Miscellany
White Paper
All India Milli Council, New Delhi, Bahujan Vama Shakti, New Delhi and Abhiyan Samajik, New Delhi jointly released a White Paper on March 2004 in which these organizations have critically examined the performance of the BJP-led NDA government. The gist of the White Paper is given below:
India goes to polls shortly after two terms of 13 months and four and half years rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Therefore, it is pertinent to assess the performance of the ruling coalition. While assessing the performance, two points suddenly come to mind. One is how successfully the leading party has run the alliance of 23 political parties, and the other is about fulfillment of its own National Agenda for Governance (NAG).
It is true that this is the longest experiment of a coalition to remain in power but no body can deny the fact also that the BJP has failed to keep all the allies satisfied and united. Initially, there were 23 parties with it. But later ten left it one by one and some new ones joined it, bringing the total number to 15. Most of them who are now with it have done so for having no alternative and longing for lust of power. This alliance has, in fact, turned out to be a house of the opportunists and compromisers and also those who have no other choice before them. So far as the 42-point NAG is concerned, one fears that it would turn out into a real “Naag” (Cobra), a venomous snake of genus Naja able to dilate its neck into a hood-like shape when provoked and bite those around it to death because those who had brought it into being have cheated it.
As a result, today most of the points of the NAG remain unfulfilled while the Sangh work takes a giant leap. The number of shakhas and shishu mandirs increased ten-fold and in the name of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the saffronisation of education continued. Several constituents of Sangh Parivar got plots at an average price much below the market rate in the heart of the national capital. Besides, most of the gubernatorial and ambassadorial posts were filled with RSS and BJP old loyal guards. That’s why the RSS Sahsarkaryavah Madan Das while giving a clean chit to the NDA government in an interview to the RSS weekly Organizer, dated March 21, 2004, said: “We are satisfied with the overall performance of the NDA government.” The “Good Feel” and “India Shining” campaigns were actually started with the intention of concealing these failures of the government and rebut the criticism within the party and outside. However, these campaigns later itself became a challenge to the ruling coalition and created an adverse effect due to its hollowness. However, the BJP forged three strategies to cope with its weaknesses: i. Divide the Opposition through bribery, inducement and blatant manipulation; and ii. Speak in many voices so as to spread and maximize its appeal; and iii. Practice constituency-wise managerial micro-management.
The economy of the country has assumed a very bad shape as its all sectors remained affected badly. According to the Index of Industrial Production, the industrial growth in 2003-04 came down to 6.3 per cent in comparison to 9.1 and 13 per cent in 1994-95 and 1995-96, respectively. Similarly, after touching a peak of 27.8 per cent in 1999-2000, the rate of capital formation declined to 25.8 per cent in 2002-03. Amazingly, this decline and subsequent stagnation in investment occurred despite visible signs of movement in sectors like telecom and more recently, in highway construction. India slipped from 124th to 127th in the Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The absolute amount of food availability for 2002-03 went lower even than the period of the great Bengal famine. At a time when the hungry were forced to buy rice at Rs 6.40 per kg in the drought-hit regions of Andhra Pradesh in 2002, India surprisingly exported rice at Rs 5.45 per kg.
The Planning Commission’s claims about the government having “created” 84 lakh jobs are quite misleading. As per the NSS surveys the employment increased by 76 lakhs in the 33-month period between January 1, 2000 and October 1, 2002, 68 lakhs in the 21-month period between January 1, 2001 and October 1, 2002 and 300 lakhs in the 24-month period between January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2002, while it declined by 90 lakh in the 9-month period between January 1, 2002 and October 1, 2002. Now every body knows that from 1996-97 to 2000-01 about nine lakh jobs have vanished. According to the Economic Survey 2002-03, there has been a decline in the share of the investment in agriculture as per cent of GDP from 1.6 per cent in 1993-94 to 1.3 per cent in subsequent years. Contrary to the National Health Policy of 1983 and goals of the Alma Ata Declaration, the National Health Policy of 2002 doesn’t include the goal of providing universal access to health as if every thing is okay.
