SACW #2 | 20 Dec 2004 | Media, the medium of Communalism in Gujarat

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire  - Dispatch #2 | 20 Dec.,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] India:  Media is the medium of Communal "KHAUF" in Gujarat (Digant Oza)

o o o o o o

MEDIA IS THE MEDIUM OF COMMUNAL "KHAUF" IN GUJARAT

by     Digant Oza


"Are you sure it is safe to organize harmony 
program with Ramkathakar Morari Bapu in Juhapura 
(Ahmedabad) notorious as Mini Pakistan ? Vishwa 
Hindu Parished and Hinduvavadis would allow it to 
pass peacefully?

Was the question faced by the group of NGOs who 
had ventured to organize an event to jointly 
celebrate Dev Diwali, Idd and Guru Nanak Jayanti 
on 26th of November in the so called "Border" 
across Juhapura and Vejalpur Areas of Ahmedabad. 
It was a first step by a Hindu religious 
celebrity to reach out to the minority 
communities.

However, the gereral atmosphere in the city was 
so created by earlier Media reporting that even 
the activists themselves were not sure about the 
outcome of what they had thoughtfully organized.

On 19th of Nov. Crime branch of Gujarat Police 
told the local Court that there is No case 
against pota lawyers and on 23rd Nov. the senior 
Advocate H.N. Zala alsong with his juniors are 
arrested. What does it mean? Is the crime branch 
of Gujarat Police lying? Were they misleading the 
Court while spreading reign of terror, was the 
question in the minds of so many who were the 
readers of Local Newspapers.

Needless to say that the POTA has been misused 
ever since its enactment through out the country, 
now it is the turn of lawyers to face the terror 
of POTA, more particularly those who are 
defending the accused under POTA. The arrest of 
senior lawyer of Gujarat High Court H.N.Jhala and 
his colleague Mustaq Ali Saiyed has sent a 
shockwave in legal fraternity to Gujarat. It is a 
threat to all lawyers defending POTA accused, and 
yet print media went on publishing stories after 
stories, without any crosschecking, which were 
dished out by the crime branch of Gujarat police 
to colour a senior Advocate as Anti-national and 
Criminal Consperator.

The arrest of the lawyers under POTA is 
absolutely unconstitutional, illegal, malafide 
and aimed at terrorizing the legal fraternity and 
therefore, we strongly condemn the arrest of the 
lawyers under charges of POTA and demand their 
immediate release and withdrawal of charges of 
POTA said a communiqué by the same High Court 
Advocate Association which till yesterday were 
adopting resolution condemning supreme Court of 
India for transferring Best Bakery case out side 
Gujarat State.

Time and the compulsions of life have dissipated 
the fires of hatred in Gujarat. But the editorial 
ire of the English press is still raging, 
prodding them to send squads of news dogs to 
sniff relics of the old rivalry and report cases 
of fresh villainy threatening what S Jaipal Reddy 
pompously calls the secular fabric of the country 
discovered by Jawaharlal Nehru. Every day, leader 
writers, commentators and analysts remind the 
reader of the real nature of our polity, our 
society and our press. Obviously, their thirst 
for bad news is unquenchable.

Riot after riot, the press repeats the 
performance of our parliamentarians who stall 
business in both Houses of Parliament to 
prioritise religious issues. Like the sandhya 
vandanam for the Brahmin, the editorial parrots 
must chant the hate mantra every day. 
Paradoxically, what troubles the English press 
does not trouble the language press. Less 
secular? Asked Dasu Krishnamoorty on the net 
called rediff. It was April 26, 2002.

The media's love for religion came in for 
criticism by the Press Council of India, which 
always included several leading journalists. 
Pained by the new trend of conflictual 
journalism, the Council pilloried the most 
venerable English newspaper in the country and 
its editor for its reporting of the Delhi riots 
of 1984.

The, fundamental objective of journalism is to 
serve the people with news, views, comments and 
information on matters of public interest, in a 
fair, accurate, unbiased, sober and decent 
manner. Over the years, the press has become so 
powerful that, it has soon acquired unique status 
of "Fourth Estate". It is supposed to playa key 
role and a crucial role of a watchdog, to see 
that the other three institutions "Legislature, 
Executive, Judiciary" function fairly within the 
constitutional framework and serve the people for 
whose welfare they were created said Justice K. 
J. Reddy, at the "Time of turmoil Godhra and 
After" while discussing the Role of Media at the 
Inaugural function of Indian First Foundation on 
April 6, 2002.

