Monday, January 30, 2012

Page 1 vs page 10


I was in two minds since morning, whether to debate this topic on the blog or not. But then what better place than a blog to debate it? :D. So here we go :)

Yesterday, The Hindu had a banner headline story:



I had two issues with the story. One was with the demand to not just ban the film, but the entire event too.

 “The content of the seminar, like the film, is anti-India, and against the Indian Army. We will not stand for anything that divides the country. Symbiosis has agreed to cancel the film screening, and we are giving them three days' time to think about the event, too,”

I find this language very disgusting. There are many modes of protesting and bringing this issue into prominence. Surely "we are giving them three days time to think" doesn't fall into any of that category.

Also, I have been alerted on twitter that this movie was rejected by the Censor board too. If true, how is it legal to screen it anywhere? I asked this question to the Editor of The Hindu too. Waiting for response...

Second was with the headline. "Fatwa" is something that issued by the muslim clergy, not groups like ABVP. It is improper for a newspaper to mix up things like this and impose them onto the reader. I asked the editor about it too, while condemning the demand by ABVP. Diktat would have been a right word to use, in my opinion.

But this was not why I was in two minds. There was another news item in today's paper.


Today, in page 10... please mark it - in page 10 and not on page 1 - The Hindu publishes this report - "Police too didn't want film screened"

The report very clearly mentions that it was not just "right wing" groups but also the police that advised the organisers of the seminar not to screen this movie. The report does not mention if they advised so acting on any complaint filed or not. So it is difficult to conclude from the report, why the police took this step of writing to the university. 

Assuming they acted on a complaint by ABVP, isn't it the police's job to counsel ABVP to protest peacefully but not threaten violence (if they did)? Assuming the police wrote to the university even before ABVP approached either of them - why did they do it?

So here's my question - Why is the ABVP "fatwa" front page news and why is the police "advise" page 10 news? 

Is there an agenda at play here? Or am I missing something? It would be great if anyone of you who think otherwise, can shed some light in the comments section too...

Here's one event that prompted me to write the blog. CNN-IBN's Senior Editor Sagarika Ghose tweets this morning: 


She actually thought that the film name is "Fatwa" !!! And upon correcting her, she goes on to decry the "thought police" action of ABVP. Quite obviously Sagarika Ghose hasn't read the second report, primarily because it is tucked away in the 10th page! There will be many mis-guided people like her - and that's primarily why I begin to suspect an agenda here! 

Update on Jan 2: The Hindu carried a last page report - "On police advise, Rushdie seminar cancelled". Police did not even want them to debate the whole Rushdie affair! And this is last page news! 







12 comments:

shivsinghDESH said...

Well analysed. all true.

Shreedharan Raman said...

These are just media bloopers, sadly. :(

GNOSIS said...

You have raised a good point here on this topic Sudhir. Yes i see a clear agenda to show the right wing (BJP) in poor light. I dont agree or subscribe with the ABVP line of thinking on this issue but the headlines ABVP FATWA is definitely mischievous.Various blogs & social media stripped congress & liberals silence on the Rushdie affair. The congress very clearly supported the Deoband fundamentalists Fatwa in ensuring Rushdie doesnt attend the Jaipur event. None from the MSM or Delhi studios have been strong in their criticism of congress in this affair. The congress used the Rushdie Fatwa to appease muslims in UP which unfortunately back fired on it. They were left wondering if they handed out advantage to the BJP unwittingly & which they did :)

To get even now the ever willing MSM is over playing a mischief of ABVP with a front page headlines like "ABVP FATWA" and hiding the real genuine news in the 10th page. And going by the thumb rule of our MSM everything is a right wing conspiracy :)

IG said...

I remain your fan :D

Prashant said...

Nice work! Excellent catch. I hope you find the time to keep writing such posts.

Kaushik said...

I had tweeted abt this on the day as well. What I find particularly disturbing is the absence of distinction between "religion" and "national interest". Agreed, banning isn't the best way to protest against something pertaining to national interest either, still, this direct correlation was what prompted me to wonder about The Hindu's "ideological opposition" to BJP/Hindutva as opposed to "commissioned opposition" ala ToI.
Then again, considering this is a newspaper which gives ample news paper real-estate to Arundhati Roy, national interest, esp wrt Kashmiri separatism, isn't much of a biting issue. :)

irreverentguru said...

See this is why we need alternate/new media. I had no idea about this 10th page news item - given I only skim through the first couple of pages of the news paper (That too online, in my time zone).
And you are spot on, as far as "agenda" is concerned. I'll go one step further and hazard a guess as to what the agenda is - Our lib-tards (I dont know whether "lib" replaces "re" or "bas") couldnt stand the fact that only one community and its influencers of opinion were bearing the majority (all of) brunt in the JLF-saga. They tried leveling the playing field by raking up the MFHussain issue - Which was of course, stale now (And in the first place, it was an apples-oranges comparison). So they had to find something new, give it some more color and tar the other community with the same brush with which reasonable folk have been tarring the perpetrators in the JLF case - i.e. Deoband.

Anonymous said...

brilliant. There will come a day not in the distant future, when the traditional media will be made irrelevant. I have already stopped believing anything I see in news papers and know many others too. It just needs to find the critical mass and alternatives will emerge for themselves...

narahari said...

anna super analysis.. i heard the editor of the hindu changed.. so may be started the fall of great news paper i think...

Mitul said...

Are you on twitter?

Sudhir said...

@Mitul yep... my handle is ssudhirkumar

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