Do Bile & Rants Qualify As Genuine Criticism?

Usually, I don’t take hate-hags like Sagarika Ghose seriously, and hence don’t even bother to reply them. Nevertheless, I did rebut Sagarika Ghose when she came up with her nonsensical blog Su che? Saru che!. The same Sagarika Ghose has now come up with her piece of advice to BJP supporters. Her latest blog Letter to India’s Right: All critics aren’t leftists or ‘deshdrohis’ is sort of an open letter.

Dear Sagarika Ghose, let me begin by asking you a simple question- what are your political leanings? As you already have shot off a letter to India’s right, why am I not to believe that you are a leftist? This question was posed to just let you know that the title of your latest blog, as always, is as absurd as you.

Now let’s come to the point. Of course we have secured a MASSIVE electoral victory in the general elections DESPITE a vile campaign of propaganda by “news-traders” in the mainstream media and political opponents. The breakthrough victory in Haryana is remarkable as it has signaled the end of identity based politics in India, something your peers and you don’t like. And the victory in Maharashtra, despite the split in the Saffron alliance bears a testimony to the ever increasing popularity of the BJP in India. Do you believe that the left has gifted us these stunning victories? No, we have tirelessly fought for these victories and hence we are in this jubilant mood. To paraphrase Deepika Padukone, yes we are the Indian Right, we have swept the polls, and we are in a jubilant mood, #YouGotAProblem? And why are you even counting crimes of the UPA now? When you were supposed to take them on, you developed cold feet; you were rather busy in passing inane comments on the Right. Whenever we drew your attention to the crimes of Congress, you would tweet some article you wrote to criticize Congress somewhere around 2005. Let me quote Mark Twain – Loyalty to the country always, loyalty to the government when it deserves it. This may help you understand why the social media in India is not anti-establishment anymore.

No Sagarika, propaganda is not what you accuse the social media to indulge in; propaganda is what your tribe has been doing thus far and still continue to do on behalf of Congress. Propaganda is what your former colleague Ashutosh used to do for the Aam Aadmi Party when was the Managing Editor of IBN7. And of course you do have a right to disagree with anyone, but it does not mean that your disagreement only shall prevail. If you have the right to express your opinion or disagree with us, we too do have a right to express our opinions and disagree with you as well. And do I even need to remind you how desperately your husband Rajdeep Sardesai tried to evolve Arvind Kejriwal? Why don’t you come up with some substantial criticism of the government instead of such inane bile? Or is it beyond your skills to come up with substantial criticism of the present government?

Yeah Sagarika Ghose, it’s a war against the monopoly of a handful people as opinion makers and a political family which is touted as the messiah of India by those opinion makers. It’s a war against those who are dishonest to their respective professions and not loyal to India and its interests. And let me assure you, Sagarika Ghose, that we are determined to take this war to its conclusion and willing to pay whatever the price may be. We do respect constructive criticism and there’s definitely a place for such genuine critics of the government in current order of the establishment. The recent appointment of Arvind Subramanian as the Chief Economic Advisor is a testimony to our tolerant approach to genuine criticism and eagerness to improvise. By the way, if someone calls Dawood Ibrahim, a dreaded terrorist, who is responsible for countless terrorist attacks on India a patriot, we do consider him or her a ‘deshdrohi’. If someone tries to defame the Indian Prime Minister on foreign soil, we do call him a ‘deshdrohi’.  Is it just a matter of coincidence that your husband, Rajdeep Sardesai, too happens to be a ‘deshdrohi’?

And whenever someone has criticized you or posed a logical question which you could not answer, you have resorted to calling names and abused that person, Sagarika Ghose.

Dear Sagarika Ghose, we all know what the media has covered and what not. We know the exact number of op-eds and debates dedicated to 2002 riots, Ishrat encounter, Sohrabuddin encounter, snoopgate, and Gandhi’s assassination as well. When media was to cover Assam riots, the tyranny of distance was the hindrance. Surprisingly again, this shameless excuse was offered by none other than Rajdeep Sardesai. We also know how extensively media is covering whatever is happening in states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala. Surely, seizure of countless bombs, revelation of underground tunnels, links of the locals with global terrorist organizations don’t deserve extensive coverage, op-eds, and prime time debates! When a young and upright journalist Gaurav Sawant asked some uncomfortable question on Saharanpur riots, Caliph of the Indian media Rajdeep Sardesai was quick to announce that Sawant had lost his moral compass. Petitions were signed and finally the journalist was forced to delete his questions. So now I’m asking you, Sagarika Ghose, why cannot you sympathizers of the Congress take criticism? Why do you always intimidate and in some cases eliminate those who dare ask you uncomfortable and tough questions? So far as supporters of the left and Congress are concerned, they have been abusing us ever since India won her independence. They call us sanghi, knickerwallah, gaumutra (cow-piss) drinkers, and what not! Moreover, why would they call you names, as whatever expose and criticism that dethroned them mainly came from us only!

