All Indian states did not come on board at once, thus making VAT in India “Imperfect”. VAT roll out began in 2003, after a huge push by the then NDA Government and only in 2014, did all states comply with VAT. Point is, its foolish to wait for a perfect GST in an imperfect World.
Another imperfection in GST is an additional 1% non-creditable tax which will be levied by states. It is exactly opposite to what GST stands for, but it is a necessary evil, and a short-term evil. Why necessary? This was part of the sweetener (along with petroleum etc) given to states to convince them to get on board. Why short-term? This 1% is proposed to be withdrawn after a few years. Also, is this 1% worth the noise? Currently CST is 2% and is fully non-creditable. For traders, the Non-creditable portion includes other taxes such as excise too. Keep excise aside, isn’t 1% non-creditable better than 2%, that too considering other benefits of GST?
Next, some people have proclaimed that Real Estate sector will be out of GST and this will kill GST. First of all, there is no credible information to support the claim that Real Estate sector will be out. On the contrary, the background material from ICAI on GST, says:
The 13th Finance Commission, has suggested that activities like housing, construction and railways should be included in the proposed goods and services tax (GST)
Commenting on this aspect now is pure speculation since the GST Act itself has not been framed yet. What was passed in the Lok Sabha on 6th May was only an amendment to the Constitution empowering both the centre and the states to tax the sale or supply of goods and services, not the actual GST Act.
Another wide spread bogey raised is the “rumoured GST rate of 27%”. Firstly, this is only a rate recommended by a panel set up by states. NIPFP, has recommended a rate in the band of 12-20%, 13th Finance Commission Task Force has said it should be around 12%, Kelkar committee has said it should be around 14%. Background material issued by ICAI says:
The GST rates in India are expected to be 12% to 20% for the 1st year, 12% to 18% for the 2nd year and 16% for the 3rd Year and onwards
Most importantly, Finance Minister himself has said 27% is way too high, and that the rate will be “much more diluted”. He also mentioned the 13th Finance Commission’s recommendation of 18% as a possible rate of GST. As of now it is fair to say, the rate will definitely not be as high as 27%, and it is too early to conclusively claim the rate will be so-and-so.
Continuing on GST rate, there won’t be one fixed rate for all products. Even under current state VAT regime, multiple rates are applied for different classes of goods. As per background material by ICAI, what we can expect is something like this:
1. Merit rate for essential goods and services
2. Standard rate for goods and services in general
3. Special rate for precious metals
4. NIL rate
5. Floor rate with a small band of rates for standard rated goods or services
The 27% or 22% we are talking about is the peak rate, and the lowest rate will be zero for essential commodities.
But all will not be hunky-dory under GST. Contrary to popular belief, GST will not be “one single tax”. It will have 3 components, State GST, Central GST and the addition of both which will be Integrated GST. This is another “imperfection” but a necessary one. Also a caveat, most information about GST is still in “proposed” or “expected” zone, even some of the information above, because the act is still not framed, so one must exercise caution in making assertions.
In the larger scheme of things, one must realise this is an incremental reform. We cannot change the entire system in one shot. And even this incremental change has many hurdles. It is a transitionary process, which would take a few years to manifest completely, during which finer points can be tinkered with, to move towards the Ideal GST. Another key take-away from how GST has been handled by the Modi Government is that it is overwhelmingly wanting to make states an equal stakeholder in the nation building process and this is one of the many threads they have started to ensure states participate and become accountable. This must be appreciated.
This is getting boring now. Every week or so, Indian Express which proclaims to be following “Journalism of Courage”, comes up with a completely fictional story and presents it as news. Outrage ensues for some time, till the myth is busted and whatever little reputation it has remaining, is mangled and destroyed. This week, Indian Express imagined not only a whole Doordarshan TV serial, but also its Mahurat shot and many fine details.
In this piece of fiction (report has now been updated by Indian Express), Indian Express claimed Doordarshan is telecasting a serial called Diye Jalte Hain, which was on “on PM Narendra Modi’s community”. It further said the serial will narrate the history of the Ghanchi-Teli community by weaving biographies of its famous members like emperors Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka. It said that Doordarshan had cleared this serial and given a first sanction of 128 episodes. The Producer, it said, claimed that this serial would go on for 10 years.
