Edited to add this link to a well-thought out and equally well-articulated piece on this issue of increasing intolerance by Vir Sanghvi.
Turnip: Welcome to the Crapola News Network. In our top, in our top, in our top story today, we bring you a frightening exposé of how the Islamic fanatic in India is discriminated against, even by us in the media. In a stunning revelation of deliberate marginalisation, we show you, ex-ex-ex-exclusively on this channel, how an Islamic fanatic has to work thrice – yes, you heard that right – thrice as hard to get the same media exposure as his privileged counterpart, the Hindu fanatic. Charkha.
Charkha: Yes, thank you Turnip. Police in Kolkata arrested editor Ravindra Kumar and publisher Anand Sinha of the Statesman for reprinting an article by Johann Hari, “Why Should I Respect These Oppressive Religions?”, after Islamic fanatics rioted in protest. Surprisingly, this bit of news has not got any mention in any mainstream Indian newspaper, channel or website, even though it has to do with the freedom of the press and freedom of speech. The leader of the rioters, Nunu Khan, is understandably upset at this discrimination.
“What does the Islamic fanatic in India have to do to get his voice heard?” he roared to his fellow rioters, his voice choking with anger. “Look at the fine work we have done in Kolkata. No coverage. Look at the negligible publicity we got when we attacked Taslima in Hyderabad and forced the Communist government to throw her out of Kolkata. We got almost no headlines when we drove Kashmiri Pandits out of their homeland. We protested against Shah Rukh’s song, and he got more footage than us! But look at the coverage these Hindu fanatics get. There is vandalism over some paintings, a film shoot is violently disrupted, and look at how much attention they get from the press. This Muthalik fellow and his Hindu goondas beat up innocent girls, and he gets the kind of publicity we can only dream of. Brothers, this is discrimination. We are treated like second-class citizens. Hey – don’t we beat up people, riot and destroy property? We have equal rights, and deserve our moments of fame too!” So you see, Turnip, there is enough evidence that the mainstream media are prejudiced against Islamic fanatics and do not give them their fair share of publicity and coverage. Everything seems to be about Hindu fanatics, and this politics of exclusion has given rise to a very dangerous situation, and deep-seated resentment among the Islamic fanatics. It is very goose-bumpy. Turnip.”
Turnip: “Yes, indeed. Thank you for exposing the vertical fault-fault-fault lines created by the media in this country. Charkha, I’m impressed with Nunu’s work – his rioting actually managed to get the editor and publisher arrested. More effective than sending legal notices to bloggers, eh? Ha ha. But this is a very sobering thought: can the fourth estate actually shirk the great responsibility it has in enabling secular Indian democracy to flourish? We should respect the rights of every hoodlum equally. All rioters and goons, irrespective of religion, should find equal coverage on our platforms. Give every fanatic his due. Unless that happens, Indian democracy cannot move ahead, and everything is infructuous. But don’t go away. When we come back, the pigeon tells us what it was like to go pub-hopping with Sonam, Deepika and Ranbir. Only on the Crapola News Network.”
February 16, 2009 at 5:54 pm
[…] the original post: Crapola Breaking News: Religious Discrimination and Heartbroken Rioters! Rate this topic: (No Ratings Yet) Tagged with: [ archived-entry, country, crapola, freedom, […]
February 16, 2009 at 5:56 pm
i dont even know what to say!!
frankly, i wish i could just ban all religions and the dievrsity that they brough with em since we dont seem to be able to appreciate it anywayz.
all religion has now become is a dirty word. and we keep swaying to it as and when politicians make us. its all very sad.
sigh!
February 16, 2009 at 6:31 pm
lol 🙂 true enough,I have a feeling that the media on the whole might be behind the hindu fanatics 😛
P.S: u r tagged 😀
February 16, 2009 at 6:57 pm
lol@”more effective than sending notices to bloggers”:D
*sigh* gets really weird after a point…there’s a point in all of it ,everything that you have put so brilliantly here….its real ,its funny too in a twisted kinda way..
my phunny bone has disappeared
But thats not to say that this failed to make me laugh..I did uproariously..:D
.just pondering now….all the previous points mine and yours,come to mind..and there seems to be no solution…mayhem everywhere..
February 16, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Ah … its not just the mullahs, i bet a lot of other more seculat men would have wanted their share of pink chaddis and Mutalik and his goons have beaten them all to it.