We don’t call ourselves Rightwingers or Conservatives; it’s only you and your peers who have bestowed many such adjectives upon us. Unlike you, we don’t import our political definitions and ideas from Europe or the US. We believe in Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay’s philosophy of Integral Humanism. We believe in Hindutva, i.e. Cultural Nationalism. And so far as issues like homosexuality are concerned, I suggest you to read S. Gurumurthy’s article Homosexuality is not a virtue. You can refer to his articles on the economy and other topics as well. And as you know, he is considered close to the RSS.

I really doubt your ability to comprehend and understand economic issues and hence advise you not to comment on things you don’t understand. So far as India’s stance at WTO is concerned, you’re advised to read this, this and this articles. Many more op-eds, other than those I quoted, are available on India’s stand at WTO. Talking about the economic reforms, of course, an illiterate of the subject like you would like to believe that until the government permits FDI in retail, it has not brought enough economic reforms. And so far as overhauling of the taxation policy is concerned, let me quickly remind you that the Finance Minister is yet to present his maiden full-time budget. Moreover, it’s not always about lowering taxes, dear Sagarika Ghose!

We are always ready to debate anything and everything, be it article 370 or UCC, Sagarika Ghose. Your allegation that the space for debate has suddenly become so restricted is laughable, and even you know that. What democracy are you talking about? Your husband was asking people on the foreign soil whether the Prime Minister was of BJP or India. The very democratic order you’re talking about was mocked by your peers when they came up with the absurd logic that the government does not represent the people of India as it has got only 31% of popular votes. That logic, besides being factually incorrect, is also an insult to the constitutionally adopted democratic procedure to elect representatives, and hence an insult to the constitution of India itself. The right to free speech, that the constitution bestowed upon the citizen of India, was curtailed and contained by none other than Nehru himself by introducing article 19(2) as the first amendment of the constitution. We have never seen your peers or you campaigning to repeal section 153A or 295A of the Indian Penal Code or article 19(2) of the Constitution of India, Sagarika Ghose. Yeah, the right to free speech must fundamentally include the right to dissent. So why were we deprived of that right whenever we expressed our dissent over the Marxist or Western version of the Indian history? Why were we not given enough space to express our contrarian views and present nationalist narrative of the Indian history? So, let’s first practise what we preach, Sagarika Ghose! Will you?

Diwali

One of the most important festivals for Hindus, Diwali, has just arrived. Nevertheless, I believe in living life like celebrating a festival every day. Yet there is special importance attached to this festival and memories to cherish.

When I was a child, Diwali for me meant crackers and new clothes. I used to start bursting crackers at least fifteen days before Diwali, as no one, at that time, was there to preach ‪#‎GreenDiwali‬ or ‪#‎NoiselessDiwali‬ to me.

I still remember that during early days of my school life I have crammed essays on Diwali as they were mostly likely to be asked in term exams to be conducted in a short while after the vacation.

As an adolescent, Diwali for me was all about meeting friends. We used to burst crackers together, as all of us were students of the high-school that taught us ungrammatical English. We used to visit one another’s place and that’s how a chord between families of friends was struck. Those flattering comments on food used to blush friends’ mothers.

During my college days, Diwali used to be one of the legitimate reasons for not studying, as our semester exams used to be conducted right after Diwali. Coming home from hostel, and having mummy’s food used to be the flavour of Diwali.

And now, amid myriad advisories, warnings or threats, - whatever you call it- of cracker-less or noiseless Diwali, it has become the ambassador of hope for me. Diwali is rightly called the festival of light as the light of Diya, lit in this festival, besides glowing surroundings is an epithet of hope as well. The cacophony of crackers to me is the present state of my life.

Censoring Doordarshan : The "liberal" face of fascism

On 3rd October 2014, Doordarshan aired the Vijaya Dashami speech of Dr Mohan Bhagwat, the Chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, i.e. RSS, live for the first time. Even during the NDA-I regime, when Atal Bihari Vajapayee was the Prime Minister of India, Doordarshan never deemed it fit to cover the RSS activities despite them being newsworthy. Doordarshan is facing vehement opposition for this move and predictably so. The media and social media space is full of opinions on this ‘bold’ move of Doordarshan. The usual suspects began lodging their protest even before the speech was actually aired. Usual suspects like the ‘historian’ Ramachandra Guha and ‘journalists’ Hartosh Singh Bal, Siddharth Varadarajan were among those ‘public intellectuals’ to lodge their strong protest against the move of Doordarshan to air the Vijaya Dashami speech of Dr Bhagwat. Later on political parties like INC and CPI(M), CPI(ML), DMK, etc jumped their guns and their spokespersons issued statements. What astonished me the most was that the broadcast of RSS Chief’s Vijaya Dashami speech on Doordarshan was a news item for the private news channels like NDTV and HeadlinesToday. Some channels even debated this topic during their prime-time talk shows.