Of course this led to huge outrage on Social Media, on how Modi is using Doordarshan for promoting himself and his community. The usual suspects claimed that this was part of his Narcissistic tendencies, and a desperate attempt to rebuild his image. This news was later curated by many portals like Firstpost, who not only reported this story, but Sandipan Sharma (who had earlier prematurely ejaculated on a fake Baba Ramdev site), even wrote an op-ed on this issue. But, as usual, Indian Express was way off.
On the day this story broke, just from reading the post, I had put up some of my concerns regarding the veracity of this story:
1. It said “In 1st phase, 128 episodes were sanctioned & the series was likely to run for 10yrs”. Does any media channel give “first phase” sanctions for 128 episodes? That too over 10 years?
2. It said the serial is about leaders of Ghanchi community and will also feature Chandragupta and Ashoka. Are these kings of the Ghanchi community?
3. 128 episodes over 10 years, would mean 1 episode per month. In the era of daily soaps, can such a serial survive?
Many people asked Chairman of Prasar Bharti Mr A Surya Prakash, to confirm this news and his response on 6th May evening was this:
@FakeJourno Checking this out but 1st response: 128episodes, ten years! Atrocious! Laughable! No one who knows TV biz will write this.
From the above it is very clear that Doordarshan has no plans for such a serial. The “producer” whom Indian Express is quoting is lying or Indian Express is lying about the whole thing. Where one can certainly fault Indian Express is they did not bother confirming this news with anybody from Doordarshan before publishing this. Based on the claims of a “producer” they ran a story without even basic fact checking. Was this deliberate? Given Indian Express’s track record, it is highly possible.
Today on May 7th, they put up a a clarification where they quoted Doordarshan Additional Director General Deepa Chandra as saying “no such project is under consideration or has been approved by Doordarshan for any of its channel”. Chandra had the following harsh remarks to make on Indian Express’s reporting standards:
“You may please note that Doordarshan traditionally does not grant approval for 128 episodes at one go and that too for a period of ten years continuously. The reporter has also not cared to check whether any approval letter has been issued by Doordarshan to the Producer or Director. Being a public service broadcaster, Doordarshan is simply being taken for granted through this news story,”
Of course this clarification was too little too late, because by now the lies had been read, discussed, outraged upon and op-ed had also been written. This seems to be a well planned scheme by Indian Express where they repeatedly flout basic tenets of journalism and keep printing lies. Here are some more of Indian Express’s attempts at spinning news:
In our earlier post, we showed you some tweets by various people, like Pastors, Missions and Evangelical Preachers, which tried to suggest Nepal should follow the path of Jesus in order to avoid such calamities, or to take respite from the misery the tragedy has brought to them. While some of these tweeters were actively involved in evangelism in their real life, there was no proof to say their appeal went beyond social media, right upto Nepal. This prompted some defenders of evangelism to dismiss them as “loons from Mid-West America” who formed part of a “fringe” with “hardly any significant following”. While we responded to these juvenile arguments here, we decided to follow up on the alleged proselytisation in Nepal.
While there isn’t any reasonable data to conclude that conversions are actually on, there is cause for concern and the situation needs to be monitored. We say this because solely based on their internet activity, it is easy to establish that Christian evangelical groups have reached Nepal, and although they aren’t converting people yet, they are actively providing aid and relief.
Pledge Card included in Gifts to children
Samaritan’s Purse, is one such organisation. In it’s Mission Statement it clearly says it is an “evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world” … “with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ.”. As per reports on its own site and updates on its Twitter Account, they alreadyhave people in Nepal providing relief material, in as many as four districts. As of now, they are only providing help and aid to Nepalis. But along with their stated Mission, their past records show they are active in proselytisation.
A special program to target poor children
In 2012, a UK based organization revealed that Samaritan’s Purse was engaged in a covert operation of influencing children in poor countries, to convert to Christianity by enticing them with gifts and toys under a “Shoebox Gifts” program officially called “Operation Christmas Child”. Along with the gifts, they give a pamphlet which is “a direct attempt at religious conversion of young children, complete with a “sinner’s prayer” of conversion and a pledge card.” Soon, the local church invites these children to “share the Gospel” under a course called “The Greatest Journey”. See the booklet distributed here.
