Hindustan Times
Is it really racism?
In the old days, journalists were prevented from referring to communities while reporting any acts of violence. At some level, this made a certain amount of sense.
If a man picked your pocket then it shouldn’t really matter whether he was a Sikh, a Jain, a Muslim or whatever. All that mattered was that he was a pickpocket.
But the real reason for the restraint had to do with the fear of provoking communal violence. If you reported that a Muslim had raped a Hindu woman then there was some danger of communally inspired reprisals. In today’s Mumbai, for instance, nothing is gained by reporting that Maharashtrians were robbed by UP-ites; and something might well be lost.
Often, this restraint went too far. Readers began to giggle when every Hindu-Muslim riot was described as ‘a clash between two communities.’ And often, you didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what had really happened. For instance, if a report read “some miscreants threw raw pork into a place of worship,” it was quite obvious that a mosque had been desecrated.
Nevertheless, I still believe that we should not worry about people’s religion or ethnic origin unless it is vital to the story. For instance, nobody in the US would report something like “four black men were today arrested for mugging an old white woman.” This would be needlessly inflammatory.
I was reminded of the need for restraint when I saw the way the media – TV mainly, but print also – covered the case of the allegedly demented IIT graduate who killed a girl.
If the police are to be believed – and the media certainly believed the police – then the murderer had not only confessed but had been revealed to be a psychopath who had stalked the girl because of his own inadequacies.
Nowhere in the reporting did I find any evidence that the psycho in question had been fascinated by people from the north east or had targeted his victim because of her ethnic origin: she was a Naga from Manipur.
And yet, judging by the reportage, the murder was one more instance of how girls from the north east were treated badly in Delhi. Channel after channel had the same foolish discussion about the problems faced by people from the north east and about how they faced discrimination in the Capital..
I do not dispute that girls from the north east find it difficult to gain acceptance in the Indian mainstream. Nor do I dispute that there is a certain amount of racism implicit in the way that they are treated.
My point is this: this murder had nothing to do with racism or with the prejudice against north easterners.
So why treat the victim’s ethnicity as being the primary component of the story? Why stage all these discussions on north easterners in Delhi when this story had nothing to do with discrimination?
To understand how bizarre this kind of news treatment is, consider what would have happened if the victim had been a Muslim girl. Would we have run stories talking about the discrimination faced by Muslims? Would we have treated the murder as one more example of the mistreatment of Muslims by Hindus?
Of course not.
So why do we treat people from the north east so differently?
Part of it is laziness. Journos know that this is an easy discussion to organize so they go ahead and stage one regardless of the relevance to the story.
But part of it is also racism.
How else do you explain why we treat the murder of a Naga differently from the murder of a Muslim or a Sikh?
(18 votes, average: 4.83 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Vir Sanghvi on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Filed under Media · Tagged acism implicit, communal violence, Hindu-Muslim riots, IIT graduate, psychopath, violence
Ethnicity, community. gender, economic stratum, nation–these are the divides that have always existed in the hearts of human beings including those in the profession of journalism. Till such time they are erased, regulation or restraint seems well advised. This NE thing is a new one. In one shape or the other this beast is everywhere.
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Most of journalists just are lazy or incompetent to see cause and effect.
In many articles, they have the same words thrown around carelessly..
anything which prolongs the discussion that is good for them..
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Our TV media is a headless chicken. NDTV gets its newsreader selection done from fashion shows. They select all runner-ups as winners dont join NDTV (Bengalis are an exception). Professionalism is not cast in stone but it’s a whimsical thing. Nuff said.
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rick Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
it seems like u applied for the job there and was rejected by them…. I find that among all the english news channels ndtv’s anchors are the best……
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“My point is this: this murder had nothing to do with racism or with the prejudice against north easterners.”
I respectfully disagree. While it might not be an ideal example of a ‘racist’ attack, her being of a particular race and from a particular region (North East) is a very important factor in any analysis of this case. Racism is always about the differences between ‘us’ and ‘them’ in any society and the treatment given to ‘outsiders’. The girl could have been a Muslim, Hindu or Sikh but things might not have gone as far as they did if she was not perceived as the ‘outsider’. And I do agree with Mr. Sanghvi when he says that the journalists of India are lazy. They really need to get their act together.