February 16, 2009 at 7:53 pm
😀 😀 😀 😀
What more do I say, this network rocks with its bang on sarcasm!!!!
BTW for the nth time I had read in HT that Sonam Kapoor loves being called Masakalli…Every time I thank the news channels for that info…what if 2moro I had met her & called Masakalli and though that i have offended her!!! 😀
February 16, 2009 at 8:18 pm
LOL LOVE THIS 🙂
I have had similar concerns Quirky Indian.
February 16, 2009 at 9:43 pm
I so wish people stop abusing the word religion!
February 16, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Very pertinent and very well-written.
I wonder if it’s satire; I’d say truth overcomes any satirical elements in the story.
February 16, 2009 at 11:00 pm
You really really really don’t like them two!
February 16, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Sar-kha and Turd-esai would have sounded better . 😀 Just a suggestion . Kick ass !
February 17, 2009 at 1:57 am
[…] You have a tough time finding like-minded people to grow your team. Hindu moral police have to compete against identically-minded moral police of other […]
February 17, 2009 at 2:19 am
““What does the Islamic fanatic in India have to do to get his voice heard?””
:D:D:D
Yesterday someone commented on my blog on one of the posts and made the same point that why didn’t media attack and protest make news when it was done by people of different religion.
I didn’t have much to say.
Sick of all religious fanaticism now..I am.
February 17, 2009 at 2:43 am
Good Post. Once again the Government [here the Left front]succumbed to religious extremists. The victim is blamed for the disturbances. A sad state of affairs. Stiil the fight for freedom of expression have to go on.
February 17, 2009 at 8:40 am
I wish we’d stop abusing ourselves with religions!
February 17, 2009 at 9:39 am
I could not laugh. Dark humor sometimes does that to me. Now we
can’t even print opinions in newspapers. THat’s true, hindu righ
t-wing fundamentalism is condemned nationwide. We find it hard
to condemn Islamic fundamentalism, specifically political parti-
es for they fear loss of ‘minority vote banl.’ But in case of
Tasleema’s attack, they are muslim MLA’s that were involved. So
matter as always was successfully hushed up.
February 17, 2009 at 9:48 am
Brilliant!
What can we do? With a Hindu majority, it is but natural for the Hindu fanatics to get more publicity in India.
Why, they even get to take away the good name of the Taliban that has worked so hard to get to where it is.
Unfortunate!
February 17, 2009 at 11:24 am
Kya Baat Hai, Gundagardi has religious discrimination too! Awesomely sarcastic blog Quirky
February 17, 2009 at 11:53 am
Nice one.
The reason for most media establishments not covering certain kinds of Muslim fundamentalism is the fear of being called minority-bashers and the desire to be politically correct. Coverage of any kind of fundamentalism requires a strong ethical standard and most of the media does not have it. They find it difficult to cover and research the distinction between minority-bashing and reasonable coverage. The sad part is that this provides further fuel for the actual minority-bashers.
Keep up the coverage!
Prasanth
February 17, 2009 at 3:09 pm
lol your fabulous. always make my day!
February 17, 2009 at 6:01 pm
After this fabulous post, time for a tag!!!!
You have been tagged, and I hope you do pick it 🙂
February 17, 2009 at 11:41 pm
hahahahaha!!!!!
the crapola news network is fantastic!!!!
thanks for the letting us about this issue!!
LOL…. good one dude
February 18, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I guess they need to fire there PR agents. Return of the Crapola News 🙂 Awesome. Recession I understand. Dude will it not be fun to actually plot a graph of Media Time VS Criminal activity in India’s context.
February 18, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Incredible satire, QI.
February 19, 2009 at 1:48 am
[…] February 18, 2009 by Abhishek The Crapola network has the scoop. […]
February 19, 2009 at 1:17 pm
“Next up on the Crapola News Network… Buddhists set themselves on fire to protest against being left out of the fundamentalist religion fold.
And Syrian Christians target Catholics, describing them as “less Indian”.
February 19, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I am really fedup with these kind of news.
The reason they are flourishing is the Media. They give them unwanted attention, just to increase viewers bank(dunno if we can call it TRP)
Infact action should be taken against all news channel who shows exaggerated news.
February 19, 2009 at 9:56 pm
good to know about this kolkata situation…
I wonder how come only muslims reacted to this.
February 20, 2009 at 1:15 pm
@Abha: It’s not just religion, unfortunately. We’re squabbling over language, dialect, caste, sub-caste and what have you. We are idiots.
