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Times Group makes a U-Turn on ‘Christians Under Attack’ narrative?

OpIndia Staff
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Times Group makes a U-Turn on ‘Christians Under Attack’ narrative?

In what seems to be a result of sustained pressure from Social Media combined with plain facts not supporting the narrative, Times Groups seems to have become the first MSM outlet to openly counter this “Christians on a hitlist” agenda driven narrative. It is especially important because the Times group itself was party to this message being spread across the country.

On 18th March 2015, Times of India, our country’s most popular daily, came up with this highly sensationalist headline: “ENOUGH, SAY WARY CHRISTIANS”. This was hot on the heels of the unfortunate gang rape of a Nun in West Bengal. Those were the days when “journalists” like Rana Ayyub used shoot and scoot tactics to communalise a rape, and blame RSS for it. To buttress its claim of “Christian persecution”, Times of India had then claimed that “In 9 weeks since December 2014, 5 churches have been attacked in Delhi, 2 convents broken into, One church gutted”.

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Now as investigations have revealed, most of the church “attacks” were a result of non-communal events like, short-circuit, drunkards, children throwing stones, petty theft and gamblers being ratted out by the church. Even the high point of this narrative, the Nun gang rape, was eventually found to be a crime by Bangladeshis. In the face of all these facts, Times group seems to have taken an informed U-Turn. On 6th April, Arnab Goswami, in Newshour trashed this media narrative.

Yesterday, Times of India published an article which basically goes against all their claims. While they did try to get into whataboutism by questioning the UPA record on attacks on churches, they also posted this infographic which shows the real reasons behind every “church attack”. This after just 3-4 weeks back, Times of India used these very “church attacks” to build a totally different narrative.

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It is certainly a positive start that finally MSM seems to have woken up and smelt the coffee that is brewing for so long, but can this undo the damage? Can only one publication trying to correct its course offset the propaganda of the entire MSM combined?

From Courts to Congress to BJP, everybody wants quota for Marathi films

OpIndia Staff
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From Courts to Congress to BJP, everybody wants quota for Marathi films

Last evening, news broke that Devendra Fadnavis led BJP Government in Maharashtra had issued an order that atleast one Marathi film should be screened during Prime-Time by Multiplexes. There was mixed response to this order, with some supporting the much needed thrust to regional cinema, while others opposing the Government’s intervention in the business of multiplexes. Be it brickbats or bouquets, BJP cannot stake claim to either of these.

In June 2010, the Bombay High court ruled that all single-screen theatres across greater Mumbai will have to screen at least 44 shows of Marathi films every year. “We cannot let the regional film industry be finished,” a division bench of justice FI Rebello and justice RV More said. The judgement also made the timings and the frequency clear: At least for four weeks every year, they will have to screen a minimum of 11 shows of Marathi films per week, between 12 noon and 9pm.

Then in August 2010, the State Congress Government went one step ahead and made similar rules for multiplexes. “Hereafter, it will be mandatory for all 27 multiplexes in Mumbai to give Marathi cinema prime time slots. The permission for new multiplexes will be sanctioned only if they dedicate a separate screen entirely to Marathi cinema,” home minister RR Patil said. This diktat sounds extremely similar to what the current Maharashtra Government has announced. Is it the same order being repacked?

This “reservation” for Marathi films in theatres is in fact a 47 year old story. In 1968, the Maharashtra Government, then under Congress rule, had issued a circular mandating movie theatres to screen Marathi movies for a minimum period of four weeks in a year. This circular although enforceable, was never really implemented until 2013, again during a Congress Government. This was when  the Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association raised their voices and went to court against this.

Public Opinion on this issue is still divided, as even some Bollywood stars with Maharashtrian roots, like Ritesh Deshmukh have welcomed the order:


On the other hand, clueless Congress spokespersons have begun politicking, without realising that this order is almost the same as the order passed under their Government


Multiplex owners have however given a guarded response reiterating that a similar rule already exists. Business head of Fun Cinemas Anand Vishal said “There is already a rule that we have to keep 210 shows for Marathi films through the day in one year. No one exactly knows the nitty-gritties of the new rule and whether it is inclusive of the existing norm. We are waiting for clarity on that front.”

(with inputs from @KartikeyaTanna)

Why Indian MSM is the smartest MSM in the world

OpIndia Staff
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Why Indian MSM is the smartest MSM in the world

Just to be clear, we were being sarcastic in our title, because it seems Indian MSM has a serious problem understanding sarcasm. This severe deficiency was shown twice in a day, when 2 news items were given a completely different meaning, only because of the lack of comprehension skills exhibited by Indian MSM.