As per their own site :”In the past four years, more than 4.6 million children in 88 countries have enrolled in the discipleship program. More than 2.1 million of them have made decisions for Christ, and 2.2 million have committed to share their faith with family and friends”
Experience in reaching to Disaster spots across the world
And there is more. Samaritan’s Purse is experienced in “helping” people hit by earthquakes. In 2001, there was an earthquake in El Salvador. The victims of this tragedy had then complained that the organization “held half-hour prayer meetings before showing them how to build temporary homes of metal and plastic”. The President of this organization, had unabashedly said:
“When we go into these villages and help people get back into their homes, we hope we’ll be able to plant new churches all over this country,”
It also must be noted that at that point in time, Samaritan’s Purse had received more than $200000 from the US Government, thus making the Government a party to conversions.
In 2005 again, Samaritan’s Purse was once again under scrutiny for using aid as a tool to convert Muslims in Indonesia, which was ravaged in the Tsunami. Once again, they had received donations form the US Government, which went upto $300000 that year.
In 2010, Haiti was struck by an Earthquake, and there again Samaritan’s Purse was quick to reach. Once again, providing medical help and proselytisation crossed paths, with one the medical volunteers and also Director of the organization said “We came to Haiti not just to extend people’s physical lives, but to point the way to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ” as per their own annual report. If Doctors themselves declare that they have come to convert people, what else is left to say?
This trend of rushing to help people in disaster zones is a regular feature with Samaritan’s Purse, be it the earthquake in Costa Rica, hurricane in Nicaragua, tsunami in Samoa, cyclone in Vanuatu or typhoons in Philippines.
The Indian Experience
In 2013, after Cyclone Phailin, reached Odisha & West Bengal, and its partners “distributed relief supplies in Jesus’ Name”. Contuniuing with their “Shoebox Gifts” program, in 2014, Samaritan’s Purse distributed such “Gifts” to almost 5 lakh children in India. On their site, they even mention real stories of Indian’s getting converted to Christianity, including those of fatherless children. Watch this video on their initiatives in India, how they target children from slums and “present the gospel” to them via gift boxes. A child named Samir, from West Bengal says:
When I received my shoebox, I was very happy. I learned that Jesus loves me and that he sent me the box. After I got the box I started coming to the church and my parents started coming with me.
The organisations head in India says, via this program “The children who are the harvest, become the harvesters”
The Modus Operandi
Samaritan’s Purse knows how to go about their work. They target people when they are most vulnerable: either in the midst of a natural disaster, or when they are children from economically backward families. It probably is the easiest to get such people in the fold. And that is why, this organization has reached Nepal. As usual, the plan will be to start with providing physical aid, and then slowly moving on to spiritual aid. While there will be no direct proof of conversions for some time, at least until the dust settles, slowly the real agenda will surface.
The Nepal Experiece
Nepal is no stranger to Samaritan’s Purse. When there was a drought in the area where Nepal’s Chepang tribe resides, Samaritan’s Purse was working with a Christian partner in Nepal to provide emergency food to the tribe.
Right now in Nepal
We know for sure Samaritan’s Purse has already begun their work in Nepal. But are they alone? Is this the only evangelical organization there? Probably not:
1. A team from Baptist Global Response, a partner of International Mission Board (an evangelizing organization), have left for Nepal
2. A team from Children’s Hunger Fund (whose mission is to deliver hope to suffering children by equipping local churches for gospel-centered mercy ministry) is already in Nepal. (Also supported by US Government)
3. The International Nepal Fellowship (formerly known as Nepal Evangelistic Band ) is already providing relief in Nepal
4. The Salvation Army, “an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church”, already has teams in Nepal, with more coming. (Also supported by US Government)
Given all of the above, and the fact that Nepal legally allowed conversions only in 2008, Nepalis need to be alert and should see to it that if they were to choose to change their religion, it should not be under any sort of force from or moral obligation to these evangelical relief groups.
Dr Prannoy Roy was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Mumbai Press Club last week. In his acceptance speech, he talked about NDTV and the state of Indian journalism. Though my fascination with Prannoy was only during his anchoring of The World This Week on Doordarshan during 90s, I was interested to hear his views nevertheless. I will try to explain why his speech was all hot air.