So what prompted this mindless, undemocratic, hypocritical, and unethical criticism of Doordarshan?

That Doordarshan decided to broadcast a speech of the RSS Chief live was the reason enough for some to outrage. They have nothing to do with what the RSS chief actually said in that speech, as they would never care to watch his speech before airing their critical views about the speech. Similarly, they would never care to know anything about the RSS before airing their critical views on the organization. To them, RSS is the Indian equivalent of the dreaded Islamic terrorist organization ISIS. To argue with such people is the sheer waste of time as their protest is mindless.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is a Hindu Nationalist group whose areas of focus are charity, education, individual character building and nation building. It is arguably the biggest non government organization of the world, and undoubtedly the biggest of India. That it has more than 50000 Shakhas (branches where Swayamsevaks or volunteers of RSS gather daily) across the length and breadth of the nation and over 5 million active Swayamsevaks is a testimony of both popularity and reach of the RSS. As a tradition, the RSS Chief addresses the Swayamsevaks on its foundation day, i.e. Vijaya Dashami. And the address is not limited to the Swayamsevaks only as individuals like me, who are not members of the RSS, do take inspiration from the Vijaya Dashami speech of the RSS Chief. It is the right of the RSS Chief, bestowed by the democracy and the constitution of India, to be heard and of the individuals like me to hear him. Hence to protest against the broadcast of the Vijaya Dashmi speech is undemocratic.

As I said earlier, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is a Hindu Nationalist group and hence it is pro Hindu. But then, does being pro Hindu automatically mean anti Muslim, anti Christian or anti Sikh for that matter? Definitely not. As a part of the propaganda of falsehoods, being run by alleged public intellectuals like Ramachandra Guha, RSS is a sectarian Hindu group. This is a blatant lie. Unlike Vishwa Hindu Parishad which is a Hindu organization, or as Ramachandra Guha would say, a sectarian Hindu group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is a cultural organization. Hence to oppose the broadcast of the Vijaya Dashami speech on this flimsy ground is the enormity of propaganda. Moreover, let us for a second believe that the RSS Chief, among Hindus, enjoys a position similar to that of the Pope among Christians. But then two things instantly come to my mind. Those who are now painting the RSS as a sectarian Hindu organization are the first ones to state that the RSS doesn’t represent Hindus whenever it raises its voice against the injustice that the Hindus have been subjected to during the Congress regime since the independence! Secondly, the Doordarshan, in the past, did live telecast the Pope, and religious events of Christians and Muslims. I don’t recall that any of those public intellectuals who are now protesting the live telecast of the RSS Chief’s speech lodged their protest then. So their pathological hatred for the RSS becomes a legitimate reason for these so-called public intellectuals to mindlessly oppose anything related to RSS, isn’t it? Why should the nation subscribe to their hatred?

Nothing astonished me more than the way the media other than Doordarshan reacted to the whole episode. Live streaming of the Vijaya Dashami speech of the RSS Chief by Doordarshan becomes a news item for the television and print media. Is it ethical to comment on the content a rival channel is airing? And if so, I have never heard any such display of ethics prior to this episode. When the entire media conspired to bury the Cash for Vote scam, Radia Gate and countless other scoops, where was this display of ethics? Rajdeep Sardesai, the sole moral navigator of the India media owing to his divine possession of the moral compass, bullied Gaurav Sawant when the latter asked some uncomfortable questions on the Saharanpur riots; the entire media ganged up against the young journalist and made him delete his tweets. The irony is- all those who were treating the live telecast of the Vijaya Dashami speech of the RSS Chief by Doordarshan as news item have also covered it and live streamed excerpts of it. So on what grounds do they question or criticize the Doordarshan’s decision of live streaming the RSS Chief’s speech? The media should be the last to comment on how Doordarshan should function. News channels better admit that DD News is one of their rival channels. The sooner they accept this reality, the better it is for them.