Justice Reddy further said, As a fourth organ the 
press has also the responsibility (rather the 
most important responsibility) to help build the 
nation, to implement objectives of the 
Constitution and to promote social justice and 
equality, stability and unity and peace, progress 
and happiness to the society at large. The 
freedom that the media enjoys is the freedom for 
and on behalf of the society. Media plays the 
role of communicator and as such it has to inform 
and not to misinform, dis-inform or non-inform 
the people on issues of vital importance. It has 
to educate, motivate, persuade and entertain. 
They must have their fingers on the pulse of the 
people and has a pious obligation not to 
jeopardise or harm the  welfare of the society. 
Mahatma Gandhi said "The newspaper/press is a 
great power, but just as an unchained torrent of 
water submerges the whole country side and 
devastates crops even so an uncontrolled pen 
serves but to destroy".

In the midsts of the experiences of missing 
social respon sibility of the media, One needs to 
see the performance of Gujarat media in last 
three years. Gujarat riots raised many issues. 
Rakesh Gupta of center for political studies in 
JNU, while discussing communalism asked several 
questions thru Asianaffairs. Rakesh Gupta 
questions : First, is India moving away from a 
liberal political community, let alone liberal 
democratic community, to a bizarre fascist 
society and not the Anarchical Society that 
Gandhi had visualized for the poor? Second, why 
have those generations that were behind Sanatanic 
but secular Gandhi failed to regenerate the same 
Hindu ethos of tolerance, despite the caste 
rigidity? Third, what has happened to the 
different strata of Gujarati middle classes that 
are mute spectators to this fearsome, diabolic 
design and dance of death? Fourth, what is the 
local media doing? Fifth, is this premeditated or 
not? Sixth, what happened to the state of India, 
its police and its army? Seventh, in the current 
phase of globalized liberalization in India, who 
needs endemic communal conflagration and to what 
end? Eight, whatever happened to the morals and 
ethics of a cultural milieu and the state is its 
self-proclaimed purpose? Last but not the least, 
what has happened to the constitutional right to 
life? These issues relate to the matters of the 
state, civil society, cultural communities, 
citizenship and democracy. Answers to these 
cannot be found in this brief exercise. But 
Rakeshbhai should know that No one is bothered 
about such issues, these days.

PUCL and Shanti Abhiyan, two NGO's in Baroda 
which undertook a brief analysis for the period 
Feb 28 to March 24, 2002, gave a report under the 
caption "THE ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS DURING THE 
GUJARAT CARNAGE" in the report PUCL and Shanti 
Abhiyan says, "The purpose of our analysis was to 
find out how the local press presented the riots 
to the readers. The report further said : 
"Gujarat has been ravaged by unprecedented 
violence since 27th February sending shockwaves 
all over the country. The spell of genocide that 
followed the Godhra massacre have seen newspapers 
playing a significant role in the long spiral of 
violence. Shanti Abhiyan and PUCL (People's Union 
For Civil Liberties), two Baroda-based 
organisations have been following the vernacular 
press as well as the English newspapers to 
analyse news reportage throughout this period.

Discussing the role of Local Newspapers the 
report observed, "According to our above 
framework, the Gujarati newspaper Sandesh, 
(Baroda) has crossed all limits of responsible 
journalism and has been at its inflammatory best. 
While it is difficult to give an exact 
translation of the articles and news reports that 
have appeared in the newspaper we have selected a 
few reports and summarised them in 
<http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2002/gujarat-media.htm#annex>Annexure. 
As Shanti Abhiyan and PUCL have formed a few 
fact-finding teams, it has been possible for us 
to compare facts unearthed during our field 
visits with the news that has been reported.

The major characteristic of Sandesh, in the 
period under review, has been to feed on the 
prevalent anti-Muslim prejudices of its Hindu 
readership and provoke it further by 
sensationalising, twisting, mangling and 
distorting news or what passes for it. The 
average Hindu reader in Baroda feels that he is 
getting value for money and 'real' reportage" the 
report observes.

