Hindustan Times
Deified in death
Do the media waste too much time trying to be kind to the dead? If you go by the way in which Indira Gandhi has been treated by the mainstream English press and TV channels, then probably not.
By and large, the treatment accorded to the 25th anniversary of Mrs Gandhi’s death was fair and largely free from mawkish tributes. So it is with Rajiv Gandhi. There is very little sentiment in remembering his time in office and a successful campaign by the Sangh Parivar (along with the stupidity of the Congress) has ensured that he is only remembered by a young generation in terms of the 1984 Sikh riots. While those riots were a national tragedy, the man did remain in office for five years afterwards so any fair assessment would have to include the rest of his tenure.
On the other hand, we tend to be kind to the recently departed. When Pramod Mahajan was alive, he was pilloried as a sleazy figure surrounded by tentwallahs whose foolish campaign had cost the BJP the election. Death transformed him into a saint. These days, you hardly hear any mention of the sleaze even though we still don’t know exactly what it was that caused his own brother to murder him.
People who complain about the media’s treatment of the dead miss an important point. It’s not the media who forget about a dead man or woman’s vices, it is the general public. Pramod Mahajan is merely one example.
Think of Indira Gandhi. Even while the media attempt reasoned obituaries, the public’s love affair with her shows no signs of abating. The queues at 1 Safdarjung Road get longer and longer and most people who emerge from the museum are filled with love and admiration for her.
This is not just an Indian phenomenon. Much the same is true of the West. When Michael Jackson died, the obituaries were by and large fair, which is to say that some were scathing. After all, the man was a paedophile who tried to deny that he was black and who hadn’t written a decent song in a decade. (I will now pause so that Michael Jackson fans can draft their abusive comments about me.)
But the public fell in love with Jackson almost from the moment his death was announced. The new biographies have all been bestsellers. Most have sold in their millions. The concert movie, This Is It, will make over $500 million at least.
Something similar happened to Princess Diana. At the time of her death, she was regarded as a glamour-crazy floozy in search of a new role. No sooner had the Mercedes hit the wall of the tunnel, however, and she was miraculously transformed into the People’s Princess. Now, few people remember her as she was when she died. Instead, they worship some idealized Diana who never really existed.
A more recent example from India is YS Raja Shekhar Reddy. When he was alive most political observers regarded him as a crook who had made billions from his politics. (If you have any doubts about what YSR’s legacy is then take a look at the way in which his son, Jagan, is behaving.) But such was the outpouring of public grief in Andhra that the balanced obituaries were ignored and YSR became in death the hero he never really was in life.
So, yes, the media can be too kind to the dead. But don’t blame us. Blame yourselves.
It is the public which changes its mind about people the moment they die.
(17 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Vir Sanghvi on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Filed under Media · Tagged Congress, dead, English press, Indira Gandhi, Media, Michael jackson, Pramod Mahajan, Princess Diana, rajiv gandhi, Sangh Parivar, TV channels, YS Raja Shekhar Reddy
India is land of hypocrites. Everyone become Mahatma afte death.
Moreover Indira Gandhi got so much footage in mainstream media because India is currently being governed by Congress. Had BJP been in power, Indira Gandhi’s 25th death anniversary would have limited to Congress HQ.
Our media works as per political compulsions. They know they can not get goodies from govt. if they are in bad books of Smt. Sonia Gandhiji and Shrimaan Rahul Babaji.
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Lets face it, Pramod Mahajan made billions. Literally. After the BJP lost the elections in 2004 they had a Chintan Baithak in a 5 star hotel(where they booked the entire hotel). his after the BJP spent 100s of crores during campaigning.
My point: You Mr. Sanghvi wrote 2-3 obituaries for him, week after week on counterpoint. Even though you mentioned the term tentwallahs it was used more in the sense of we should overlook this and see him as a breadth of fresh air or something. It was as if you were in awe of the man, his awesome movies collection has been mentioned by every journalist and you ended by saying India has lost a future Prime Minister. So no, the public did not care too hoots about a rich politician who never won an election in his life, the media(read yourself) seemed obsessed with the rich guy. (i can understand the initial excitement of the electronic media given the family drama involved and the countdown to his death in the hospital).
Big fan, first comment, first disappointment.