Firstly, he lamented about the tabloidization of news. Even a novice would understand that he was directly targeting Arnab Goswami and TimesNow with this barbs. (Recent spate of attacks on Arnab and TimesNow is nothing less than a campaign.) Surprisingly, he exonerates media from this slide and blames the advertisers.
Importantly, here are examples, where NDTV itself has indulged in tabloidization of news:
When US Secretary of State John Kerry visited India, the first question Prannoy asked him was about Hillary becoming President. Guess, Prannoy had not heard of politics stopping at water’s edge (watch from 0:30 to 0:45). Cringeworthy!
When NDTV stealthily deletes a para from Prashant Bhushan’s open letter to Kejriwal, without disclosure . Ethics? We discussed it here.
When Sreenivasan Jain talks about “Chota mota blast” to further his agenda. Journalism?
One can point to plenty more – including the “Blow to Modi”, “Sonia is sad”, etc campaigns that have come to define NDTV.
As far as blaming advertisers goes, I was not surprised by this view at all. With its communist leaning, obviously NDTV does not believe in market forces determining the price. Hence, he blames the advertisers for not having advanced modeling to identify audience. I am surprised how someone managed to convince this bunch to list on NSE/BSE. (Well, at least market knows the value of NDTV exactly – In 2010, ticker was at approx. 120 and today, ticker is at approx. 130. Sorry folks, no dividend here too). After listening to this speech, if I was still an NDTV investor, I would be looking at monetizing my holdings.
I had a wholehearted laugh when Prannoy talked about his second point. Apparently, journalists are NOT supposed to be “insiders”and they are NOT supposed to be on first name terms with politicians. Well…
Hope you are having a good laugh too. Or was this Prannoy’s barb on Barkha Dutt, who is considered the ultimate insider in Lutyens journalism – a parting shot before she severs all her ties with NDTV?
NDTV was at it yesterday too, when they reported that NDRF had been asked by Nepal to leave, when in fact NDTV itself had reported the correct news just 24 hours earlier, that all rescue missions were asked to leave Nepal. So what if logic and facts say something, it’s always better to say something sensational and attribute it to “sources”. And trust Barkha to take this dumbassery to the next level. She managed to link a Twitter hash-tag, liberal hate for Indian armed forces and Nepal’s decision to send back all rescue missions:
Yup. Our leading journalist did not realise that closing search and rescue missions 8-10 days after an incident is standard practice since by then the chances of recovering someone alive are minimal.
Prannoy himself cannot be pardoned for his proximity to the Left comrades. Family relationships aside, not once in any of his shows, did he mention that his frequent guest N Ram (of The Hindu) is a card holding communist. Fair journalistic principles requires mentioning all affiliations to allow viewers to make informed decision. When Swapan Dasgupta writes his opinions on ndtv, he is declared as someone with “right-wing inclinations”, where as Kumar Ketkar is a “senior journalist, political commentator, globe trotter and author” and Rana Ayyub an “award-winning investigative journalist and political writer”. If anyone considers Ketkar anything other than “a designated Congress bootlicker” and Ayyub anything other than “a pathological Modi hater”, he/she must be admitted for mental care.
Finally, Prannoy talked about accountability in media. The fact that Prannoy did not fire Barkha after the Radia tape controversy and instead, gave her a platform to create a staged interview with other journalists and then exonerate herself is a slap on the face of anyone who stands for fair journalistic values. When Prannoy had a case to punish Barkha and set an example, he chickened out. Now, he has no moral right to give gyaan to others.
He, apparently, also has problem regarding journalists not checking their facts. Well, fellow comrades at NDTV did not get the memo. Please read Opindia’s reports on media lies, where NDTV features prominently – here and here.
By the way, who is Prannoy trying to fool with his lectures? Or is his speech a severe bout of Adarsh Liberalism? I would have called it a mutual admiration club. Since Prannoy himself mentioned during his speech about an editor leaving the hall, I will give the journalist community the benefit of doubt – that at least one editor could not take any more of such moral balderdash from Dr Prannoy Roy.