Finally, India bid good bye to its traditional non-aligned foreign policy and aligned itself to the cause of the US and Israel. Even then it was not duly recognized by the US administration. By announcing to designate Pakistan an MNNA (Major Non-NATO Ally), a status reserved so far for only a dozen partners outside the Atlantic alliance, the US Secretary of State, Colin R Powell, unwittingly demolished a major claim made by BJP that the NDA government’s greatest foreign policy achievement in six years was to seal an exclusive, yet dignified and equal, “strategic partnership” with the globe’s sole superpower, based on shared interests and mutual confidence, helping raised India’s world stature. The country’s military expenditure doubled without any gains in security. The largest number of scams occurred, with not sparing even the coffins bought for carrying bodies of “Shaheed Jawans” of Kargil Intrusion. Even Tehelka Expose could not shake its conscience.
The real per capita budgetary allocation for total SC/ ST/ OBC welfare declined from Rs 39.2 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 36.9 crore in 2003-04. The Liberhan Commission was given an extension with an intention to dilly-dallying the functioning so that the truth doesn’t come out before the general elections. Millions of Indian citizens belonging to the religious minorities experienced virtual disenfranchisement and extreme fear and hopelessness. POTA became a major weapon of violation of human rights and embitterment of religious minorities. It was also allowed being used as an instrument of political coercion to erode the support enjoyed by parties opposed to the ruling BJP. The BJP-ruled states, Jharkhand and Gujarat, top the list of those named under POTA. The number of POTA accused in Jharkhand is an astounding 3,200. It is no accident that all the 307 POTA detainees in Gujarat are non-Hindus---306 Muslims and one Sikh. Similarly, 46 POTA cases in UP, all but two involve members of the Scheduled Castes or Adivasis.
The BJP claim of effecting a check on the occurrence of communal incidents after NDA’s coming to power is totally baseless as 1,570 and 4,908 persons were killed and injured in 731 incidents from 1998 to 2002. The so-called “U-turn” in the attitude of the BJP in particular and Sangh Parivar as a whole is nothing but a cosmetic change. There is no change at all in its approach to several contentious issues like Muslim personal law and building of temples in Ayodhya, Kashi, Mathura and other places in the country after demolishing the mosques with completion of the first phase at Ayodhya. That’s why the Muslim community as a whole doesn’t feel any attraction in the sops doled out to it in the last six years, and despite a lot of coaxing and cajoling, the saner Muslim leadership is still sticking to the Secular forces.
In such a situation when the BJP-led NDA coalition has as a whole not only failed to fulfill its own 42-point National Agenda for Governance, but instead pushed its hidden fascist and communal agenda, it is pertinent that the secular forces come forward and close their ranks and save the nation from further ruin. But the question is: Would the Secular forces, forgetting their likes and dislikes, rise to the occasion? If they don’t, they must realize that this is the last chance to redeem the country’s Secular pledge. They must not forget that they have already missed a chance in the past following the BJP-led coalition government’s fall in 1999.
Book Reviews
Press & Prejudice-An Insightful Analysis of Hindi Media by V.B. Rawat, published by Institute of Objective Studies, New Delhi, 2003, Pp. 187.
Mr. V.B. Rawat is a human rights activist and champions the causes of the poor and the marginalized in India. He is also a freelance journalist and contributes regularly to a number of Hindi dailies and weeklies. He is associated with numerous organisations working for the socio-political and economic welfare of the downtrodden including the minorities. He works for and among the people and knows well how the Hindi journalism influences and shapes their worldview. In the last one and a half decade the Hindi journalism has flourished a lot and has shown the potential to compete with the national media dominated by the English newspapers, magazines and lately by a number of T.V. channels. The Mosque-Temple controversy revolving around the now demolished Babri Masjid gave a boost to Hindi journalism; specially the newspapers supporting the Temple Movement thrived and flourished a lot. For no qualifications other than supporting the Temple Movement, some journalists became Members of the Rajya Sabha.