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Small part is laziness / racism. Large part is greed - Program / channel ratings (for more ad revenues). Whats more easy than add on any news to a larger issue (may or may not connected) and wait for people to tune in more & more!
Its time that we have a yellow channel award (akin to yellow journnalism, where papers with low budget used sensationalism to sell - bad quality paper , which would turn yellowish… hence the term - thought its important to mention this else it might be misused
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Deb Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Bull’s eye. In their race to the bottom for TRPs, the channels have buried all tenets of responsible journalism. Regardless of which dignitary is at the helm on top, most of the channels are solely into sensationalising any bit of news that lands on their desk/mobile (I used to find CNN-IBN a bit different, but don’t know for sure). I’ve stopped watching news channels and rely rather on newspapers (not that many of them are not rating-greedy anyway), esp. HT, for a proper analysis of news put in the right perspective.
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I agree with you when you say this that why give this murder a racial anger, it is not. But the sad part about our media is unless you get a BIG incident you will never give so much of coverage as they did to the problems faced by the people here. How many times have you seen a national chaneel highlighting the problems faced by Northeasterns being discussed in a prime time? even though it was wrong in a journalistic sense, i’m glad that atlease it was discussed and brought to light by default. This is how indian media works. it is only after carnage is done they wake up to the issue, before that no one in the news room will think of this angle. the reality is we need a story only then the issues come forward! sad but true!
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LET NORTH- EAST PEOPLE LIVE IN
INDIA’S CAPITAL WITH DIGNITY
by Ningreichon Tungshang
WHEN I read about racial attack against Indians there is a conflicting voice within. One voice says that it serves “ them” right and now they will know what it means and how it feels to be racially discriminated against. The other voice is empathetic because I have been through the same suffering, pain, unspeakable anger and trauma and I know how it feels to be discriminated against on the basis of how I look.
To say the least, Delhi for me is just another Australia in terms of racial discrimination, or worse. The only difference is that in Australia the law enforcement agencies — from the police to the prime minister — are talking about it, and are extremely concerned, and are seriously dealing with it. In Delhi, starting from the public to the police to the people who run the country, everyone is not only indifferent but also hostile.
My cousin who is in his third year in Dyal Singh College once came home fuming. I had never seen him getting angry or losing his cool before. Somebody called him “ Hey bahadur chinki ”! With his limited Hindi he could not even tell that person that his words had hurt him. It is not wrong to be a ‘ bahadur’ or a ‘ chinki’. It is the derogatory way, and the manner it is used against a people who look different, speak different and do not fit in the larger definition and understanding of an “ Indian”.
Racial discrimination against the people of the north- east has never been dealt with, with any sense of urgency or seriousness.
There is this cold response that any random boy or girl from the northeast can tell you about. To even try and seek some sort of legal recourse is extremely difficult.
The same agency that is constituted to protect citizens becomes the biggest hurdle and a force to fight against.
On October 11, there was an incident in Humayunpur where a Naga woman, who was visiting her brother- in- law along with her husband, son and niece, was harassed by a group of local guys who passed lewd comments at her. They ignored the comments and avoided getting into a fight because the boys were drinking. Later when they came out, they found their car tyres deflated and they asked one of the guys standing there as to who has done it. The question was enough to trigger the group of boys to physically assault the husband and his brother. They took away their cellphones and wallets too.
What is appalling about the whole case is the role of the police. They not only downplayed the seriousness of the case but also converted the victims into culprits and perpetrators of the crime. The newspapers reported the next morning that the police came to know of the incident because of the complaint by the other party about loud music being played by the Naga family. The phone record of the Police Control Room will clearly show who called the police.
In fact, the police came and shook hands with the perpetrators and forcefully attempted to make one of the victims the culprit.
By then, there were many people who had gathered. Some of the women who saw what had happened tried to stop the police from dragging one of the victims away as a culprit. The police turned on the women instead, and hit many of them.