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Hue mar ke bhi jo ruswa, hue kyun na gherq e darya
Na koi janaza hota, na kahin mazar hota
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Yep public changes its mind about people after they die… and the trend remains uniform across the spectrum. It is considered disrespectful to hurl mud at a dead person’s name. Not the media’s fault… not our fault. The intelligent ones, like you and me, know how to differentiate between people.
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Fawnign over Indira gandhi’s feet was distyasteful to the 4000 butchered by indira and her son’s thugs..
Had those 4000 butchered been muslim we would have witnessed extended chest beating but somehow sikh life is not that important
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Rajeev Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 2:27 am
The Sikh lives are cheap for congress and seculars (including media) because sikhs are not a big votebank like muslims.
There have been attempts by media to push the blame of 1984 riots on Hindu bigots (read RSS) whereas it has been noted by Khuswant Singh (a hindu hater) that RSS saved Sikhs during riots.
The 1984 riots were engineered by Congress under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi.
If Modi is called murderer for loss of 2000 muslim lives, Rajiv Gandhi should be called hitler for getting 4000 sikhs hacked.
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Anil Kumar Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
The socalled humble and honest man Manmohan Singh actally paraded that lie of RSS culpability in 1984 during his election bid from South Delhi.
People still wonder why this man with no morality lost in that election..
You forget abotu one thing Veer Sanghvi and ilk knew Rajeev gandhi personally and hence they can vouch for him no such personal acquaintance with modi hence he must be devil.
As they say unfamiliarity breeds ludicrous depiction of individuals
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Rajeev Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Manmohan Singh is anything but humble and honest.
The honest men don’t let go bofors chor or vote of confidence by buying MPs.
No hate comments on MJ yet
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Rajeev Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
MJ was a nutcase just like you.
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first mention of true YS Rajashekhar reddy after his death. But dont push the balme on people, there were claims that more tham 500 ppl committed suicide after YSR’s death was rolling on all 24hr TV channel in the state and the country. Where leaders from the same party have come on TV to disprove it and media didnt bother to investigate the issue and bring the facts to light.
People are programmed the way it suits the media by the media.
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Anil Kumar Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Deads are saints partucalrly when they come from Congress they deserve canonization and fables like you have mentioned aids in that cannonization process.
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Its not entirely a bad thing.
We in India have a cultural aversion of speaking ill of the dead. But i just realised that its common to all cultures..
BTW Edward Kennedy was mourned like crazy inspite of being involved in Manslaughter. Even George W Bush ( whom the media has been extremely unfair to) might just get some credit after his death
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Also, it might not be fair to Compare Rajiv Gandhi and Narendra Modi : Both did condone Genocide during that time,but to be fair to Rajiv, he had lost his mother.
Modi on the other hand was a lot more cynical.
Rajiv was a bit of a wimp when he allowed shailyas or mishandled Shah bano but i dont think anyone can doubt his committment to secular india.
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Anil Kumar Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
HE lost his mother hence he was justified in twiddling his thumb mind you not even a single rioter was touched by police in that case.
Modi one can make a case has no personal family hence feels for everyone so he too can get melanchoy oiver sight of 60 charred bodies and go in mourning room..
But he didn;t he ordered his police to take measurea dn as a result 300 rioters overwhelmingly hindus were killed by police..
Now show eme evena single rioter being even lathi charged let alone kileld by police in 1984 then i will give Rajeev gandhi clean chit./> tillthjat happens he remains a mass murderer to me.
Rajeev gandhi’s case is open and shut he did nothing
Narendra Modi;s case at worst could be he didn’t do enough.. But then again congress neighbouring states denied him police force and they have no right to invoke didn;t do enough nonsense
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I think its wrong to put the entire blame on us. Even the media stops short of criticizing such people once they have passed away. Nobody, and this includes the media and the general public, would like to be categorized as being disrespectful to them. Even the media wants to earn the tag of being sensitive and thus puts in more articles focussing on the achievements of the person rather than his shortcomings. Try comparing the numbers and you will see how one sided it is.
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Media should also have remembered the many bright Sikh Army officers in uniform butchered by the goons of the congress party. I also doubt the sincerity of RSS and BJP towards the Sikhs.
Ms Barkha Dutt and the other NDTV anchors ,side stepped from the issue of operation blue star and the genocide of sikhs during the panel discussion.
