[INDIA] Media and Muslims: Looking Beyond Kargil

By V.B.Rawat


Muslims seems to be the target of the latest defamation campaign running
in the vernacular Indian media specially in Hindi in the post Kargil
scenario. Apart from the reports of battle front, the coverage of local
super patriots has become the hall-mark of the media. From village to
the capital of the country, there is a sympathy for the Jawan who
normally never get his due in the peace time. Problem does not end here,
the reports of Puja, prayers, Gayatri Mantras for the soldiers and
Indian army continue to pour in and those who do not join them or
support them are being termed as treacherous.

In Delhi, the Muslim community has been outstanding in their rejection
of the misadventure of PakistanÇs elite army. Photographs of Muslims
protesting infront of Pakistan embassy and news about their anger over
Pakistan stabbing on the back of åpeace-lovingÇ Indian are also part of
the news. This is good that Muslims have also started in the rhetoric of
Sangh Parivar who want to give certificate to every community on the
basis of their patriotism. After defeating Pakistan in the world-cup
this patriotism was more than visible in the Hindi media where editors
wrote hosannas to Indian team. " Unhone Pakistan ki Moochen marod di,
wrote an editor who went to England to specially cover the world cup for
his paper. His continuous venomous writing ensured a complete
communalisation of the news items. Pakistan ki hekari nikalo, he wrote.
Pakistani think sport ground is like battle ground so we must put them
to mat every time we meet, suggested the editor.


It is true that cricket matches between India and Pakistan have never
brought the people together. Infact, they have raised the tensions
between the two countries. Even those, who have never seen cricket or
played cricket become interested in it. Both the countries do not want
to loose each other. Whether it is Lahore or Calcutta, the local people
cannot see their team defeated. While the game at Chennai was an
exception, the win of Pakistan is termed as a Islamic superiority over
Hindu India while defeat of Pakistan enlighten the heart of every
Indian, particularly, those with saffron bend of mind. This become time
for regain their Hindu pride. Pakistan must be defeated at all cost.
Pakistan means Muslims and they need to be put down every time. Hence
such rhetorical games do not serve the purpose except the money both the
boards are making in billions. In the Old-Trafford, Manchester, after
IndiaÇs defeated Pakistan, some of the Pakistan supporters burnt the
Indian tri-colour at the ground. Now, was this match played in the
sporting spirit. India and Pakistan cannot play matches in sporting
spirit. Moreover, there is always a suspicion over the patriotism of
Muslims which Sangh parivar always politicised that they never supports
India.

In these days, when national sentiments are being exploited from local
politicians to top level ones, the Indian media in general and Hindi
media in particular has not lagged behind. It has been covering such
stories which reminds us the notorious role it played during the Ayodhya
crisis in 1990 and 1992. One of the feature in the stories is the
involvement of ISI. Every one of us know that ISI is a PakistanÇs
intelligence agency whose task is to create problems in India but how
can the entire Muslim class be held responsible for this. Apart from
other things the reports suggests that the ISI is very effective in the
areas where Muslim population is very high. The reporters are alarmed at
the increasing population of Muslims in the Indo-Nepalese border. They
are opening Madarasas and mosques which are the easiest target of ISI,
says the reports. Now the problem is that if Muslim do not send their
children to madaras where should they send, because I have travelled a
large part of UP and spoken to Muslims who openly said that their
children are not given admissions in the government schools even where
they are in a majority like Moradabad and Meerut. In such a scenario,
the Madarasas have played a very important role. It is obvious these
reports does not have direct information and everything is based on the
reports given by the intelligence, who we all know have completely
failed and have been badly politicised. There are other reports like, a
well known Muslim religious saint Ali Miyan refused to pray for Indian
Soldiers. The reporter said that it was suggested to Ali Miyan to pray
for the Jawans fighting in the border but he refused and said that he
might issue an appeal to end the battle as the earliest. Now what is
wrong with this if some people are praying to end the battle at the
earliest. But this Brahmin reporter term this as anti-Indian and
fundamentalist. Any one talking for peace is anti national as if
nationalism is just the monopoly of a few ruling Hindu elite. It is not
that entire Indian masses want a war. Actually a war hysteria has been
created and perhaps in the hope that it will fetch votes to Atal Bihari
Vajpayee and the party. The current situation is very grim. Our media
and specially the vernacular media including the government sponsored
electronic media is more than eager to fight a lasting war with
Pakistan, who they think have harmed the interests of India. Regular
dead bodies of soldiers are being shown and the TV reporters speaking
with the relatives of the martyrs are being shown as a mark of årespectÇ
for the soldiers. We are told that the widow of the soldiers want to
fight for the country and she is proud of her husbands. Mothers are
proud of their sons. Similar things are happening on the other side of
the border.

One need not to go in detail whether Pakistan is a failed state or rouge
state but unlike India which is an open society, Pakistan remains
captive to the military, religious and feudal powers. It is not
surprising therefore that Pakistan is the largest feudal state in the
world which has rarely exercised democratic norms without getting
sanctions from the army. Even those who were in the forefront of
Pakistan movement are today foreigner. And not only the streets of
Karachi but the slums of Dhaka can clearly demonstrate Pakistani
aversion towards the Urdu speaking people who are contemptuously termed
as Mohazirs. Pakistan refugees to take back the Urdu speaking living in
the refugee camps in Bangladesh. During a visit to Dhaka around a year
and half ago, I happened to visit some of these camps where most of the
artisan working, still have love and affection for Urdu and referred to
them as Indian and not as Pakistani and wanted to go back to Darbhanga
and other places of Bihar which is their original place.