The day started with MSM blaring out that Maharashtra state may go ahead and ban other meat too, after banning beef. The only basis of this was a statement made by the Government lawyer in a High Court. As reported by DNA, the conversation between the judge and lawyer:

Judge: Why have you banned only cow slaughter, why not other animals. What about other animals like goat?

Lawyer: It cannot be ruled out

Judge (jokingly): “That may lead to migration from the state. Don’t consider a ban on fishes though.”

It seems, the lawyer, just to avoid saying that Beef has been banned for religious reasons, replied in a possibly sarcastic manner, saying the Government may ban other meats too. This explains why the judge, instead of taking serious offence to such a statement, chose to remark jokingly that atleast fishes should be spared any ban. Now it is of course not proper to be sarcastic in court, but media took the words completely at face value and began saying: “Maharashtra Government may ban mutton, other meats”. It is also to be noted it was an open ended reply to a pointed question.


Oddly, Firstpost itself later realised its folly, and called it “a throwaway remark” by the lawyer ” because “it was not taken seriously by the bench itself”. Eventually CM Fadnavis himself clarified that they had no intentions to ban any kind of meat. This case may be borderline, but the next is seriously idiotic.

Last week Media gave a lot of attention to Gen V K Singh’s visit to Pakistani Embassy on the occasion of Pakistan National Day. This week, Gen V K Singh was fully immersed in saving Indian’s from Yemen, but the media had not given him adequate footage this time around. This prompted the witty General to make a snide, sarcastic remark on the state of Indian media:


Unfortunately, the sarcasm was totally lost on Indian MSM. Immediately, Hashtags began being trended and debates began being planned:

CB_W9sCWAAADYsv CB_Ym65UkAETqxH CB_Zh_0UIAIcm-G

 

Zaka Jacob, of IBN even went on to say that there was “no way to confirm that it was a remark in jest” but “he could have been more sensitive” and the “comment could have been avoided”. He also said “Gen Singh hasn’t understood how diplomacy works, what kind of language diplomats use” and that “maybe he is not fit to be diplomat”. We must say Zaka Jacob is quickly filling up the void left by veteran spinners Rajdeep Sardesai and Bhupendra Chaubey, because in his inane comments about V K Singh being insensitive, Jacob forgot a small fact that Gen V K Singh had personally gone to rescue all these Indians in Yemen. They say actions speak louder than words, but for Jacob, a carefully worded statement was more important than actual action on the ground.

 

Twitterati slam Aakar Patel for his idiotic article branding Hindus as terrorists

Guest Author
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Twitterati slam Aakar Patel for his idiotic article branding Hindus as terrorists

Aakar Patel, a writer who is famous for making casteist comments and stereotyping people based on their ethnic backgrounds, came up with yet another article that was trashed by Twitterati yesterday.

In the article, Aakar linked Giriraj Singh’s comments on Indian obsession with white skin to extremism and terrorism by Hindus. This twisted logic worked as a magnet as people on Twitter got attracted to the article. And it attracted reactions that it deserved.

Some of the top tweets exposing the silly and twisted logic of Aakar Patel were:


Most of these tweets reflected the disgust at the twisted logic and Hinduphobia that Aakar Patel proudly possess. The fact that the article was titled “Most extremists in India are not Muslim – they are Hindu” exposed the hatred that often hides behind the masks of liberalism.

And finally, this tweet summarily destroyed whatever arguments Aakar Patel pretended to make in his idiotic article:


– by @RusticBihari

AAP Supporters Having Trouble Finding Right Angle On Kejriwal’s Mass-Shooting

doubtinggaurav
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AAP Supporters Having Trouble Finding Right Angle On Kejriwal’s Mass-Shooting

DELHI — More than a week after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s deranged mass-shooting at a local mall, his most ardent supporters admitted that they are still as loss on how to draw conclusion about the horrendous incident.

“Sure when Modi strangled two billion Muslims in 2002, it was all acche din but a little mass murder, and media goes crazy!” tweeted  “Roflmao AAP” one of his manic excitable supporter on twitter, referring to Kejriwal’s shocking murder of 5 shoppers at city mall  on March 15.

Since the shooting, Kejriwal supporters across the country have tried hard to evade the issue address the shocking crime, with most of them severely criticizing media for disproportionate coverage of the incident.

