Yesterday, our editor, Nupur Sharma posted two tweets saying, “They (left-liberal gang) despise us because we wouldn’t exist if they were not incompetent. We are a living example of their failure. If YOU hadn’t sold your pen, we wouldn’t have to pick ours.” ‘What journalism is’, or ‘what it should be’, are the topics of debate in our times, but at the same time, we all know the sorry state of mainstream journalism in India.
Had journalism been good, not even ethical per se, we wouldn’t have to use prefixes like ‘mainstream’ and ‘social’ before ‘media’. Media has to be mainstream. But, social media was branded as such because mainstream was not doing its job. Whether it was a technological limitation, or something else, social media did take its time to flower, but it is this media that has democratised the information, and so the media, in true sense. Nowadays the stalwarts of journalism are being stripped on a daily basis because the Internet never forgets.
What happened post-2014, and what transpired before it, won’t just be a timeline for India’s political landscape, but the pre and post-Modi era will also be known as defining moments of the journalistic landscape of India. In the pre-Modi era, the media, which had sold its soul to Mephistopheles working for Lucifer like Congress, had never entertained the thought of a time when Congress will be out of power and that time will change everything.
That’s why around 2012-13 it was just the tone (of media) that had changed. The 2002 story was repeatedly spun on the golden gramophone. YouTube clip of Modi drinking water on Karan Thapar show was deemed enough to ridicule Modi. They thought the old ways of propaganda, lies and deceit, packaging of hate-filled programmes disguised as ‘political specials’ and anchors convening rallies from studios would be able to halt the inevitable. Modi came as the synonym of inevitable and he came with the numbers to nail the mouths shut.
It was then, in the mid-2014, that the gang of crossbreeds of Mao, Lenin and whatnot, realised just the change in tone won’t be enough, so they relied on Hitler’s ways of propaganda dissemination. It was this time when a new gang of shit-throwing, one-sided media houses, like Quint, Scroll, Wire etc were ejaculated on to prominence fertilising the big eggs from the likes of NDTV and BBC. No wonder they still suckle to their teats for nutrition.
Then the young ones followed the old ways of selling their soul. They hit the ground running with writing propaganda and fake news in English. Please feel free to check it on the ‘fact check’ section of our website. ‘Fake news’ is not merely spreading the wrong news on purpose, even the opinion pieces, columns and one-person’s motivated story fall under fake news where your agenda and the prejudices are used to blacken the pixels as it usually lacks facts and goes full-on false rhetoric.
Please remember how our nation became ‘intolerant’ overnight! Remember, how Rohit Vemula was used politically even when he never wanted to be a part of it as per his suicide note! Remember, what kind of coverage Modi received during both his elections and how the same media tried every way to sully India’s image again and again! Remember, how Kathua case became a talking point world over! Remember, how was the murder of Gauri Lankesh portrayed! Remember, how hard they tried to liken the chants of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ as that of some terror group!
Now, try remembering the gaurakshaks, the policemen who were mercilessly killed by cow smugglers and beef mafia. Try to remember why you don’t know the names of Dalit kids who committed suicide after Rohit Vemula. Try to remember the religious riots in Akhilesh’s UP and Mamata’s Bengal. Try to remember tens of girl children raped and molested by Maulvis inside mosques and Madarsas. Try to remember 22 journalists who were brutally killed before Gauri Lankesh but didn’t get even one tweet of anger from the peers. Try to remember 11 (and counting) instances of Muslims using ‘Jai Sri Ram’ narrative to get coverage but proven fake.
If the issues mentioned in the second of the two paragraphs above were reported rightly, factually, without any agenda, as was the case with issues in the first paragraph, then OpIndia and the likes of it wouldn’t even exist. We wouldn’t be writing on issues condemning every single journalist selling himself out on it. We would have chosen to write on something else, engage in some other debate. But in this waging war of arresting the narrative, people were forced to pick up pens. Had this venomous outrage not been encountered with equal intensity, India’s image along with its social fabric would have collapsed for good because every Muslim would be actually believing that Hindus are waiting outside his/her home to behead him/her!
Losing twice, and not ashamed
2019 made the wannabe sons of Mao realise that speaking in chaste English with elite words would take them nowhere. So, they tried to steer the narrative towards more viciousness. Earlier, they had thought Modi won’t come to power, then it changed to ‘if he comes, he won’t have majority’, then they relied on ministers doing scams, then they put their money on bad outcomes of some policy and reforms, then they left it to fate thinking it will all fall apart somehow, then it was ‘he won’t be able to win again’, then it was ‘if he comes, he won’t have majority’, then… you know the drill!
They kept waiting for their thoughts to materialise, but it didn’t. We can say that some policies of Modi government might not have brought expected results, but his intentions were focussed towards building the nation rather than consolidating image and funds for his party, as Congress and the gang. Yet, the left-liberal gang was persistently writing negatively about every single policy, dismissed every single reform as if Modi was some untouchable who, even if executing existing policies, was wrong in every possible way. This made people of India realise that these idiots in media had gone batshit crazy.
Their faith in Modi grew. At the same time, they stopped relying on words of NDTV, BBC, Quint, Scroll, Wire etc which were peddled as some sort of gospel truth. People kept them on their radars but just to know where they stand and how they operate with such venom for one person and an ideology that’s different from theirs.