It took around 300 people from the northeast, protesting in front of the Sarojini Nagar police station, and intervention from lawyers, for the police to take on record a written complaint from the victims.
I will not contest the fact that we the people from the northeast are different in every sense and that may be one of the reasons why we are very vulnerable to all these abuses and discrimination.
But I really fail to understand the logic of us being victims of discrimination on the basis of how we talk, what we eat and how we behave. Respect these differences and allow us to live with dignity.
There is so much anger within.
I asked if the anger is reasonable.
I have no answer. I ask you all.
( The writer is with the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights and is based in Delhi)
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Deb Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Short answer: Yes, the anger is reasonable. I guess it’s just boiling under the surface. The earlier the authorities and (what remains of) the society in general wakes up to the seriousness of the issue, the better. Else it may go the way of the other tinderbox community issues.
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gautam sehgal Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
You are right and the people of Delhi need to change their attitudes immediately. Such behaviour makes us all hang our heads in shame. I have served in the army with many people from the North East, and I have a lot of respect for their courage and loyalty to the country. Their attitude towards women is also way more progressive than ours and women get more respect in your society.
Young people who come to big cities for better education or jobs don’t deserve to be put through this.
Delhi may be a big city but it will never be cosmopolitan due to the boorish attitudes of its people. It is the behaviour of people in DTC buses and metros that tells visitors what kind of place they have come to not the columns of Mayank Austen Soofi. (The name is so pretentious it makes me want to puke!)
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Atul Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Hi Ningreichon
I apologies but I have a different view, I might be wrong. Though I agree, the anger is reasonable. But I guess it has been over hyped. Racisim prevails in every part of the country. I am from Delhi and currently in Bangalore, I face racial abuse on a daily basis. I don’t make a issue out of it, despite if going by the norms they (South Indians) are black (inferior- I don’t believe it, but thats the notion). I don’t have any symapthy for North easterners because I don’t feel they are any inferior to us, Infact I myself have a lot of friends from north east and I accept they are better off than me.
Talking about the capital, its not only the people from north east who are ill treated, but anyone coming from outside and infact does the eve-teasing not happen to Delhi girls or for that matter aren’t any rape cases registered for hindus, muslims or anyone indian sub caste. It’s just that the criminal/racial activities have surged in Delhi over a period or should I say they were always on the top. I dont understand why such acts against the north east are blown up this much. I feel, its because everyone gets to hear so much about this, it infact provokes people to turn hostile against them.
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Joseph James K A Reply:
November 1st, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I fully endorse Ningreichon’s view. As somebody who spent quite a number of years in the North East, I have great regard for the people there. They are so warm, intelligent and hospitable. In all my years there I never had to face racial discrimination of any kind. They go out of ther way to make the outsiders feel at home. Though I have lived in different parts of India, I have never encountered such simplicity, honesty and friendliness anywhere else in India. One thing that we the rest of India should learn from them is the way they treat their women. Crimes against women are unheard of . In many tribal societies, daughters are accorded more importance than sons. Growing up in such an environment, the north eastern women are bolder, more confident, more affectionate and even more capable than their sisters elsewhere in the country. Unfortunately, this coupled with their extrordinary charm, elegance and beauty, often lands them in trouble as those alien to their culture view them as easy conquests. It really hurts me when I read about the attacks on Northeasterners in Delhi. This will add to their alienation. I am really surprised that the governement, which spends millions to suppress the North Eastern insurgencies, hardly do anything to put an end to the hostilities against the Northeasterners in the National Capital. The media are equally guilty because they completely ignore the North East in their news coverage, because it does not have the demographic strength to tilt the balnce of power at the centre. Better coverage would have led to better knowledge of and respect for them and their culture. The Seven Sisters of the North East are the most beautiful part of our ountry - both geographically and anthropologically. Let us not hate or despise them because they look different. Let us love and learn from them if we do not want to lose them!
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Shiuli Mukherji Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Fully agree with you Mr.James North-easterners are not only friendly and hospitable but extremely hard-working. All the prejudices they learn only when they move-out of their territory and face the atrocious behaviour of the rest of regional India.