AAP supporters
A massive hashtag, err, crowd gathered outside the office of a news channel showing the news on Kejriwal’s crime.

“Not that it matters, but Media has been deliberately spinning this wrong way, not surprising considering it is financed by Adani, Ambani, Jindal … oops did I say Jindal… please scratch that,” was the vehement response of “Aap ki Pretatma”.

On further prodding she suggested media could cover it in a more crazy balanced manner, for instance, how the mass murder was just a further demonstration of Kejriwal’s passion and perseverance.

Noted media personality Pagalika Bose seemed to concur. In one of her characteristic tweets she asked, “Are we missing the bigger picture here folks, might it be that mass murder of hapless citizens is the new cool now. Cheerio!”

Her husband BuyMyBook Sardardkasai was similarly conflicted, “One CM shoots and kills 5 citizens in cold blood, another CM forced me to sit on footboard of bus, never trust politicians is the message, I guess, and on this thought good night.”

Back to Kejriwal’s supporters, even though the overwhelming majority has dismissed this as a distraction, there have been some dissenting voices, “Prejudiced Arnab”, has hinted to something darker, a conspiracy involving Amit Shah, Adani and the living fossil from MDH ad. However our attempts for explanations were cut short by his attempt to bite our correspondent.

Even after the video of Kejriwal surfaced, in which he is seen as taking oath to continue committing such  heinous acts until “desh badalne pe majboor ho jaye bc” (in his own words), none of his supporters are ready to admit that there might just be something wrong with Kejriwal. More worryingly there have been excited murmur among Kejriwal supporters to “Go Kejriwal”, one supporter on being asked confirmed this insisting, “At least he is doing something”.

Note 1 : This is satire

Note 2 : This is not original, is shamelessly plagiarized inspired by this article from onion

Neemuch riots – How Media reports when Hindus are under attack

Gaurav
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Neemuch riots – How Media reports when Hindus are under attack

In an unfortunate incident, on the eve of Hanuman Jayanti, some communal violence took place in a nondescript district of Madhya Pradesh. In Jawad town, in Neemuch district of Madhya Pradesh, some Hindus who were part of a procession celebrating Hanuman Jayanti, were attacked by some Muslim groups with stones.

The situation spiralled out of control and there were reports of arson, in which shops and vehicles were set on fire. Eventually police imposed curfew in this town, a Curfew which has today gone into its third day. Incidentally, Sonia Gandhi visited this very district just a few days before this incident.

There has been near total silence in Mainstream media about this incident, with TV channels not giving any coverage whatsoever. Online media did carry some reports, but they were extremely vague in nature. We post a few of them here:

Zee News: “where stone-pelting between two communities left at least 20 people injured”

Business Standard: “incidents of arson and stone-pelting involving members of two communities”

Both the above news reports were based on PTI reports

New Indian Express: “…when some miscreants pelted stones..”. “Police said members of a specific group hurled stones at a religious procession”

Times of India: “Some miscreants on Friday threw stones at a procession”

The Hindu: “Some miscreants on Friday threw stones”

The above reports were based on IANS reports.

In all the cases, no media report was willing to name the “specific group” or “community” although it was pretty obvious.  Not only is the form an content starkly different, even the vociferous chest-beating and the prime time debates are missing. Such is the coverage given, that most people are noticing this story a good 3 days after the actual event. This needs to be contrasted with the reportage in case of various “Church Attacks”:

DailyO published an “opinion piece” by Rana Ayyub declaring that the rapists of a Nun from West Bengal were RSS backed.

Entire media and even politicians, labelled a robbery in a Delhi school as an “attack”, when even school was denying the same.

Indian Express deliberately twisted the words of an Archbishop to give the Nun-Rape case a communal angle.

India Today claimed that people arrested for the attack on a Mumbai church were from the Right Wing. They were actually local gamblers.

The issue is not here about which religion is bad or good. The issue here is, why is media hesitant to name one religion, while the other religion is dragged into any kind of crime, when no evidence exists. Is this by deliberate design or a genuine mistake? Can mistakes be repeated so often, that too erring only on one side? All this added to the constant narrative that we see in Main stream media, makes one wonder what the real agenda of media is.

The correct way though, would be to report each incident on its merits. There will no doubt be some communal incidents, and some may be law and order problems. But it seems media is desperately trying to build a narrative, and is ready to paint any event with lies and deceit so that it fits into the jigsaw puzzle that they have designed.