According to PUCL and Shanti Abhiyan on 6th March 
the last page of Gujarat Samachar (Baroda 
Edition) carried a report with the headline: THE 
PLAN WAS TO TORCH THE WHOLE TRAIN, NOT JUST ONE 
BOGEY. In yet another box item on last page a 
report states that 'a mob was ready for the 
second attack.' The source of the information is 
not mentioned. The question is how did the 
reporter of a Vadodara based Newspaper knew what 
was in the mind of people gathered on 27th 
February 2002 at Godhra Railway Platform ?

The two NGO further reports : "Sandesh's sale has 
reportedly fallen in recent times. It is 
plausible that it has been resorting to 
sensational and irresponsible reporting in a bid 
to boost sales. Whether this is true or not, 
Sandesh has consciously sought to project a 
communalised version of events and inflicted 
serious and long-term damage to a society already 
fragmented along communal lines."

As a rule, the mainline Gujarati dailies did not 
print contradictions and clarifications given to 
their inflammatory and half-truth reports. The 
credit must go to the private TV networks which 
brought the horror of the carnage let loose in 
Gujarat to every home throughout India as 
otherwise the people at large would not have 
realised the gravity in the wake of Chief 
Minister Narendra Modi issuing official 
statements to deliberately underplay the shocking 
violence.

Perhapes because of such behevier or the print 
media well know historia. K.N. Panikar said at an 
event celebrating the 125th anniversary of the 
reputed daily "HNIDU" on increasing communalism 
in the media.  Panikkar warned of the increasing 
acceptance and perceived respectability of 
communalism, as well as its impact on the 
rhetoric of nationalism:

Dr. Panikkar said that communalism had gained 
legitimacy, often through crude and false 
representations, as a result of which the popular 
common sense about key concepts such as 
nationalism and secularism were changing.

One of the several Paradoxes Gujarat of Gandhi is 
facing to-day is that the citizens have lost the 
voice of dissent and are silent against all the 
injustices meted out to the Civil society in the 
name of pride of Gujarat. Citizens of Gandhi's 
Gujarat do not have right to know and press is 
not Free.

It was Gandhi who taught Gujarat and the country 
to dissent, and have the courage to stand up for 
it. It was from here that major national 
movements took shape, and caught the imagination 
of an entire generation. It was the courageous 
journalist in Gandhi (of "Harijanbandhu" and 
"Young India") who pioneered the campaign for the 
freedom of the press. He stood for these rights 
when fellow countrymen were considered to be the 
white man's burden, and the dream of a free India 
was nowhere in sight.

BETRAYAL OF SILENCE

Governance and the Media is not just about 
Gujarat only. It is about all of us in the 
context of a professedly multi -cultural society 
which should conform to the constiutional 
legitimacy of social, democratic puralist and 
secular republic. Citizenry has to get its act 
together and actively engage in the governance 
process if these precepts are to be substantiated 
by practice and not insidiously violated. The 
events in Gujarat also clearly leave no room for 
sitting on the fence. As Martin Luther King 
pointed out long ago, " A time comes when silence 
is a betrayal."

Public memory is notoriously short. This, coupled 
with the lack of citizenry engagement has 
contributed to lessons of the past being 
consigned to the backburner, and history 
repeating itself. Timely information, 
communication, documentation and dissemination 
can play a vital role in preventing mistakes of 
the past from casting a long shadow. Media's 
role, both in terms of raising questions as well 
as tracking events pertinent to governance, then, 
assumes additional significance. It is against 
this backdrop that the raison d'etre for the 
current issue of this conference has taken shape. 
Media is driven by communalism and Media is the 
medium to spread communalism.

If irony had a synonym, it would be Gujarat. For, 
today, the very same freedom, which Gandhi fought 
and earned for the country is at stake. Infect, 
like the father of the nation, respected 
journalist Bill Moyers was also not exaggerating 
when he told an audience that 'the very soul of 
democracy is at stake'. Gandhiji used to say that 
suffering injustice is like commiting it. That is 
what both media and the civil society busy with 
in Gujarat to-day.

The field journalist has been virtually de-linked 
from the editors-cum-owners of the media group 
externally by a scheming political establishment, 
which spends more time in studying the economic 
dynamics of a running a newspaper vis-a-vis the 
onslaught of 24-hour TV channels.