Although this is purely a murder case and painting this case with racist tinge is of no use, I still feel that the attitude of large section of North Indian people towards women from North East plays definitely a part here. People from North India look at women folk from North East as loose characters and hence easy prey, due to their care free attitude and western attire and such mind set might have prompted the IIT scholar to commit this heinous act.. He might be a ‘perverted’ and ‘psychopath’ as portrayed by Delhi police, but cultural biasness and prejudiced mindset might have triggered a desire in him to take such action against the hapless girl. As is generally observed, respect towards women in the entire Hindi belt is abysmally low judging by recurring incidents of dowry deaths, ‘honour’ killings, rapes etc. despite so called material progress by the country. The North East India may be poor in terms of materialistic progress, but there is a total enlightenment so far as treatment towards women is concerned and women are very active and at par with men in society
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I empathize fully with Mr. Ningreichon Tungshang’s views above. If you take a look at the larger picture, most Indians are condescending in their attitudes towards minorities, people from remote regions, and basically anybody, who in their perceptions “looks a little different”, such as the North Easterners. I am a South Indian who has lived across India and abroad and I can say prejudices exist across the country, and is equally deep rooted in Indians living abroad.
Nobody I know is an exception to this deep rooted prejudice. Many south Indians hesitate to accept north Indian tenants, many North Indians don’t let go off an opportunity to take a dig at South / East Indians, and Xenophobia has even hit Mumbai, a city which could have been described as genuinely cosmopolitan a few decades back.
I cringe every time somebody I know refers to a North easterner as Chinki or a Bahadaur, and I cringe equally when South Indians are referred to as Illads and Kaalias or generalized as Madrasis. Even our media and entertainment industry is guilty here – Padosan was in terrible taste, but how North / West Indians are portrayed in Southern movies are equally terrible.
Oh yeah, and mostly Indians abroad will not hang out for too long in” Kallu areas” or date a black. The entire series of “Racist Australia” stories by the media were bloody hypocritical considering we are amongst the most racist people in the world.
So, in my view this is a much larger debate and it s going to need a lot of time, education, and open mindedness for the Indian society to evolve in this aspect.
But I endorse Vir’s premise above, that this particular murder case should not have been seen in the tint of a Delihite Vs. North Easterner. That guy was a psychopath, with poor social skills, and no luck with women in his life. There are millions of such psychopaths in our country, who would not discriminate in their lust between a North East / South Indian girl. If there was a Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamilian, or a Muslim girl who befriended him in the neighborhood, he would have raped and killed her.
So this is lazy and shallow journalism, where you make a connection between a murderous psychopath and our attitude towards the North East. I would have appreciated if the media had run a story about how millions of young men irrespective of class, caste, religion and education (this dude was an IITian!) do not mingle with women easily, do not have any women friends, have the wrong company (other men with equally terrible luck with the opposite sex), and consequently end up becoming such animals.
So these are two different sensitive, and important topics for the media to create a social discussion on, and by combining them, you are just exposing how stupid you are!
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Atul Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Very well said Vasu, I totally agree…
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Arun Reply:
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Me to agree totrally…very well said Vasu.
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This is exactly what struck me when i first read about the case. Granted, North-eastern people face a lot of discrimination and racism in Delhi and this issue needs to be highlighted and people sensitized,but this case, as far as I can see, has nothing to do with that. By bringing up this issue in this case, it would do more harm than good coz people will start believing that North-easterners are overtly sensitive and see racial discrimination even where it doesnt exist. Thus even the actual discrimination will be played down as being a product of their imaginations.
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You talk about racial profiling but you your are making racial comments in your first 2 lines ,
” If a man picked your pocket then it shouldn’t really matter whether he was a Sikh, a Jain, a Muslim or whatever. All that mattered was that he was a pickpocket. ”
You didn’t mention hindu , and you staeted with sikh , Sikhs are one community know for there honest , courage . A sikh never begs , he might work labour jobs , also rarely would u find a sikh as a thief .