When Modi was elected in 2014, this gang tried hard to make sure his image is tarnished. The whole focus of this media gang shifted towards personal attacks on Modi. Suddenly, the media’s business was not to comment on policy or governance, rather it was very much interested in whether Modi did his BA, why doesn’t he live with Jasoda Ben, why does he wear new cloths, what is the brand if his pen, what kind of mushroom he eats, why doesn’t he debate with Rahul Gandhi, why does he not go to NDTV for an interview… These were the issues of national importance for the last five years.
Unfortunately, social media boom, coupled with affordable internet plans and smartphones, ensured people had access to truth and alternative narrative. Those who were writing on Facebook, in a very informal way, without any formal knowledge of journalism, were given a platform and their voice was heard. Common people were now relying on the word of their own rather than the propaganda paddlers. At the same time, they made sure the walls of the agenda driven hate-mongers is occupied and owned by the people from the other side.
The short-‘cut’ to becoming a liberal
The absence of reports that can corroborate their propaganda has forced them to reply heavily on ‘opinion pieces’ or ‘columns’ by some self-declared social worker, activist or just any fancy thing you can come up with. The shortest way to get into the gang is to criticise, or even better, abuse Modi and you will be immediately circumcised in to becoming a liberal. They start yelling ‘this guy is a liberal’ and so be it! He/She doesn’t need to prove anything, no yardstick, just expose yourself and people will know you are a liberal, and of course, you have always been naked!
These keyboard warriors, social workers, activists, experts of shit-spinning, pseudo-feminists along with incompetent, frustrated and prejudiced people are asked to write on one issue, over and over again. Just see how they come in cohorts and write the same words, phrases and fake issues when one of their own drums it up. The conclusion is decided and the story is manufactured around it to prove how Modi-Shah will make India a Hindu Rashtra, how they are hunting Muslims, how press freedom is suppressed, ‘dar ka mahaul’, an undeclared emergency has come…
However, truth can’t be any farther! In the last five years, none of their agenda could be proven in the long run. It might trend on twitter, but factually couldn’t stand on its legs. No scams, no policy failure, no economic ruins, no riots under BJP, no minority is living a life of fear. They manufactured it on their whim and tried hard to make it last. It didn’t.
On the contrary, for every Akhlaq, there were tens of instances of Muslim mobs lynching, slicing, stabbing, murdering Hindus for their names. For every instance of a cow smuggler being beaten, there were people (including cops) who were brutally murdered by cow smuggling Muslims and beef mafia. They never hesitated to open fire on police or gaurakshaks chasing them. The ‘dara hua musalman’ kept pelting stones on Hindu kanwadiyas all around north India. The same scared Muslims kept vandalising temples, breaking statues of Hindu deities and peeing on them.
Every single of such agenda was countered with facts and better reporting from journalists like us. The result is the fact that those who read such propaganda from these portals are either ignorant or hard core idiots whose allegiance to this shitty ideology isn’t wavering even when truth stares them in the eyes. Once you start reading the comments on their social media posts you will realise the actual amount of faith people have in them.
The intolerance of the gang: Demean, despise, dismiss
When their ideological nudity was brought to light, they started to wail. They started telling our words were inappropriate, the style of journalism was not respectful. They cried saying we were abusive! It is like begging for mercy and wanting to be fondled softly. The only problem is fondling is what they do to their bosses, our style is a bit hard core and some times even painful on purpose.
They spew venom and try to sow seeds of hatred among people of different faith and class. Every article is laden with assumptions and innuendos where the future is bleak. This is done just to put fear in simple minds that some sinister plot is in works so that they start to look towards ISIS so that they can counter Hindus who have never been violent to another community unless pinned to the wall with a sword in hand. And yet they have the audacity to tell us what words we should use in our writings!
It doesn’t work that way. We don’t need lectures on journalistic style and choice of words from someone who has no legs to stand on. Words themselves don’t become ‘abuse’, it is the context that makes them abusive, satirical, ridiculous, or an adjective, if need be. So, please stop telling us what is the right way of doing things and mend your ways. Just because you write that Tabrez was lynched for not saying ‘Jai Shri Ram’, it doesn’t become as such. You pronounce judgments even before the police has a case, then you put religion, slogan, some connection from a BJP guy somewhere in the wild to blame it swiftly on an ideology and then you call it ground report!
We are past those days. Journalism will be based in facts and truth, not on the narrative. And, even if it’s narrative, it will be our narrative that will being the fact out that, although you tried to trend ‘Muslim youth beaten for not chanting Jai Shri Ram’ for two months, we will bring the hard facts telling the world it is fake news. We will slap your front and back with facts so that you don’t get an outlet to whine.
This won’t go on. But yes, your strip dance must go on. We benefit from it. We look at your headline and immediately know what slant you gave and why. We know where we need to look and in ten minutes we get the facts at our disposal that all you wanted was to demean the Hindus. So, please exist. Please keep compromising on the very fundamentals of your trade. You believe Mephistopheles is helping you out in the orders of Lucifer, but actually, he is helping us.
Your 24 years would come to an end. The clock will strike 7. You will panic and realise how hatred for one person and ideology has harmed you for good. At the midnight, devils will come to drag you to the hell of your deeds. You will cry, argue to do good from then on. But you won’t be spared. Your friends will find a body in the morning. That body will be as torn in pieces as was your journalism and its principles.