While this may be a trend catching up nationally, 
the establishment in Gujarat goes one step ahead. 
Having taken care of the owner-editors, the focus 
is now on to clip the wings of the field 
journalists, especially those covering the 
government, which has juxtaposed the freedom of 
the press as its own right to suppress the press. 
Attempts are being made to ensure the reporters 
covering the Secretariat go back in the evening 
with an empty newsbag or are fed with 
misinformation and disinformation.

DEPARTMENT OF CLARIFICATIONS

Different ways are being devised to frustrate 
him. The government today has a section in its 
Information Department whose job is to issue 
clarifications and rejoinders to news reports on 
a daily basis. The Chief Minister of Gujarat 
spends more time in overseeing the press releases 
of his functions, while the only department, 
which seems to be 'working' in the Gujarat 
Government is the Information Department. What it 
dishes out, as it was just mentioned, may be 
both, 'misinformation' as well as 
'disinformation,' but you are disliked and 
harassed if you dare say this.

Even political statements by the opposition 
parties are replied back by the Information 
Department of Government, along with the ruling 
party. When one editor recently "dared" to ask 
how could the government reply to the signed 
press statement of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress 
Committee president on his official letter-head, 
it was treated like sacrilege. He lost government 
advertisements for such a "Gustakhi".

IS GUJARAT READY FOR ANOTHER EMERGENCY ?

How would the Indian media react if the Emergency 
were to be declared at midnight tonight, and if 
the Freedom of Speech and Expression guaranteed 
under Article 19 of the Constitution were to be 
suspended?

If witch-hunts were launched against magazines 
that refuse to parrot the establishment lineŠ. If 
flimsy cases were foisted -- and dossiers built 
up -- on pesky newspaper journalistsŠ If 
trouble-making publications were so harassed that 
they wouldn't be able to function much less 
surviveŠ If foreign correspondents were summarily 
ordered to leave the country for filing 
not-so-glowing reportsŠ If television channels 
were banned for showing the other side of a 
storyŠ If small newspapers were dis-empanelled so 
that they wouldn't receive government advertisingŠ

The good news is that it is a hypothetical 
question. The brazenness (and the eventual 
electoral backfiring) of Indira Gandhi's 
Emergency is still too fresh in the minds of our 
political masters to attempt a similar 
misadventure 29 years later. The bad news is that 
a subtler, more sophisticated method of muzzling 
the media has been mastered by the BJP-led 
National Democratic Alliance government.

Each of the 'Emergency' possibilities listed 
above -- and each of which had the votaries of 
Free Speech up in arms in 1975 -- has been (or is 
being) played out in news and board rooms across 
the country without so much as a squeak in 
protest. More so in Gujarat. Guess who is the 
loser.

As Former B.J.P. Minister Arun Jaitley once wrote 
under the caption : "Nazi priestess", "The German 
Constitution was envisaged as one of the most 
liberal constitutions in the world. Yet one man 
motivated by the desire for personal dictatorial 
power subverted it and presented to the world one 
of the most disgraceful authoritarian regimes in 
history. This man was Adolf Hitler.

How did he do this? He used the constitutional 
provisions to declare a state of emergency. He 
imposed censorship on the newspapers. He detained 
his political opponents. He crushed all dissent. 
He inspired the persecution of those he was not 
prepared to suffer. He generated an environment 
of terror and sycophancy.

And why did he do all this? "To make Germany a 
powerful nation," he claimed. To legitimise this 
he announced a 25-point economic programme. He 
claimed that it was discipline that he was 
imposing, that it was the hallmark of the system. 
Even Mussolini had claimed in Italy that the 
effect of Fascism was that 'trains were running 
on time'. One of Hitler's Nazi colleagues had 
proclaimed: "Adolf Hitler is Germany and Germany 
is Adolf Hitler. He who swears allegiance to 
Hitler swears allegiance to Germany."

How is the todays Gujarat scenario is any 
different? If personal political position of 
present chief minister is threatened, one is to 
belive that is was insult of Five crore 
Gujaratis, and attack on pride of Gujarat. In 
other words "Narendra Modi is Gujarat and Gujarat 
is Narendra Modi".

As Arun Jaitley wrote about Emergency (1975), 
every dishonest protagonist of the 
"Mini-Emergency" (Courtesy former CM Keshubhai 
Patel) would argue that it was to save the state 
from anarchy and to impose descipline on 
democracy and save the interests of majority 
community. The honest truth is very much to the 
contrary.