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Kaushik Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 12:08 am
Not too sure i agree to that 100%. I agree that you wont find too many ( if ANY ) sikhs begging in India or abroad. But they have prostitution rings, drug running bussiness , people smuggling rackets and what not. So i dont think u can say that a Sikh cant be a thief .
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Excellent Article! Bravo!! Vir Sanghvi Sahab!!
I think it was a well-knit article, where Vir Sanghvi has stressed journo’s to get their act together, and be more responsible in highlighting the incident :)….
It neednt imply that race could be a factor or not, it purely means that journo ethics are very sad these days.
Definitely people of a particular community could be soft targets in certain places for various reasons ( for example Indian students in Australia), but the journo needs to be more responsible
after all pen is mightier than sword, what is the use of such a pen which cant pen facts to be more influencing?
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I disagree with Vir on this one, because the attitude of North Indians towards women from the North East is disgusting and needs to change immediately.
Even though this incident involved a deranged perpetrator, the victim was chosen because of her ethnic origin. The same perpetrator lived among people of Northern Indian origin, who are fairer than people in his native state but did not target other girls, firstly because they lived with their families and had some protection, and secondly they did not represent what unfortunately a woman from the North east has come to represent to most North Indians: a sex object.
I am deeply ashamed of this reality which has been exposed by this incident, and the only way to rectify it is to acknowledge it. Pseudo rationalisation of the kind expressed in this article may mask the problem to some of us who are guilty of the same prejudices, but will not help solve the problem.
I cannot understand why any girl from the North east who comes to Delhi for education or work would have any reason to feel like a citizen of this country after the way men here look at them. We all need to look inside ourselves and be ashamed.
These are our own sisters from another state. We need to show them some basic human respect.
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I am writing this because I grew up in IIT Delhi and know exactly what kind of attitudes the people of Ber Sarai, Jia Sarai and Lado Sarai and Katwaria Sarai, the hamlets surrounding IIT Delhi, are towards people of the North East.
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Everyone has our own obsessions and compulsions, but we don’t act on those that are harmful for ourselves and for others. An IITian will surely be knowing how to differentiate what is harmful and what is not.
He is mentally disordered? OCD is not a good enough reason to commit a crime, and get away with it. Maybe if he is mentally sick, if he really is, it is not OCD but a delusion, a grandeur delusion that he is above some people (a tribal lass???) and that people should cater to his needs (sexual needs???) and if denied, he has the right to do whatever he can (kill, burn, strangulate???) By projecting him as mentally challenged, the case will hold less water. That’s the master plan.
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“Nevertheless, I still believe that we should not worry about people’s religion or ethnic origin unless it is vital to the story. For instance, nobody in the US would report something like “four black men were today arrested for mugging an old white woman.” This would be needlessly inflammatory.”
You are very wrong about the US media, that IS the way US reports, try watching Michael Moore’s documentary Sicko
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To all Eastern Indian brothers.
The article, imo deals with the specific murder. However the larger issue of racism, caste oppression, gender discrimination all widespread in India. India is the most racist country u can come across. It’s not just in Dilli where u find it. It’s an all India phenomenon. Khair, we can address this issue in Dilli.
Dilli need to celebrate India’s diversity which blessed with ppl of international, inter-state population.
1. Festivals of each state & give the ppl of Dilli the taste of its culture, food & customs
2. Get the Statistics & address the state-specific, race-specific, gender-specific remedial steps, for eg. if there’re molestation of women of eastern India, Nepal, Uttarakhand then open a Helpline for the victims of that group.
Prepare leaflets to address the problem and educate the communities to avert situations. Use the community-specific bodies to create a network of support groups. Educate the rest of Dilli how precious is diversity. For example there’d a Dilli state-funded website, Helpline to give counselling, help in finding help (to ppl of say Tripura) in such situations.
(this is how it works in western countries)
3. Laws to give strict punishments to the offenders, which could include community service
4. Create a police record of offenders so that they never get jobs in govt (where police checks is a must). Having an adverse police record is a stigma in the west.
