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The mills and our loss
A disaster becomes a farce when the underlying tragedy gets buried, for whatever be the reason. That is just what has happened with the Supreme Court order paving the way for more malls and luxury apartments in the congested metropolis of Mumbai that should translate into billions of rupees for mill owners.
It is not just the court ruling which will be environmentally calamitous for Mumbai. The real tragedy lies in the fact that all voices of reason have been drowned in the Babel of eulogies that have been flooding the newspapers and the news channels. Trust the media to slut themselves for the shortsighted interests of the real estate mafia.
ISI in Assam: Not a wolf cry anymore
The frantic air-dashes by Union home ministry officials to Assam is telling. The possibility of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence fishing in the troubled demographic waters of the state is not a mere bogey any more. What was an impending threat only a few years back is now a reality. What was a pernicious pathogen till yesterday, has today infected the host and spread to such an extent that its debilitating effects are already beginning to show. The days of crying wolf for politicians are over -- the most subversive activities in Assam today carry the ISI mark.
Demographic realities in the state are murky enough. Ethnic equations are always difficult to understand. But the ISI understands it better than most. Well, enough to upset the wavering demographic equilibrium beyond redemption -- throw life so much out of gear that peace will never return.
Operation Blackout: Keeping Kashmir out of the news
Protesters shouting pro-freedom slogans on a Friday afternoon outside Jama Masjid (mosque) in Srinagar.
Photo © Dilnaz Boga
In July I received a mail from a journalist who wanted to pitch me an interesting story idea from Kashmir. The mail was directed to an account I hardly check. Not that it would have made much difference since Newswatch carries only content that has something to do with the news media. I gather she pitched the story to many publications.
The story, let me tell you, never saw the light of day anywhere in this country where Kashmir is such an emotively jingoistic issue. Close to a month later, the story has appeared, but not in an Indian publication. I happened to stumble across it quite perchance in the New Internationalist.
Yet I am not surprised that no Indian publication wanted to carry the story despite the fact that the journalist, Dilnaz Boga, writes well. And more than anything else, it was a good story.
Read the blurb. If it doesn't make sense to you, you probably need to see a shrink:
In the strife-torn valley of India-controlled Kashmir, the decades-long conflict continues to take its toll, especially on its young. Dilnaz Boga has met some of them.
So, the blackout of Kashmir from the Indian media landscape continues. It has been so since the massive pro-freedom protests that took place in Kashmir about a year ago. What we get to read, hear or see is hardly worth writing home about. Yes, except for those sex scandals and the consequent political fallouts.
You get to hear all that the Omars and Mehboobas have to say about each other. Or ridiculing the hopelessly splintered separatists. Or you read of stories planted and sponsored by the defence and home ministries. One somehow gets the feeling that it is quite in the Indian government's interest to ensure that voices of the ordinary people of Kashmir remain unheard elsewhere in India. And the media stays on the politically correct side.
Last year, we had wanted to do a comprehensive content analysis of the news media coverage of Kashmir. It would have been a big project. But it fell flat because no one was willing to sponsor it. This fact itself says a lot, doesn't it?
For the moment, we will have to stay content with reading stories about Kashmir in non-Indian publications. And if you too have not read the Dilnaz piece, read it here: http://www.newint.org/features/special/2009/08/06/cry-for-freedom/
....and this dwarfing/blacking out of what happens in Kashmir perpetuates so many myths about Kashmir throughout the country. tsk! tsk! The stereotype of 'nationalism' is so strong that it becomes almost blasphemous to question it, even for a 'free, independent' media in a democratic country.
yes anuradha... it is blasphemous. question them, and one will be branded anti-national
Subirda in your article you write "Last year, we had wanted to do a comprehensive content analysis of the news media coverage of Kashmir. It would have been a big project. But it fell flat because no one was willing to sponsor it. This fact itself says a lot, doesn't it?" What do you mean by this? How much money dos it take?
satyen: something of this sort would be on the higher side.. prolly 40-50k
sorry satyen. there was a typo.. in this case it would have been 140-150k. anyway, that is for academic interest
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