Newspapers, magazines, television channels, 
web-zinesŠ a peevish and paranoid by those who 
had amended the constitution in favour of Civil 
liberties,  has clicked a perverse 'convergence' 
of punishment. They are the one who wants POTO in 
any form to be operationable, it not nationally, 
atleast within Gujarat.

Remember Thomas Jefferson? 'I would prefer a free 
press without a government than a government 
without a free press.'

Censorship in one way or another has always been 
there. But, in Gujarat it seems to have acquired 
draconian dimension. When it comes to media there 
are number of instances which prove this point. 
Censorship is generally at the other end. At the 
place where information is being used. But the 
Gujarat government has its innovative concept. 
Check the free flow of information. So no problem 
of 'moral' policing at the user's end. Put the 
media at tenterhooks using all possible legal 
(and Not so legal) means. Apparently it may sound 
an exercise to clean the system, in reality it 
turns out to be bashing by so called legal baton 
without any legal sanctity to it. You may be 
slapped a legal case to give the impression that 
action is right. But a case on false premises or 
illogical grounds can serve only one purpose. To 
harass you. And that is what is happening in 
Gujarat.

Here are some examples of what the media in 
general and hapless Secretariat reporter in 
Gandhinagar (Gujarat) particular, suffers and 
stoically takes in his stride. The examples are 
self evident :

DENIAL OF PRESS ACCESS :

If accreditation meant access, it is denied to 
journalists in Gujarat. It has been 10 months 
since the government has kept in abeyance 
issuance of the new press accreditation cards to 
journalists, while renewals are being given on a 
provisional basis for a couple of months unlike 
for a year as has been the practice all over the 
country. All this is being done in the name of 
framing a new media policy, which nobody knows 
when would be finalised. There has been a 
practice of issuing accreditation cards to 
"Veteran Journalists" in recognition of their 
life-long services to the profession. They have 
even been denied the respect of a renewal. If you 
ask anyone in the government informally, he will 
tell you, "We are giving the cards and even 
renewing it. Please come we will renew your 
card." Which never happens and I know this from 
personal experience. Insiders say the Chief 
Minister has a special hatred for a couple of the 
'Veterans', so everyone must suffer.

Needless to say the accreditation is required for 
security purposes as well as basic facilities of 
moving in government departments and talking to 
responsible officers.

Information department officials say the 
government feels the need to weed out 
"undesirable and corrupt journalists" and deny 
them the cards. There is already a set of norms 
to provide the cards, but nobody in the 
government would admit that it is neither being 
monitored nor implemented. There is a special 
committee, including senior journalists, to 
verify and decide whom to give the card. The 
norms are being violated by people from within 
the government and not by the committee. If you 
know a minister or MLA from your area, you can 
get a card and you need a minister only if you 
are an "undesirable and corrupt journalist" not 
measuring up to the norms.

World over, governments and their spin surgeons 
want a rosy picture to be painted in the media 
regardless of everything. So, the BJP-led 
government, which essentially believes in 
governance by media management, cannot be accused 
of doing something that others elsewhere have 
not. But it is the method that exposes the 
madness that has gripped its media-minders.

It is a different question as to what are the 
professional bodies -- the Editors' Guild, the 
Indian Newspaper Society, Journalist Association 
etc. doing to ensure that media professionals are 
not completely stripped and paraded naked for the 
cardinal crime we are committing of carrying the 
message?

And What is the role of institutions like 
National Minority Commission and National Human 
Right Commission in safe guarding the Civil 
liberties of Fifty million Gujaratis.

PRESS (AB)BUS:

For the last almost two decades, media 
representatives were traveling 28 km to and fro 
Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in a government bus. 
The present Chief Minister stopped this facility 
on the pretext that most media publications now 
have representatives in the State capital. Of 
course, he has not bothered to inform the Press 
about this reason and it was only after a 
correspondent inquired that he was told about it 
by an official. And this is how I also know it. 
But this argument doesn't work when the Press bus 
operates on Wednesdays.

The fact is the Chief Minister doesn't like the 
sight of prying journalists, who refuse to be 
spoon-fed. From the rest, he has a selected band 
of  loyalists who can take a mouthful from him 
and still won't mind eating his lunches. 
Recently, a rumour was systematically spread that 
the Chief Minister was to hold a press 
conference, a rare event in itself. Usually, such 
conferences are held with a proper invitation, so 
those who had not got it wondered and started 
inquiring. They were told, "There is no press 
conference, the Chief Minister wishes to meet 
some selected journalists over lunch." How many 
do you assume could be selected journalists? 
Four, five, six? There were some 25 of them.