It all seemed orchestrated. If media can bring about justice in cases like Jessica Lal , why not for a genocide of this scale.
I find it hypocritical and shameful.
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Anil Kumar Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
They have sold their soul to Congress (I) that’s why.
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I think it would be mature and ethically correct not to blame dead. what would media end up blaming a dead person as he is not going to be punished. Secondly, dead man can not defend himself if some controversy is raised against him/her. So, ethically it would be wrong to blame deceased and that is why even courts do not pursue cases against them. Point raised by use that we make hero’s out of famous controversial people as they leave this world, I think this is part of our culture to give some respect and honour to dead. People at the funeral also leave aaside all controversial things of deceased and remeber only good.
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After looking at Rahul Bhatt episode and how media went into introspective mode asking itself question if it is right to hold someone guilty without investigation. We all know Mahesh Bhatt is close to congress party so gets preferential treatment from Media.
I fail to understand why media went overboard to coin word “hindu terrorism” without any hestitation and held Col. Purohit and Pragya guilty.
Why does media have two different standards? One for the favorites like Rajiv Gandhi, killer of Delhi, Mahesh Bhatt, big mouth and one for Hindu “Bigots”.
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vir sanghvi wrote “So it is with Rajiv GandhiThere is very little sentiment in remembering his time in office and a successful campaign by the Sangh Parivar (along with the stupidity of the Congress) has ensured that he is only remembered by a young generation in terms of the 1984 Sikh riots. While those riots were a national tragedy, the man did remain in office for five years afterwards so any fair assessment would have to include the rest of his tenure.”
is he trying to say that had sangh parivaar not campaigned and congress not been stupid rajiv gandhi would have been remembered for .. .. what ? able andministrator? development man like narendra modi? the answer is a big NO..
hard luck mr. manu sanghvi … oops mr. vir sanghvi..
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Rajeev Reply:
November 20th, 2009 at 1:21 am
Mr. Sanghvi finds murder of 4000 sikhs trivial matter or gobbling up money in bofors case unimportant.
The only thing important is Rajiv was good looking Bhagwan from Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty.
Rajiv Gandhi should be condemned a first rate criminal for his role in 1984 massacre and making money on bofors deal with his italian friends.
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my above blog was not published which i had to write it again.. this is the naked proob of mr. vir sanghvi blatant congress chamchagiri..
down with the communal congress and communal journalists like vir sanghvis..
i still dont know whether they will keep my blog or not.. but this is the only way for a hindu like me to express my pain .. hindus really are under seige in their own country..
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Ripal,
The problem is that BJP has ruled this country only for 6 years and I guess it failed to buy media whereas Congress that ruled India for 47 years have bought most of the media.
Mr.Sanghvi is product of Congress school of Journalism so don’t be shocked if he looses his balance on anti-Congress (specifically anti-dynasty) comments.
I am waiting to see this comment deleted by so called democratic free thinking journalist.
I sometime think are all these journalists crypto-muslims and crypto-christians. I know Hindus love bashing their own faith but these journalist go far beyond and actually compete with bigot muslims and christians.
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Indira Gandhi was the last leader from the era of great leaders who were influencing whole country.
Rajiv Gandhi stature should not be compared with Mrs. Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi was a rather novice in politics and rather inflicted sentimentally post Mrs. Gandhi assassination.
Moreover, great leaders should be remembers via nationalised TV channels and tax payers money should not be wasted by placing full page ads in all newspapers across India.
Pramod Mahajan campaign was correct to highlight positives but Indian public took more as wastage of tax paymer money rather than perceiving the qualities being highlighted through the campaign. Opposition effectly reversed the campaign but people lose elections who have really paved the way for major Indian development.
Nevertheless, Indians should not forget that it was the BJP led Govt. which improved the relations with US paving way for huge investments from US to contain sprawling China. It was the leaders like Vajpayee with great experience taking strong stands. India should have given mendate to great leaders like Mr. Advani to see some great decisions from experienced men.
Congress must have lessons of Rajiv Gandhi in mind that they did not make YSR son’s Andhra CM.
All people should come at Helm with great experience and not sentimentally.
There should not be violent reaction if any section of socienty err against other but something, bitter reactions teach good lessons also. Any time of violent reaction on innocent people should be avoided and it is better to correct the history mistakes than to ignore to let problems crop up repeatedly. Sikhs and Hindus killed in 1984 riots and due to militancy in Punjab should be adequately compensated and so are muslims in Gujarat with apology from all top hierarchy and with firm commitment not to repeat in such manner in future.
