Nandan, Blogged!

A very happy new year to all. New Year’s Eve is an arbitrary point of time. What makes it special or significant is the meaning we attach to it. Here’s hoping that all of us are able to provide a rich meaning to our lives in the coming year.

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I generally don’t like to cover current events and blog about them. I like blogging about the same event twice even less. But since there are so many interesting examples of spin available and I have some free time with me, I cannot but blog about it.

In my earlier post, I had talked about media playing a partisan role, especially channels like NDTV. here are some samples of how Raj Thackeray’s press conference was reported.

Rediff.com: talks of Raj Thackeray saying "My good time will come". As one reads, one realizes that Raj T has clarified his position, saying he is not against religious festival(s), but against using these as political platforms and as events to do a "show of strength". However, rediff.com has by far the most balaced reportage amongst the sampled news sites.

NDTV.com: "Pressure on Maharashtra Government, Raj remains defiant" screams the headline on this site. Under the headline, there is an interesting sentence about Raj Thackeray defying the court order and conducting a press conference. The exact sentence is:

"Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray has addressed the media in defiance of a court order banning him from making any public speeches."

When you click on the link, way down in the 10th and 11th paragraph, the site says:

"The court order against Raj’s speaking in public was issued last week, shortly after he was arrested for the violence unleashed by his party workers on north Indian candidates who had come to Mumbai for the Railway Recruitment Board exams.The police had given him permission to hold the press conference but was there to monitor what he said."

Notice the subtle fact that Raj T was not really doing illegal? (well, at least that’s what NDTV.com admits to saying) Of course, the screaming byline insinuates that he is doing something quite illegal and in contravention of court orders.

So, where is the defiant part? The defiant part is in the first paragraph, where he defends the Mumbai Police and State Government for the action taken against Raul Raj, saying that RR was shot not because he was Bihari, but because he was dangerous. The only people he is contradicting are some of the Bihari politicians.

Aajtak.com: the Hindi online version does not seem to feel the need to cover the clarification made by Raj T. I did not find it even after some diligent search. The focus of the coverage seems to be on people like Kalraj Mishra and Amar singh criticizing Raj T.

IBNLive.com: The headline only says: "Learn Marathi, Raj tells migrants in mumbai"…again, no coverage to his comment about not being against Chhat Puja or supporting the shooting of RR in the headline. The same news report, once you click on the headline, tells you about his views on unauthorized slums etc. There is enough coverage to his remarks on Chhat Puja in the article, but just a passing reference to learning Marathi. And guess what gets highlighted?

Sify.com:  Talks of how the upright servant of the downtrodden masses, world famous psychiatrist, (Dr.)Amar Singh, compares Raj T to Hitler and comments how Raj T is mentally ill, just like Hitler in the past.  The same headline is seen again on in.yahoo.com.

Interestingly, mid-day.com has probably quoted Raj T correctly about his views on RR’s death, apart from rediff.com:

”I do not like violence and am not happy at anybody’s death. Maybe only Bihar leaders can be, and play politics over somebody’s death,” he said supporting the police firing at Rahul Raj (23), the Patna boy who tried to ‘hijack’ a BEST bus a few days ago saying he wanted to kill Raj Thackeray. Rahul died in the encounter. ‘Rahul had a loaded revolver and he fired first at the police and the passengers,” Raj noted.

rediff.com also says:

"Thackeray justified the killing of Bihari gunman Rahul Raj stating that had he killed innocent bystanders or some policeman had died in the fracas the media would have blamed the police for not taking quick action."

mid-day.com has a much more factual headline. "Raj: no politics over Chhat Puja". Is it any wonder that Raj T and people who follow news with some interest get disgusted with the biased slant of news channels?

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• There is no justification for violence. There was no need to beat up students and equally, no need to destroy property.
  
  
• If MNS knew about these examinations earlier (the Shiv Sena claims they did) they should have protested in other ways. Large scale protests at examination centers or on railway stations, or even using media cleverly to give publicity to the issue in Maharashtra.
  
  
• There seem to be more than enough instances of Lalu Raj being enforced in Railways. (Quick example here: Oriya MP Karbala Swain complaining against alleged discrimination)
  
  
• Earlier protests by MNS, such as signs being painted in Marathi, are actually in accordance with the provisions of the local laws. While it is incorrect to beat up people and destroy property, the demands of MNS are valid to the extent that they are in accordance to the laws.
  
  
• The theme of MNS is going to be the same overall: most Maharasthrians I know, myslef included, agree in varying degrees with their demands. however, most Maharashtrians I know do not agree with their ways. This shall probably cost Raj Thackeray some votes, but then again, people like me are not his target population.
  