THE SECRETARIAT PRESS ROOM:

The PRESSROOM in the Sachivalaya has been locked. 
Reporters have NO Place to work even if they 
happen to reach Gandhinagar on their own, i.e. 
without a state Government Vehicle. The entry to 
non-accredited journalists has been prohibited, 
while even those having the cards cannot enter if 
they have committed the sin of forgetting it.

THE INACCESSIBLE CHIEF MINISTER:

The Chief Minister simply does not meet the 
press, especially if you have written even one 
piece against him. The customary post-Cabinet 
meeting press briefing is generally not held. And 
when rarely held, spokesmen of government will 
not entertain questions with an air that you have 
to write what has been handed out to you.

If you want to start a new publication and want 
to file a fresh declaration what you need to do, 
anywhere in the country baring Gujarat, is to 
approach the district magistrate and apply in 
prescribed profile with five suggestive names in 
order of priority, than it is forwarded to the 
office of registrar of Newspapers in Delhi for 
further action. But Gujarat is an exemption your 
papers will not be forwarded to Delhi unless 
there is a positive report about the applicant 
from Local Police Station. It is innovation for 
gagging up the media even before its birth.

The Present Chief Minister is not accessible to 
media in general and reporters in particular. The 
organization called 'Gujarat Dainik Akhbar Sangh' 
( having  membership of Gujarat dailies excluding 
Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh ) which has a 
history of having meetings with all the previous 
Chief Ministers were deprived of a dialogue with 
Modi till recently. Both Bhupat Vadodaria and 
Ramu Patel, the past and present presidents of 
Gujarat Dainik Akhbar Sangh requested for a 
formal meeting with Modi, but in vain. However, 
after it was presented at national level the 
Chief-Minister had a formal meeting only last 
month. Similarly, no access to any media person, 
no dialogue with media person - All this in the 
name of security.

Since Narendra Modi took over, his ministers do 
not meet press. Though none admits, it is a fact 
no minister is allowed to speak to press without 
his permission. And his permission is rare. The 
formal periodical News conferences, which are 
denied more then they are organized, are a time 
bound affair but they are invariably declared 
over, even while reporters have just started 
putting their questions.

As a result of this, even senior bureaucrats not 
only run away at the sight of journalists but 
they seek "on Deputation" transfer outside the 
state. The overall effect of this style of 
functioning is of  censorship at the source. So 
there is no need to go for open censorship.

A senior correspondent of a Gandhinagar based 
daily once asked a rather longish question in one 
of the rare news conferences of NAMO (as the 
present CM is popularly addressed) and  the 
prompt reply came from Chief Minister, "Tamaru 
Chapun to nanu che ane Saval avado moto" (your 
Newspaper is small and you are asking such a long 
question). The question was, however, not 
answered.

ADVERTISEMENTS ARE SOURCE OF INFERMATION

Advertisements to newspapers have been reduced to 
minimum while cases have been slapped against 
number of newspapers on all kind of grounds. In 
one of its judgements, the Court felt that 
Government Advertisements are also a source of 
information apart from income, but  the Modi 
Govt. denies these sources to all those 
newspapers that the Chief Minister does not like. 
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu 
organisation were publishing handbills suggesting 
economic boycott of the minority during the 
post-Godhra period in the year 2002, Similarly 
the state Government puts economic sanction on 
the Newspaper, to gag them. Gujarat Samachar got 
the Govt. Advts. restored through a court order 
and at present they are fighting a legal battle 
for the compensation for loss of Advt. during the 
period of stoppage. Jai Hind has filed a case in 
Gujarat High Court. Rajasthan Patrika is before 
Press Council of India, another Gujarati daily, 
Divya Bhaskar, is yet to see Govt. Advts. in 
their columns even after 15 months of its 
existence. Both Rajasthan Patrika and Divya 
Bhaskar are considered pro-BJP newspapers but 
their guilt is that they are not toeing the 
present CM's line.    One newspaper rented out a 
part of the building it had constructed on land 
bought from government in special category and it 
was charged with commercial use of the building .