Thanks
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Normally Vir Sanghvi’s views as seen in his writings are balanced and on target but here he is way off target. If Raja Shekhar Reddy was a villain in life time how did he win the Andhra State twice for the Congress? Or was the win in 2009 manipulated in connivance with Navin Chawla ?
And I don’t think that Pramod Mahajan has become a saint after his death. He did have qualities of bringing different people and parties together which the public acknowledged even in his life-time.
Of course people also knew that he had become very rich during his minister-ship.But 90% politicians follow that route, nothing unusual with Mahajan. But of course BJP ministers were expected to behave differently from Congress ministers which perhaps majority of BJP ministers did.
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To put everything in perspective, look at the LS election results of 2004 and 2009. Congress increased its tally from about 145 odd seats to 207(including the recently won Ferozabad seat in UP). Every other political party was marginalised in the elections and in my humble but firm opinion I dont see the trend changing too much in the coming future. Even in Punjab INC has been in and out of power after 1984 riots which goes on to show that the voters have moved on in life and are not averse to Congress rule in Punjab. If the victory of Modi in Gujrat even after Godhra riots nearly absolves him of any wrong doing, I am sure people would accede the same benefit to the INC as well on the same reasoning.
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Dear veer,
Today is “world disability day”.i wnt to share a small incident involving one widow of Veer chakra(died as connel)and disabled soldier from BSF.We were travelling together in train and to my surprise the disbled jawan was medically boarded out from service(injury in militant operation in srinagar)surviving on only pensions minus any ex-gratia and widow whose husband died due to injury complication affected in militant operation.both of them require the attention of the nation and to my surprise the widow of connel can keep the govt house for 2yrs from the date her husband died while BSF PERSONAL even can’t keep the govt residence for 3 months from invalidated day .I came back home and to my surprise the wife of IFS officer’s who died in Kabul embessy bombing in 2008 was allowed to keep the house till normally the officer would have supernauted.It is astonising that there is an examble of two suffrers who fought for the country and another who served and mean time lost his life(i admire the govt outlook for IFS Officer)got diffrent treatment.my question to the govt/media is as follows:
q.1.why can’t govt provide residence for the next of kin of deceased and disabled &invalided from service while fighting for nation?
q.2.why central govt miserably failed to provide habitat for militant affected central govt police personalls/Defence while in same situation Mumbai police has provided the same?
q.3.Is media waiting for a story where they can get breaking story where the Estate goons will embark in any disabled /deceased soldiers house and threw the belongings and familly out in cold?
q.4.why govt go selective affirmative actions(remember sonia gandhi after Rajiv Gandhi assasination,IFS officer late sh.V.Rao etc)but don’t have a plan for settlement for the affected personals who wasn’t serving but fighting for the nation but allow thefamilly sufer.
q.5.Is govt not bothered by the fact that the personnals affected by fighting militiant action would have survived if they would have shied away from the job and got all promotions and the secured govt job thus not facing the warth now?
q.6.why media is shy in projecting the problems of disabled personnals affected in militant actions?
q.7.why can’t govt provide secured govt job to the wife of disabled soldiers as per their qualification and thus allow them to continue the residence where they are staying?
q.8.As per disablity act all govt servants are entitled for 3% of quata of total vacancy while the armed forces as taken exemtion from this act.Now what affirmative solution govt can provide for the trade off apart from pensions which is in no way justice at inflammatory economics?
q.9.Is govt taken any cue from USA,EUROPEAN UNION ,NATO etc ;that how they tackle similar problems?
q.10.How media will react if a disabled soldiers familly is thrown out of his/her house in cold winter by goons of Director of Estates when it is a known fact that the dreaded militant AJMAL KASAB had consumed 35 lakhs and still ticking?
q.11.why media is reactive and not proactive to highlight the issues of disabled soldiers/deceased while fighting militancy whereas there are allegation from senior police officer that 04 senior police officers shied from taking the responsibilityduring 26/11 still surviving and ready for next promotions?
I request you that issue requires urgent attention otherwise there will be dearth of brave soldiers to fight for the nation as there exist of officers in Indian Army/Airfore/Navy
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