Rawat has approached the subject at hand with objectivity and clarity of purpose. He knows what role the media can play in the society and how effective this medium is in shaping public opinion. He cites the examples of newspapers, controlled by big business houses that played a negative role during the Temple Movement. On the one hand such newspapers wanted to sabotage the positive effects of the Mandal Commission recommendations and on the other they targeted the Muslim minority to communalise the atmosphere. For this purpose, they carried out sensational news items or editorials that had no relationship with reality or truth whatsoever.
Rawat has conducted a good deal of research in various parts of the country. He specially visited the areas where some influential Hindi newspapers are in large circulation and are read widely. Through interviews he tried to discern how the public opinion is influenced and moulded by the Hindi newspapers. He found that the common public quite believed the sensational news items and hardly bothered about what the comparatively serious Hindi or English newspapers carried out. They easily succumbed to the false propaganda and became votaries of the Ram Temple. Capitalizing on the favourable atmosphere created by the Temple Movement, many a newspaper increased their circulation and earned many fold profits. Some more adventurous and fortunate journalists also reaped political rewards as they got elected to the Rajya Sabha or even became minister. They hardly ever bothered about how dangerous their negative journalism had become in that it was polarizing the society along communal lines.
Rawat rightly feels that for its survival, every democratic society should have a mechanism to monitor the media and urge them at least to desist from sensationalism. He thinks one way of monitoring the media is to publish books that take stock of journalistic writings and reporting. In the book under review Rawat has tried to critically examine the role that the media, specially the Hindi newspapers and T.V. channels played in mid 1990s. It is here the book makes a fascinating reading. It analyses editorials, edit-page articles, letters to the editor and the headlines to give a feel of ideological bias of the concerned newspapers.
There are some very good journalists who write in Hindi. Their knowledge, analysis and approach are as good as those of the serious and sober journalists writing in English. However, their good work was undone by large number of journalists who readily espoused the cause of the Temple Movement. Then there are newspapers which reported objectively on a number of issues but when it came to reporting the Ayodhya Movement, they began to exhibit a clear communal bias. Rawat feels that their shift in policy was motivated more by profits and increase in circulations than their craze for religion and religious symbols. Surely some individual journalists espoused the Temple Movement with their minds and hearts but the business houses running the newspapers were more motivated by economic considerations.
The book under review consists of five chapters. The first chapter tries to locate the factors and reasons that prompted newspapers-owners and editors to espouse a communal agenda. Rawat thinks that this phenomenon specially became visible during the Temple Movement. The second chapter, Reports and Headlines, reveal how through sensational and one-sided reports the minds of people can be prejudiced and communalized? Rawat has scanned a lot many news reports and come to the conclusion that ‘motivated’ communal journalists deliberately sought opportunities that will show the Muslim community and its respected leaders in poor light. The third chapter deals with the communal treatment of some issues by the Hindi press. These issues relate to the writing of history text books, Vande Mataram, Kargil, ISI and Madaris (Muslims religious seminaries). As can be imagined no stone has been left unturned to defame the Muslim community on the above issues. Rawat feels that the Hindi press took great interest in sensationalizing news that it thought would put the Muslim community in the dock.
The fourth chapter is revealing and interesting. Rawat has scanned some influential Hindi newspapers. He has critically examined the articles, editorials and news analyses appearing in the above newspapers. No doubt a few journalists regularly write objectively but the great majority seems to be utterly or partially biased against the Muslims. The result is that a great majority of the people who read the Hindi newspapers have become communal in their approach and behaviour.
The fifth chapter contains Rawat’s conclusion. His following remark is worth quoting: “It is ultimately the people’s choice as what they would like to read in print but newspapers can not allow India’s culture heritage to be balkanized by a few religious lunatics and hence a greater responsibility on them for a fearless and unbiased reporting.”
If only the media heed to Rawat’s advice, India would become a better and more peaceful place to live in. This country has great potentials to become a developed nation. Here the media have an important role to play. Both the electronic and print media have to continuously work for creating a healthy and harmonious communal atmosphere which is so essential for developing the country and ensuring peace and prosperity for all irrespective of their caste, community and religion.
Reviewed by: Mohd. Arshad