A case was filed against a newspaper that had 
bought a piece of land at a concessional rate in 
the special category. The charge was that it did 
not construct the building in the specific time 
frame. The fact was that the newspaper had to 
revise its building plan to meet post-Kutch 
earthquake requirements.  Though the paper won 
the legal battle, the purpose of the government 
was to terrorise with a kind of censorship that 
is perpetrated against the non-accommodative 
newspapers and journalists every day.

Notices for closure of newspapers are issued on 
technical and legal grounds even when the point 
involved is some thing like informing the 
Magistrate about a change of editor or print.

The CM invites a team of selected journalists by 
name for official briefing over lunch; something 
never  done in the past. He manages to get 
invitations for the inaugural flight of Air India 
for journalists of his choice. Certainly it was a 
move to reward his own men in the media and at 
the same time a move to create rift among 
journalists by a policy of carrot and stick. 
However, a national level controversy over the 
issue led to cancellation of freebies to the 
select journalists.

CENSORING OTHER MEDIA

Censorship today doesn't necessarily need a pair 
of scissors. It can be done by the click of a 
button. Police across Gujarat, apparently on the 
orders from the government in Gandhinagar, is 
using its powers to gag the electronic media.

News channels across Gujarat, which were giving a 
blow-by-blow account of the riots, blinked off 
the television screens in several cities as the 
police silenced certain channels.

On that fateful Saturday during the riots, 
Ahmedabadis were cut off from the world in more 
ways than one. Forced inside their homes for the 
third consecutive day, desperate attempts of the 
people to know what was happening in the city 
were met with blank screens as the state 
government blocked all satellite news channels 
from beaming into city homes.

Exercising special powers, the then city police 
commissioner PC Pande issued notices to cable 
operators in the city, directing them to block 
all programmes that could incite violence, enmity 
between two communities and disrupt law and order 
situation in the city. Those not adhering to the 
directive would be subject to punishment, the 
notice said.


Following the same, all three news channels were 
pulled off air early morning by most cable 
operators. Blank screens irked residents no end 
who were depending on the news channels to 
provide them with updates on the situation in the 
city.

In Vadodara, Star News channel was blocked, while 
authorities in Surat blocked two local channels - 
MY TV and Channel Surat. In Rajkot, the then 
police commissioner Upendra Singh directed cable 
operators to block Star News and four local news 
channels. He also banned publication of special 
supplements of three local Gujarati eveningers.

Most of the control rooms in the city received 
phone calls from the collector's office to black 
out Star News, Zee News, CNN and Aaj Tak," said 
president of the Ahmedabad Cable Operator's 
Association Pramod Pandya.

According to the then Surat police commissioner 
Vineet Gupta, directives had been issued to all 
cable operators to refrain from showing anything 
which was provocative.  "We directed them not to 
show anything which could flare up communal 
sentiments or cause a law and order problem," 
Gupta said. (A legal explanation of the 
censorship.)

How can they black out the news channels when 
news is what we need the most, Vipul Patel, a 
resident of Manekbaug in Ahmedabad asked. An 
inquiry made to his cable operator revealed that 
the cable network hub near Dharnidhar Derasar has 
been set on fire; so restoring the service would 
take time.

Interestingly, most resident felt that blacking 
out news channels was actually more damaging as 
people then had no option but to rely on rumours. 
"We are not getting the news channels. 
Withholding information will only backfire as we 
would be forced to believe in rumours that are 
flying thick and fast", says Jigna Shah of 
Shahpur in Ahmedabad.

"We pay Rs 200 per month for cable services but 
in the critical time when we need to know local 
news, we are not getting the news channels. Right 
to information is a basic right. How can anyone 
snatch that right away from us," quizzed Shyam 
Sundar of Vejalpur (Ahmedabad).

Cable service providers when contacted confessed 
that they had received official notice ordering 
to discontinue showing news channels in Gujarat 
till the riots were fully controlled.

We need to sit up in alarm at what's happening 
because even as recently as the POTO standoff, 
the Law Commission was cited by the very people 
who have the least regard for it, to tell us that 
the rights and privileges of a pressman in India 
are no different from the rights and privileges 
of an ordinary citizen of India. If the media, 
with all its power and reach, can be treated with 
such disdain; if the media is not free to report 
what it sees and hears, unhindered; if the media 
is not free to seek accountability from the 
government of the day, how free is the ordinary 
citizen we serve? And how free is the democracy 
that hosts us all?

