A peaceful demonstration by about 2,000 outraged Sangh workers and sympathisers against a news channel that telecast lies, half lies and unsubstantiated reports to malign the RSS as a “terror outfit” has been wrongly painted as an attack on the freedom of the Press. It so happened that a few flower pots and window panes were damaged during minor skirmishes between the guards and a section of angry demonstrators that tried to enter the building. The media house concerned was gracious enough to admit that aggrieved people had a right to protest but said it was wrong for some of them to try to enter the building. Media house is right and the RSS lost no time in expressing regrets over the unfortunate and unplanned incident. Sections of media, particularly Delhi-based English language newspapers and TV channels, went overboard by mixing facts with vicious comments that were much more repulsive than the minor incident in which no one was injured.
Outrageous headlines apart, several of these broadsheets confirmed that the channel and the police had been duly informed of the plan to hold a peaceful demonstration and that damage to property was minimal. But the “secular-liberal” crowd persists at projecting it as an “attack” on the channel. It is regrettable that large sections of media chose to ignore RSS spokesperson’s prompt expression of the regret. These developments are yet another instance of media’s propensity to indulge in RSS bashing and exaggerating minor incidents to attract eyeballs that is against the code of ethical reporting.
Equally bizarre are the contradicting stories carried by two mass circulated multi-edition English newspapers on the Gujarat Minister for Home Amit Shah’s involvement in an encounter in which Ishrat Jahan was killed along with Javed, a known terrorist, and two Pakistanis. Hindsutan Times reported the other day that call records with CBI had nailed the Minister in the “fake encounter”. The pro-Congress newspaper had no compunction in declaring the encounter as “fake” and accepted the CBI claim about the involvement of the minister as gospel truth. On the same day The Hindu – that is second to none in bashing Sangh and its ideological family – reported that the High Court appointed SIT to probe the Ishrat encounter case informed the court that no records of phone calls were available with the telephone or mobile companies concerned. It went on to say that the SIT sought more time from the Court to complete its probe. Which of the two stories was a fabrication? Interestingly, revelations made by 26/11 terror suspect David Headley to Indian officials during his extensive interrogation in USA, show that Ishrat who was killed on June 15, 2004 in the said encounter along with three others was a LeT operative. This nailed the claim made by the “secular-liberal” crowd that she was innocent. The Congress had raised a political storm over the issue and the Union Home Ministry is even now insisting on a CBI enquiry into the police encounter even though a court-appointed SIT is on the job. An investigative report in The Hindu some months back had revealed that the intelligence agencies had been tracking Javed’s travels from Kashmir to Mumbai and further to Gujarat to assassinate Narendra Modi. Obviously, Congress is using the CBI – whose credibility in politics-related cases is zero – to spread canards with the help of obliging media to keep the heat on Shah and through him on the Gujarat Chief Minister.
Much is being made of “Hindu terror”. The investigative agencies have weaved a tale around a small group of individuals, including a serving army officer, that is allege to be involved in Malegaon and a few other blasts in different parts of the country. If they are found guilty of terror, let them face the music. No one in a democratic and free society is entitled to indulge in terror whatever the provocation. Period. It is possible that a tiny section of the large Hindu society may have been provoked by terror attacks by Islamist groups for the past several decades. But this doesn’t justify to talk of “Hindu terror” to defame the Hindu society. The Congress and the Communists are shamelessly attacking the Hindu society in a bid to wean away Muslim votes from the regional parties. Sections of media is flooded with full page stories on the “Hindu terror” and malicious attempts to link them to the RSS on the flimsy premise that one or two junior functionaries and former functionaries of RSS had met them or knew them. RSS leadership came out with a written statement saying the organisation had never believed in violence since its inception and is committed to peaceful, transparent functioning. It has clarified that the RSS has nothing to do with any violent activity, not to talk of terror group. It has made it abundantly clear that the law must take its course in all terror cases and has offered full cooperation to the investigative agencies. In fact, the Sangh immediately relieved one of its workers of all responsibilities once he was accused of involvement with persons arrested in a blast case.
The Sangh has nothing to prove. Its glorious track record during the Satyagraha it launched after it was banned in the wake of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination and during the anti-dictatorship agitation against the hated emergency and murder of democracy proves beyond a shred of doubt that it is committed to non-violent and democratic means. Besides, the nationalist organisation has a fine record of 85 year’s devoted service to the society through its several million dedicated and patriotic cadres. It is its democratic right to protest – peacefully – against uncalled for and unsubstantiated propaganda against it. It rarely holds protests and does so only when it is provoked beyond a point. Politically motivated attempts to raise fingers against the Sangh about certain “terror” groups deserve outright condemnation. Large sections of media – both print and electronic – are guilty of spreading canards. The media is under attack from the civil society and the Press Council of India for the “paid news” syndrome and unprofessional conduct must do some serious introspection if it is not to lose its credibility, or what is left of it.
The ‘secular-liberal’ crowd is carrying on a relentless campaign of vilification against the RSS just because it stands for Hindu causes and is working for Hindu consolidation. They won’t relent because they are motivated by petty political interests. The involvement of a district level Sangh worker is enough for them to conclude that it is a “fascist” organisation even though the organisation immediately divested him of his responsibilities. They don’t think the Congress is a terror outfit even after one of its former Minister in Gujarat, Mohammad Surti, and five of his accomplices were found guilty of a bomb blast in Surat that killed a school girl and maimed 30 others. The Hindu of October 5, 2008 reported that the accused had been charged with using government vehicles to transport bombs and other equipment for the blast. For them the Congress remained a non-violent organisation even after its senior leaders were dragged to courts for their involvement in the anti-Sikh massacre in Delhi in the wake of Mrs Indira Gandhi’s assassination. For them, Rajiv Gandhi remained secular and modern leader even after his “Earth is shaken when a big tree falls” statement justifying the massacre of Sikhs. Sonia Gandhi is a patriot and democrat even after New Indian Express carried the other day a merciless exposure of her involvement with Italian intelligence agencies for decades. Not a murmur in the “secular-liberal” media against the holy cows of the dynasty.