@Vishesh: Thanks for the tag….I have 3 to complete now. Serious pressure, especially since I seem to be the only laggard. 🙂
@Indyeah: Aage aage dekho hota hain kyaa….
@Tazeen: True. I am sure a lot of men would’ve loved to receive the pink chaddis.
@Smita: 🙂
@IHM: Things like this are counter-productive….they end up reinforcing the doubts a lot of people already have about how objective the media are.
@Paradox Philic: You’ve got some hope!
@Kartikey: It’s satire all right, but as I have already mentioned, things like this lead a lot of people to conclude the media are prejudiced, and the real issues – in this case the freedom of expression, the right to question – get lost in the “my religion versus yours” fight.
@Whatsinaname: You figured that out from 3 Crapola posts? What gave me away? 🙂
@Kislay: Thanks! But Turnip is not Turdesai….he’s the other guy!
@Solilo: We’re all sick of it, but there’s no stopping this.
@Charakan: We’ll keep fighting, but the odds are stacked against us. Just being a realist here.
@Anita: Wishes, horses etc! We’re too far gone to come back.
@Poonam: Very true. And that leads to a hardening of views in people, who, believing the media to be biased, refuse to take a stand on issues that should be fought for. I have seen that happen.
@AD: Thanks. You have to feel sorry for the Taliban….complete ambush marketing, no pun intended! 🙂
@Ritu: Goondas have no religion, in case you have forgotten! :-). Actually, in this case, considering the news blackout, the goondas did not exist!
February 20, 2009 at 1:47 pm
@Prasanth: You’re right. As I have pointed out earlier, in my posts on political correctness, such instances are counter-productive. A lot of regular, liberal Hindus I know have formed the view that the media go overboard in painting majority involvement as black as possible, while skipping any mention of instances of fundamentalism of other religions. The result is that something which every Hindu should condemn is seen as hyperbole and exaggerated, or worse, prejudiced and misreported. When the truth is that we should fight and condemn every act of communalism, majority and minority.
@Gayatri: Thanks!
@IHM: Thanks for the tag. The pressure’s really on….
@Ajit: Thanks!
@Chirag: Thanks! Yes, that would be interesting.
@Hades: Thank you.
@Desiderata: Welcome and thanks for the comment. Syrian Christians versus Roman Catholics, fighting over Indianness? You’re hired. See you at work Monday morning!
@Megha: “Infact action should be taken against all news channel who shows exaggerated news.” All channels will have to be shut down. Except Crapola, of course. 🙂
@Priyanka: These questions never have no answers!
February 22, 2009 at 11:53 am
The Editor of the newspaper in this incident bowed to the protest and even went to the police station voluntarily and raised no objection against the FIR lodged against him. May be the media did not want to highlight how easily they themselves capitulated to islamic zealots.
February 22, 2009 at 3:24 pm
So Glad to see that Q I is stickler for equality…
Well said. Your sharp slashes always work.
February 24, 2009 at 11:02 pm
ROFL! Brilliantly articulated. Kudos. You know, you might just be heading up Crapola News Network some day,for your incisive journalism 🙂
-http://writerzblock.wordpress.com
March 13, 2009 at 12:41 pm
@Charakan: The media are to be blamed for this state of affairs, of course, but the problem is also the state and its laws, and all of us, who do not uphold the right to freedom of expression, and portray the perpetrators of violence as the victims!
@Manpreet: 🙂 Thanks.
@Pal: Thanks. 🙂
March 4, 2010 at 1:05 pm
[…] in this one year – at least not for the better. The editor and publisher of The Statesman were arrested in Kolkata for reprinting a certain article, a certain word was beeped out of a song in the film Kaminey, Hussain accepted Qatari citizenzhip […]
September 22, 2010 at 12:50 am
Brilliant!
I had done a post on remotely related subject Why the Indian National Media appears Anti-Hindu (click), and perhaps you might have already read it.
Some intelligent people have agreed, others have disagreed. I would be grateful to have your feedback, which I am confident would be honest.
I am aware of the nature of my speculations – it is possible that I might have picked only those instances that support my hypothesis (though I have not done that consciously), which would be like theists picking up examples to prove how God is benevolent and miraculous. I guess, you get the point. Hence, your critical review is highly desired. 🙂
In the comments section, cowardice against Muslim violence had been raised by Oldtimer (just like how Vir Sanghvi did), but haven’t yet included that in the post.
Thanks!