Mahatma Gandhi fired the imagination of people 
with his non-cooperation movement. In his 
Gujarat, the voice of dissent is dubbed 
anti-Gujarat. It is an insult to 50 million 
Gujaratis, the figure has not changed even after 
the 2001 census.

In her paper for South Asia Forum for Human 
Rights entitled as "Militarized Hindu Nationalism 
and the Mass Media" Rita Manchanda wrote in May 
2002 : " The unsubstantiated statements of 
political leaders reported by the media damn the 
Muslims as ISI agents and the madrassas as hot 
beds of terrorist subversion. For example, 
fFormer Rajasthan Chief Minister, Bhairon Singh 
Shekhawat's claimed at a press conference that 
12,000 ISI agents were operating in the border 
districts of Rajasthan. The Hindu ( Jan 13, 2001) 
reported his statement that 'traitors' (Muslims) 
who had helped the Pakistani army in 1965 and 
1971 were active again. He "alleged" that 240 
madrassas operating in the border areas were the 
hot beds of fanaticism and Pakistani agents were 
teaching there. There is no substantiation of his 
claim. The report does carry an editorial 
qualification - that this is the first instance 
of Muslims in Rajasthan being accused of 
cooperating with the ISI and assisting Pakistan 
in the wars.

In the forth chapter of here paper Rita Manchanda 
discusses "The State of Siege & The Enemy Within"

In this final section, I want to essentially 
focus on how the 'India, a state of siege' 
syndrome is worked through the media becoming an 
accomplice of the intelligence agencies. Sections 
of the mass media are implicated in representing 
the privileged perspectives of the intelligence 
agencies as established facts using phrases which 
have come to be a classic of journalese -'said to 
be'. Whether it is the reportage of north east 
conflicts, the recent Indo Bangaldesh border 
crisis (See Himal Magazine May 2001 )or the 
activities of the ubiquitous ISI-RAW networks, 
privileged perspectives - read derived from 
intelligence agency sources -are camouflaged as 
fact.

Take a recent TOI Guwahati datelined story 'N-E 
Rebels die in blast at Banga tryst' which reports 
a bloodbath in a Bangladesh hotel claiming 
several lives of representatives of extremist 
outfits of the northeast, resulting from a fall 
out between rebel groups. On the basis of unnamed 
'reliable sources' we are informed of a meeting 
in the Shah hotel somewhere on 'Bangladeshi 
soil'. Reliable sources" are quoted that 15 
'extremists' were injured and several succumbed, 
though the exact number or names not known. The 
new Bangladesh government is trying to hush it 
up, it is said. Reports in the Bangladesh press 
-Dainik Inqualab -obligingly described it as a 
gas pipe explosion. Furthermore the correspondent 
adds "It may be mentioned that several militant 
groups operating from safe houses and camps in 
Bangladesh for several years now under the 
official patronage of the ISI. It is well known 
that several top ULFA leaders have invested in 
real estateŠ."(emphasis added).

The information may or may not be false, but the 
process of reporting clearly is flawed. It is 
reporting at a distance- based on non verifiable 
intelligence agencies inputs. The framing is 
imbued with the correspondent's prejudices vis a 
vis the representation of the 'extremists', the 
Bangla press and India - Bangladesh relations 
under BNP government. The construction of 
sequence of events and the suggestion and 
motivation is taken directly from intelli-gence 
sources. The implications of the public discourse 
of suspect communities, especially of the Muslim 
community, in the changing terms of a militarized 
Hindu nation-alist discourse is fatally visible 
in the polarised public sphere of Gujarat and the 
carnage there. However, the national media 
reportage of the Gujarat car-nage, its exposure 
of state complicity in the violence and the 
genocidal na-ture of the attacks on Muslims in 
Gujarat- testifies to the possibility and 
capacity of a non communal national print and 
electronic media to contest the making of an 
exclusivist Hindu nationalist public sphere. The 
challenge is for the national media to withstand 
the anti democratic militarist impulse justified 
in the context of national security and the 
paradigm


____________________________________

Digant Oza (Editor - Jal Seva)
B-1, Neeldeep Apt., Opp. Sandesh Press, Laad Society Road, Vastrapur.
Ahemdabad-380015.



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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
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