Secondly, India and Pakistan will have to sit quietly and openly the
issues infront of them and include the people of both the countries.
Because it is not sure that India and Pakistan will keep quiet after
Kashmir issue is solved. One need to ponder over these issues. There is
dire need to strengthen the people to people contact at South Asia.
There is no way for either Indian or Pakistan or any other south Asian
citizen to get informed and enlightened about what is happening in these
countries as they only get chauvinistic news in their news-papers. They
cannot write letters to editor which if they ever try will be
scrutinised and might be thrown away by the government agencies wanting
to bulldoze a peopleÇs movement in South Asia. They can only listen and
view the government channels and other satellites channel from the
western world which are interested to play åumpireÇ in this entire game.
More and more interaction between the south Asian citizens would force
the political leadership to follow the wish of the people.
Unfortunately, the political elite in the subcontinent does not want
this peace and friendship. Already in Pakistan and Bangladesh the
religious movements are gaining ground to tackle with NGO movement which
they fear are secular and western oriented. IN Bangladesh, NGO are
getting threatened. Similarly, our own country, Hindu Rastra groups are
not legging behind while terming the NGOs as western stooge. All those
who talks about friendship with the entire subcontinent are termed as
anti-national.

The war is always gender bias and it increases this. Nobody, bothers
about it in the subcontinent where the basic needs of the people have
yet to be prioritised. We hear on TV reporter announcing most of the
wives or mother whose sons died for the cause of the country wants sons
now so that they can take revenge of their fathers martyrdom. That means
girls are not required. They cannot serve the nation. They can only weep
and cry. They can only worship for the protection of Sindoor.. In
Pakistan and Bangladesh, as reported by some of the friends, Mullahs
have said that woman as head of state is ill omen and will destroy these
countries. May be after some time, the Sangh parivar will also say the
same thing. Politics, Militarism, Cricket, everything is man made and
hence there is no place for women. In the already gender bias
sub-continent this will endanger the cause of women.

In this entire exercise of war, there is no one talking to Kashmiris,
what are their grievances. India does not want Kashmir issue to be
internationalised as if it is not internationalised right now. While
Pakistan is showing its keenness for a plebiscite. Can it do the same
thing in Azad Kashmir and also in Karachi. Can any country hold
plebiscite in any of its territory. It will open Pandora boxes. Hence
the Kurd will not be allowed to go for autonomy in the same way as China
will never want Tibet to go for autonomy. When all the rulers of the
world have decided not to allow freedom to those who disagree with them
than talking about autonomy will be futile. Yet, we will have to
discover new ways to live in plural societies and aspirations of ethnic
minorities.

In the last fifty years of the subcontinent, this issue has crippled the
Indian subcontinent. First the Muslim minority, than the issues of
Dalits and tribal, than the ethnic and religious minorities all have
been asserting about them after victimisation from the ruling elite.
Pakistan became victim of its own elitism in 1971 when its leadership
ignore the vast sentiments of Bangla people. Indian middle classes have
to face the challenge from a new emerging Dalit-tribal-backward alliance
in the post 90s which threatens to change the nature of ruling elite in
north. The upper-caste Hindu hatred for this upcoming of these sections
is well known and might not be lessor for what the Punjabi Muslim
leadership of Pakistan had for East Bengal people. Yet, India is living
with Dalit backward revolution as whatever are the draw backs, we still
are a democracy and all the sections of the society are enjoying it.
This is the power of democracy. Perhaps this is the lesson for other
south Asian counterparts so strengthen democratic set-up in their own
country. It is not that democracy has benefited the lowest of the low
but still it will very soon change under the assertion of the people. So
far the ruling elite has co-opted the ruling elite of Dalits and tribal
and hence nothing is expected of them. There is cynicism among the
masses which can be witnessed from the situation that the Narmada
campaign has not got support from any political party though the
supporting individuals and mass movements are growing.

There is a dire need for the people of South Asia to come together, join
hand, form a strong network. Please share your information with us and
we will share our information with you. Let there be more and more
interaction among us. Delhi Lahore and Calcutta Dhaka bus service was a
good venture as it could have been possible for the grass root activists
to meet their counterparts in these countries. Majority of South Asian
activists cannot afford air tickets for their meetings and hence it was
a good thing to happen but it seems that the ruling elite in these
countries does not want this to happen. We know there are other
organisations in the name of solidarity with Pakistan ( I am not sure
how many of those who want friendship with Pakistan or India know them)
yet there is not much about South Asian friendship. It might be possible
for other South Asian friends to put pressure on these two big brothers
to sit together and find out a solution to their problem. Kashmir is the
bone of contention and its solution is not easy as political hawks in
both the countries would term it as victory or defeat of their party. It
is a party issue and hence vote bank politics will play its role here.
But it need serious thinking. We cannot remain a mute spectators to
such mishaps when the two armies who share the same old legacy fight
with each other for their blood. The time has come for serious thinking
over the issues. 20th century was the century of wars and nuclear
holocausts let us not enter the 21st century with the burden of past.
Let peace and good senses prevail.

(July 1, 1999)

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