  
• The other issue is the schizophrenic nature of Mumbai.Being the Financial Capital of the country makes it a melting pot. Being the capital of Maharashtra makes it uniquely Maharashtrian. Problems arise when this delicate balance is broken. For many years, this balance was not broken. While Shiv Sena rallied against Tamilians and Muslims at specific times, it did not really destroy the balance. MNS has tended to copy the same methodology. However, without a powerful development agenda, MNS will end up making the same mistake as the SS. Opening a Pandora’s box and adding one more (dysfunctional) personality to Mumbai’s burgeoning personalities. With no solution in sight.
  
  
• The Rahul Raj case was painful. It is painful to see a young man in the avatar of a hijacker/ terrorist. As per reports, he shot one person (a Mr.Bhagat) and tried to strangle the conductor. A hostage situation like that is scary.
  
  
• Hindi news channels have shown an unbelievable bias in reporting the Rahul Raj issue. For a change, Star News tried to look at both sides of the story. Some others tried to show how Rahul Raj was a ‘normal’ boy. After showing his ‘normal’ background, one news anchor of NDTV Hindi said in a sarcastic tone.."So, this is the boy whom the Deputy CM of Maharashtra calls mentally unstable". So, trying to strangle a bus conductor with an iron chain, shooting a passenger for no reason and trying to assassinate a politician is normal behaviour?
  
  
• The most disgusting visuals of the whole episode was Lalu trying to make political capital out of this issue. While there shall be a high level enquiry in this incident, it seems clear that the hijacker tried to kill people (the conductor and Mr. Bhagat) and had every intention of trying to kill Raj Thackeray. To say that this person is a Bihari youth who has been shot down mercilessly by the police is the lowest form of political mileage. I believe in the action taken by the Mumbai Police, though of course, the final report is awaited. In these times of terror, if the person does not give up his arms and surrender, and there is a wounded person as a hostage, there is little that any defence force can do.
  
  
• I don’t know how many people may actually want to kill Lalu, but if Lalu is faced with a situation like this, will he not pick up the phone and tell the Police to shoot the guy down?
  
  
• The decorative turd on top of this shit cake was Lalu trying to lay the blame of Rahul Raj’s death on Raj Thackeray. As far as I could make out, in Lalu’s warped mind, Rahul Raj was ‘provoked’ by Raj Thackeray due to the violence initiated by Raj T (highly probable, though we as of now we have no conclusive proof of that). Obviously, the most natural reaction to this would be for some ‘aggrieved’ person to get a country made revolver, climb a bus and try to shoot Raj T, who was at least 10 kms away. How was this particular individual affected by Raj T? If violence is not justifiable one way, it can”t be justifiable the other way. The ownership of that action was with Rahul Raj alone. And if people like Raj T are parochial thugs, who have mental issues (as per the eminent psychiatrist Mr. L P Yadav) what are people like Rahul Raj?
  
  
• ‘Oh, but if Raj T had not done this, the ‘youth’ would not have been motivated to do this.’  is another argument that many people throw up, as if trying to find the root cause. This argument makes me want to throw up. Ok. Let’s try to put some reverse spin on this spin: Let’s go back some 15 years. If Lalu had not turned the beautiful and rich state of Bihar into the hellhole it has turned into, maybe people like Rahul Raj would not have had to leave Patna and search for jobs in Mumbai in the first place. How is that for a first cause?
  
  
• Mumbai and Maharashtra have always welcomed people with open arms. The issue is, today, there isn’t much space to widen those arms, due to the sheer extent of migration. Also, UP and Bihar-based politicians are trying to create vote banks out of the immigrants from North India, which will further divide the city. ( I have written about this earlier in another blog post, so not repeating it here). Contrary to popular opinion, it is not Maharashtrians alone who are against this (in fact, many Maharashtrians, myself included, are not against migration, though skilled migration is more deisrable in my opinion). Gujaratis, Tamils, Marwaris etc. are also against this deluge. Violence is a ridiculous way of handling these issues and there seem to be no easy answers to this. The least we can, as Indians, do is sort it out peacefully, without violence ( like Raj T) and without raising emotional and political stakes (like LP Yadav).
  
  
• I also believe that as a migrant, one needs to understand the local language and try to enrich the place which you have adopted. In Ahmedabad, I learnt Gujarati quickly and I tried to learn Kannada in Bangalore, though unsuccessfully. I dont know how much I enriched the places, because I was too young when in Gujarat at least. Can we, as migrants, look at this model? By migrant, I mean a  person who has settled in a place which is not his/her home. Shivajirao Gaekwad, a Maharashtrian, is one such example. He has enriched the South Indian Film industry in particular by his sheer contribution. There are hundreds of MArwaris in Maharastra and W Bengal who speak Marathi and Bengali, respectively, better than the natives. The Parsee test of migration, in my opinion, is the best way to look at the problem of migration. How can I mix with the milk without making it overflow? Am I adding sugar to the milk, to make it sweeter, or am I at best an impurity?

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