Indian media's blatant discrimination

B D Narayankar

The national electronic media was at it again, for what they have been best known - Hindu baiting and sympathising with hooligans, belonging to Christian community, who allegedly had murdered revered saint Swami Laxamananda in Orissa's Kandhamal province.

It was a sheer show of blatant anti-Hinduism and unpatriotic sentiments of these channels. They were the ones, who had played tapes of the murder of Graham Staines repeatedly a few years back, but a great silence gripped them, not even uttering a single word when the whole of Orissa was mourning Swami Laxmananda's death. Is the blood of a Hindu so cheap? Shouldn't the respected media clarify this?

And what sort of a person Graham Staines was? A foreigner, who was dividing the tribals and ruining the culture of the country by converting peace-loving and tolerant Hindus into Christians. Why can't a missionary like him visit Muslim areas, for sure they will be hounded out of those areas. They convert Hindus because they are tolerant and submissive. And how could one remember Swami Laxmananda as? He was a social warrior, who sacrificed his desire to attain nirvana and rushed to Kandhamal forests to fight against the cash-rich Christian missionaries penniless and single handedly. He strived to uplift tribals by setting up educational institutions, promoting women’s education, providing healthcare and means of livelihood for the poor and downtrodden. He also launched the most powerful 'return home' movement among tribals, which obstructed the heinous designs of the churches to convert Hindus with coercion and monetary inducements. Is it a crime to protect and preserve Hindu culture? Is it a crime to prevent division in a community? If not, why was then the national hook ups silent on Swamiji's murder? Why did they say it was a murder of another Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) office bearer?

The story did not end there. These channels were desperate to break their silence by pouncing on an opportunity to capture the images of Hindus going on a rampage, in retaliation to Swamiji's murder. After all, Hindus are their much favored grub for frying up crispy headlines.

Their waiting came to an end with the first news of so called arson in a Christian orphanage. The eager media did not waste a moment in preparing a special report of half an hour on it. All the slumbering channels suddenly woke up not to telecast the inhuman slaughter of the Swamiji, but the plight of the Christians in the hands of the Hindus.

This is not the first time that these channels have indulged in blatant discrimination. They have been doing it and still continue to do it in the future - after all they are the products of Macaulay’s educational system, a Bristisher who loathed anything Indian.

It's high time that media did some self-introspection to preserve its credibility, or else no Hindu would take them seriously. This was evident when Narendra Modi staged a comeback and retained his chief minister’s gaddi, inspite of media taking a swipe at him in the aftermath of Godhra carnage.