==
I am sure nobody in Dilli cares. They live in their own world of self-importance. Let the country go to dogs.
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After writing 4 points I felt I am wasting my time on these losers. Sorry my friends in northeast. Help yourself. Either u can a. develop hatred for us b. pick up guns & fight the state c. swallow discrimination
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Vir
I realized reading your article that the you haven’t called a spade a spade in common with most editors.
What the discussions on tv and press could perhaps have described is this: She was probably a reasonably good looking, independent girl, perhaps even cute, I don’t know ,nowhere have they described the person, only the ethnicity.
He is probably a badly adjusted, frustrated, under weight , under socialized human, his IIT attendance of no importance as the mind was socially stunted.
The common thread in her being harassed and his harassing is sad social envy, incompatibility and pure evil on his part.
Had she been a Muslim you guys would have raised the banner of religion for sure.
Reporting, editorializing is all too dishonest and agenda driven.
Apart from being market driven of course.
I long for the old doordarshan days where there seemed to be a modicum of decency about it.
And they actually did do some background checks unlike today when you guys only see what is put in front of you.
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I read all the responses, and I see a lot of political science, civics and social science, and a lot of culture bias, racist interpretations…
But nobody points the real cause, an we all know it….Americans know it. Let me put it like this…
“Asians are hot.”
Yes, they really are…well most of them. Please respond men reading this who have never gave a north-eastner woman a second look. Not because we are racist, it’s because we are men. And it’s not just India, even in other cultures….you find huge fan following over Asian porn.
Yes, I know.. you might paint me a sexist over here…but I’m addressing the real issue over here. Even women find north eastern men better looking than an average northern man.
So here I complement the North - easterners for being better looking. Everybody knows that.
Now coming back to the incidents of eve-teasing, rapes, dressing sense and the current issue of the murder…It’s not racism that we’re dealing over here. We’re dealing with average North Indian man not being able to control himself….
So, are all north indians perverted….I don’t know may be they are…
Or, may be we’re (Indian man’s sexuality) still waking up to the globalization…and I’m not referring to the mall culture right now; but the the average man travelling in DTCs, men brought up in traditional indian families (educated indians included)….
We have to understand that mere education would not necessarily lift the sexual repression…
While ending this response, would request the women from North-east and all the other exotic looking beauties…freedom is one thing but there are countries who still behead their women for a show of bare hand (read arabia…)
I don’t know who to blame over here…but there’s nothing wrong in being a little sensitive to the psyche of the local inhabitants especially if the stake is your own security…..
isean
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I totally agree. Media, whether tv or print, is a very powerful medium in our country. And media persons, thus, have to act responsibly. Now-a-days, every other incident qualifies as ‘breaking’ news. In the quest for higher TRPs and viewership, news is presented sensationally and irrelevant pieces of information are given more importance than the incident itself.
As for Ningreichon’s question, the answer is very simply ‘yes’. The anger is very much reasonable, but it is not the way to solve the issue and i am not trying to follow Gandhi here. I agree with gautam sehgal’s view but i am not sure about the victim being chosen based on her ethnicity.
Our country has more number of ethnic groups than the number of countries in the world. When two brothers do not tend to get along with each other (and i not talking about monetary issues) simply because of conflicting natures or habits, there is bound to be some amount of friction between people of different religious, ethnic or geographic communities. It is built into human nature. Racism, thus, should be seen objectively. When we discriminate someone, we are not only hurting the person and his/her community but also humanity. So much of prejudice is not helping anyone(maybe the media and the politicians).
We have to learn to respect each other and the media can play a big role in inculcating this into the minds of us Indians. The media should not see such incidents as a way of creating ‘breaking news’ but as an opportunity to send the right message to the people.
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i agree with Mr Sanghvi.The media do create a hype of these kind of stories. In the present case,its more about problem faced by women in general rather than NE in particular.That psychopath would have murdered any other girl if he would have found interesting irrespective of her ethnicity and caste.This case should have been treated as safety concerns for women rather than ethnic concerns.The focus was simply diverted.
