Blame Game

Dr Pravin Togadia

Past few years all of us have been noticing a strange phenomenon in Bharat’s social, socio-political, socio-economic and socio-religious horizon. It is ‘Blame Game resulting into skirting the root cause of the problem or incident’. See some glaring examples:

p    A political party’s convoy attacked, leaders killed and many injured in Maoist (Naxal?) attack in Chhattisgrh. The party blamed the ruling party, media blamed selected people in ruling party and police using ‘intelligence failure’ bit and human rights groups blamed systems! (It wrongly resulted in suspension of a senior police officer and transfer of another whereas the police themselves are victims of the Maoist terror!) Nobody took trouble to stop beating around the bush (or, jungle in this case!) and work on a specific POA (Plan of Action). Instigated by media, even public and typical panels blamed everybody but with no specific solution.

p    Two Indian Army men brutally killed and beheaded by Pakistan’s army on the Kashmir border. Many political parties blamed the ruling party, the ruling party blamed ‘those who don’t want peace between India and Pak’, Kashmiri separatists and Pak blamed ‘Indian Army’ but the families of the deceased showed patriotism by demanding 1000 heads of the Pak army men! Media as usual kept shouting against all but did not blame Pak. Almost similar things happened after brutal attack on Sarabjit. Again instigated by media public gave slogans and matter ended there.

p    A powerful blast occurred in Bhagyanagar (Hyderabad) in front of a political party’s office, three dead and many injured. Again the similar blame game! Some blamed the Union Government, some blamed the state Government and media even poked their noses into party infighting as if what they were saying was the ultimate truth. But NOBODY showed courage to blame Jihadi terrorists sponsored by Pak and aided by local modules!

And now see these recent examples:

p    An army man in London was attacked, beheaded and slashed into pieces on the street in front of his army barrack. The Jihadi attackers wielded their weapons and gave pro-Islam slogans. British Govt called for an emergency security meeting and the British PM declared it as a Jihadist attack on entire Britain. Media there did NOT blame the Government, but exposed nexus of the Jihadists with other larger groups and citizens did not shout slogans against the Government of the nation or burnt the effigies of the PM, but showing patriotism, took out rallies with placards ‘We are strong against Islamist Terrorism’. As a reaction to this solidarity, Islamists got baffled and spray painted ‘Islam’ in big fonts on 4 war memorials in London. Again the citizens came out, covered the graffiti and declared their strength to fight against such Jihadist mischief.  Media did not stoop to the level of ‘only on our channel – the graffiti!

(Now recall the attack by 50,000 strong Muslim mob in Azad ground that attacked war memorial Amar Jawan Jyoti. The same mob molested police women and burnt vehicles shouting pro Islam slogans. No political party said a word against this extremism. Media blamed hooligans but conveniently did not show slogans. No show of solidarity anywhere.)

p    Two blasts took place in Boston marathon. 6 died, many injured. Not only Boston city but entire America came to streets showing solidarity to the nation. Nobody blamed the Government or the police. Boston remained indoors for 48 hours while the police were hunting for the lone alive bomber. Media did not shout—‘public not getting vegetables!’; public did not complain either.

p    New Government in Myammar! Rohingya Muslims have been creating similar problems in Myanmar’s Rakhine province as the Kashmiri separatists do for Bharat. They burnt Buddhist temples, attacked Buddhist people and burnt their houses. Myanmar kicked Rohingyas out and made a 2 children norm compulsory for all. Bharat still has not been able to see through the issue only because of the misplaced priorities and sponsored blame games to divert the basic issue.

What really happens to political parties, media, large groups of citizens influenced by media or hear-say and various intellectuals/human rights groups whenever there is a crisis in Bharat affecting national safety/security or wellbeing of people? Whenever there is a natural calamity, Japan, America, China and the likes stand together, declare state or national emergency for services, media stands by the victims without blaming Governments or systems and citizens show national solidarity. Be it Tsunami in Japan, earthquake in China or floods in Australia or Tornadoes in America. In Bharat, even in the deadliest Tsunami after Indonesian earthquake, what erupted was the political blame game and media blah blah about help not reaching here and there. Nobody showed the great social service that was handled then by Mata. Amritanandmayi or RSS. Just blame, blame and blame somebody but skirt the basic issue or demean the nation itself. We have been seeing it in IPL, drought, Chinese intrusion, various Jihadi blasts or in recent Maoist attacks.

The worse is that the systems that are supposed to be impartial too seem to be getting unduly mesmerised either by some political party’s aggressive PR or by media’s lop sided, many a times immature and non-factual coverage! Judiciary, local administrations, police and other systems are supposed to verify the facts but to ‘look’ good either to a particular party or in media, or now on Face Book or Twitter, even such systems ride on the falsely created waves of blame games. This helps the real culprits to either escape or justify.

Many important national matters in Bharat are being ignored due to such blame games, TRP mania, vote bank PR and euphoria. Many matters like China sponsored and Pak-aided terror are being purposely skirted putting Bharat in permanent security risk. Political parties do not realise that while criticising the political opponents, they need to refrain from the expressions that ultimately degrade the entire nation in international arena! While being ‘Number One Channel in exposing all’ the media should realise that they are not the ultimate judges or 10 channels do not really represent entire 120 crore population of Bharat! Even Judiciary, police and local administration should refrain from getting unduly influenced by political blame games or media blah blah.  If Bharat’s rating is downgraded by the sponsored blame game stories, every citizen is affected. National pride has to be over and above all. Political parties, media, social groups etc. are the pillars of the national growth. Rather than engaging in the selective blame game or lop-sided off the cuff remarks, rather than pushing the judiciary to make wrong decisions which may affect Bharat in the long run, all must work in tandem positively to sort out the issues while protecting Bharat’s national and international image. Otherwise the situation of Bharat will be like a simple but meaningful story from the Panchatantra where two monkeys kept fighting over a chunk of butter and a big cat intentionally getting them engaged them in a fight ate up the full chunk! Such cats are hovering in and around Bharat – at borders and away. It is time that political parties, media, human rights groups and the so called intellectual groups stop conspicuous blame games and stand up as ONE Nation!

(The writer can be contacted at  drtogadia@gmail.com.)