Some were foolish enough to suggest that no matter what Doordarshan, being the public broadcaster, should not have live streamed the Vijaya Dashami speech of the RSS Chief. This was the argument peddled by the outraged folks, when all other arguments of them were rendered futile. They are the same folks who always criticize the government enterprises for being sluggish, out of synchronism, incompetent, etc. While there can be a separate debate on whether we need a public broadcaster, the argument that DD should not have telecast the speech of RSS chief is naïve to say the least. Some folks are critical of the Prime Minister using the All India Radio to communicate with his own countrymen. Are we to subscribe this nonsense as well? Do these so called public intellectuals, who often pretend to be the expert on everything under the Sun, represent the people of India? Does the democratically elected Prime Minister not have the right to communicate with the people of India in the manner he deems fit? Who are these so-called opinion makers to suggest how the Prime Minister of an elected government should or shouldn’t communicate?

An average individual, living in a metro city like Mumbai, who perhaps has never watched any Doordarshan channel may think how foolish it is to attack Doordarshan while all other private channels are not only covering the same event but also live telecasting the excerpts of the RSS Chief’s speech? The answer is obvious- No TV network reaches rural as well as urban India like Doordarshan. ‘Doordarshan is the only channel with the widest terrestrial reach which caters to the remotest and border areas often neglected by the commercial interests of other channels’ were the words of former Union Minister of Information and Broadcast Ms Ambika Soni. The extent of the misinformation prevailing in remote villages of India can easily be gauged by the fact that many in those remotest villages believe that the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty was founded by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as the father of the nation. The interest of political parties like Congress and so called public intellectuals will be best served if this status-quo of the misinformation persists.  It is also no secret that some media houses like NDTV act as the mouthpieces of the Congress party and mostly all media houses were/are highly critical of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ruling BJP, and RSS. A competent rival in Doordarshan, which has the 100% reach through 24 hours satellite channels, 90.2% through terrestrial network of 1414 transmitters and a free to air DTH, DD Direct Plus, poses a grave threat to the propaganda peddled by the corrupt mainstream media on behest of their masters.

The real reason behind this blatantly mindless criticism and opposition is quite different from what they want us to believe. It is no secret that many political parties and public intellectuals are vehemently opposed to the ideology professed and preached by both RSS and BJP and rightly so. They are entitled to their belief that their ideology is best suited for nation and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But they want us to believe that ONLY their ideology is best suited for the nation and this is the principal reason behind their mindless criticism and protest. This fascist behaviour has no place in a vibrant democracy like India. While result of the Lok Sabha elections is still a riddle for them, the recent surge in online membership of the RSS has further panicked the pathological haters of the RSS and its ideology. They are afraid of the fact that people will reject their falsehoods when they come into the contact of RSS through such direct communication as there will, then, be little scope for distortion and out of context spin-doctoring.

The rules of the game have to be the same for all players, and cannot be changed overnight. Where were all these public intellectuals when Congress had blatantly abused both Doordarshan and All India Radio during the emergency? That blot on the democracy is never discussed by these so called intellectuals and opinion makers, but they have been passionately discussing all (factual and imaginary) angles of the riots that happened in 2002 in Gujarat as if those were the only riots in the history of independent India. They still spread the misinformation and propaganda that RSS was behind the plot to kill Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi despite the confession of the assassin of Gandhi Nathuram Godse himself and court ruling. If you had had no problem with blatantly anti-BJP slant of the media and motivated campaigns against the party and its ideological mentor RSS, you should not have any problem against BJP leveraging its influence over Doordarshan while it is in the office. I do not subscribe to the heavenly suggestion of those so called public intellectuals and some neutral observers that the onus of exemplary conduct while in the office is solely on the BJP. After all BJP is a political entity and it will cease to exist if it doesn’t adapt itself to the reality.

Let me remind all political parties, especially Congress, and public intellectuals that Prasar Bharti, which comprises of Doordarshan and All India Radio, is no longer the media unit of the ministry of Information & Broadcasting. That Prasar Bharti is an autonomous body is said for umpteen times by former I&B minister Sri Manish Tewari when the Congress led UPA was in power. By questioning the functioning of Doordarshan is Congress confessing that it had misused and abused the public broadcaster while the UPA was in power? Now someone would suggest that two wrongs don’t make a right. If you kept quiet or were beneficiary of the first wrong, you have the right to keep quiet now as well. And this by no means is admission that broadcast of the Vijaya Dashami speech of the RSS Chief by Doordarshan was wrong. I will reconsider my opinion if and when the Doordarshan starts spin doctoring in favour of the ruling BJP as it did in the Congress regime, or suppressing news  uncomfortable to the ruling party as it did during the emergency.

To sum up, public intellectuals and political parties need to exhibit mature behaviour and accept the reality that people are not fools as they expect them to be. Also, rendering platform to different opinions is a unique feature of the democracy and hence the democratic media. You can criticize or even loathe the RSS but you can’t silence its voice and the people of India have the right to know what the Chief of India’s biggest cultural organization has to say.

Title Courtesy- Rahul Roushan