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Nice article! and i do agree that journalists are lazy, lazier than lawyers. But I beg to differ on the point that this isnt about racism. maybe the incident, when viewed in isolation might appear to be just another murder. For how I see it, its just manifestation of the tremendous amount of discrimination that people from north east india face, whether its mumbai or delhi or any part of the country. Countless jibes are directed at their looks, which to me is a sign of an unevolved society, prejudices that include questions about nationality (being called chinki, nepali and such). Not to mention that murmur about the kind of ‘work’ that they do, never mind that WHERE they work. It IS about racism TO AN EXTENT. Its also failure of making them mainstream. To many, north east is bunched together as a region rather than individual states. Maybe the journos are lazy and prejudiced (as are most of us but get camouflaged in expert articulation). But the points raised were to an extent a reflection of the preduice based on race and region. North eastern girls are often seen as a potential target. Their character is, unfairly, always subject to extra scrutiny, whether they hang out at an udipi hotel, search for a place to stay or standing on the road waiting for a friend.
http://mywriterkeeda.wordpress.com
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I remmeber NDTv reporting vividly.. they were goign on and on with headlines big text flashign on their screen hindu terorr safforn teror etc.. despite every sane person telling them to maintain the traditon of not associating terorr with any religion or community they didn;t listen..
Withitn hours 26/11 happened and same set of hosts barkha dutt started lecturing us how we should not associate religion with terror and they tried their level best not to speak even once the phrase muslim terror..
When you see this kind of reporting you know these journalists are as sick as your next door politicians
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Consider this:
Maybe they are trying to paint a “picture” for us with the details. I’ve never seen a photograph that erases physical characteristics of a person. And, you know what they say: “Seeing is believing” and “A picture is worth a thousand words”.
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Mr.Veer after reading your blog and the comments you may have two options for your next blog:
Kinetic Dressing V/s Mystique Dressing
Or
Jurnos V/s TRP
I would prefer the former, as you definitely would have objectively subjective views on it.
Regarding the incident, it’s a painful agony for any woman irrespective of which region, race, caste or culture one belongs to. Delhi is still a notorious place at par with U.P. as far as eve-teasing and crime related with women are concerned. I think a public awareness campaign should be carried out for the benefit of Neo-Delhities coming for studies, or work.
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The question of race, ethnicity, gender arises with a certain regularity, worldwide. It is not confined to India. The derision of minority groups also happens worldwide, and it can be based on any premise that is different, from that of the perceived superiority of the perpertrator.
You are wrong about the US and Uk media- they report as you have said.
It is not only what you say, but also the way that you say it , that may reflect your underlying prejudices and sentiments.
I think recent and rapid affluance can go to people’s head, which prevents them being sensitive to the other’s need. Some people are innately more sensitive to those around them. That is a blessing bestowed on the few.
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I am a regular reader of your Sunday ‘Counterpoint’ and was a regular reader of your Mint column while it lasted. The Brunch piece is equally delicious but I don’t mind missing it sometimes as I am not a regular with quite a few of the high-end eating joints like Wasabi or The House of Ming; once in a while yes but gastronomy is not one of my cardinal passions; I do like to cook though. Needless to say your writing is always a pleasure for the reader and the questions you raise are mostly pertinent. Much of the problem as this blog post says is with a journalist’s understanding of facts. I read your argument vis-a-vis Kashmir the same week when I read Arundhati Roy’s emotive piece during the Amarnath land row and I now always read her with complete circumspection while your piece establishes trust and the reason for that is that the facts used to build an argument must be facts and not conjecture. One may disagree with an opinion but the underlying fact has to be correct in the work of a journalist. It is such an annoying feeling to read front page news stories that cannot get the basic facts right. If death due to a bullet injury that punctures the lungs is a fact in one case and death due to 8 bullets and multiple organ failure the fact in another then they are both facts. There is nothing as a less fact or a more fact; a fact is just a fact. And it is a fact that a journalist/columnist who gets his facts right, understands them and respects them, like you do, is usually an ethical and well-respected journalist/columnist. That does not mean, though, that one can’t disagree with your opinion.
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