Karan Thapar accuses Modi for Visa-On-Arrival even without checking Embassy or VISA websites

Rahul Raj
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Karan Thapar accuses Modi for Visa-On-Arrival even without checking Embassy or VISA websites

In his latest column titled “It’s actually visa on four days’ notice before arrival”, published by Hindustan Times, Karan Thapar has talked about problems faced by a friend’s relative who landed from Japan, but was deported because she misunderstood the terminology: “VISA on arrival”.

Karan narrated the incident of a Japanese visitor, who came to India and was asked to leave from the airport itself, because she did not have a VISA. Apparently the visitor got so hooked to the “VISA on Arrival” terminology that she did not even bother to check this up on the Indian Government’s site. He claims that even All Nippon Airways, the airline she flew on, was not aware that the scheme had critically changed. He writes that the VISA on arrival policy a dishonest, misleading and an inefficient scheme and advises Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his tourism minister to be honest and enticing rather than beguiling but inaccurate. Karan smartly accuses travelers of believing in something which is inaccurate, he writes:

The problem is that by continuing to call the scheme visa on arrival we are misleading travelers and, more importantly, misleading ourselves.

If only our Japanese tourist had sought information from the official sources, instead of just flying to a country, her doubts would have been cleared. She could have easily read the Tourist Visa-On-Arrival policy on Indian Embassy website and Indian Government Website, which should ideally be the most important preliminary step before visiting India. Karan Thapar, who is juggling with semantics, forgot to check either of the sites.

Tourist Visa-On-Arrival on the Embassy of India, Japan clearly states that:  In general, all eligible applicants are advised to apply at the nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate for a visa.

The link to online VISA application also says that you can’t just fly to India without completing three steps:

2015-04-05_14-14-17
Snapshot from the VISA Application site

Ideally, any airline operating in the India-Japan route should also know it. It is highly amusing that an International Airline is not aware of basic VISA policy. But then, this too is Modi’s fault as per Karan Thapar. Given the sensitivity around air-travel, officials are expected to be updated with norms are requirements.

The second question raised by Karan Thapar digresses from the original concern and talks about a completely unrelated question. He asks, “how do other countries that offer genuine visas on arrival accommodate a big influx of arrivals in a short space of time? If they can manage why can’t we?” I am not sure if Karan was given a VIP entry when he visited US, UK or Europe, but any layman would retort to his rhetoric by explaining the need to step-by VISA processing in countries where tourism is not the prime industry.

Karan is a veteran journalist. We expect him to do basic checks before flooding the media with advices and accusations. And he should definitely find facts before his half-cooked story expands to 150 other media houses. Otherwise, India will be accused of misleading rather than encouraging newsreaders.

*Contributions from @c_aashish

Earlier NDTV used to create lies, now they delete truths

Rahul Raj
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Earlier NDTV used to create lies, now they delete truths

When people started unveiling the lies spread by Indian media (Top lies spread by Mainstream Media – January 2015, Top lies spread by Mainstream Media – February 2015, Top Lies spread by the Indian Media in March 2015), media changed their modus operandi from twisting facts to hiding and deleting facts. The same media which rushes to proclaim any attack near churches as a grave threat to the existence of minorities in India neglected the blast at Bellur Mutt as a minor firecracker burst.

In a more interesting case, NDTV, which portrays itself as a messiah of ethical journalism and a campaigner against communal politics, has shrewdly edited the “Open Letter to Arvind Kejriwal by Prashant Bhushan”. There was a section in the letter in which Prashant Bhushan talked about the communal tactics used by AAP to sensationalize difference in the treatments of Hindu and Mulsim. Prashant Bhushan wrote:

Then came the issue of communal posters. A poster accusing the Muslim MLAs of the Congress as being traitors to their religion was got published by Dilip Pandey under your instructions, for which the police arrested Dilip Pandey. At that stage, the party got Amanatullah Khan to send a letter to the police saying that he had got this poster printed, and it was not the party. At the time you yourself tweeted that why is the police arresting Dilip Pandey when they should be arresting Amanatullah Khan.  Yet within a week, he was made in charge of the Okhla constituency by the party, promised a ticket and eventually given one! Are such means not unethical?

NDTV conveniently deleted this section from the letter and published it on its site.

Open Letter to Arvind Kejriwal by Prashant Bhushan posted by NDTV
Open Letter to Arvind Kejriwal by Prashant Bhushan published by NDTV
Open Letter to Arvind Kejriwal by Prashant Bhushan
Highlighted section of the Open Letter is deleted by NDTV

This raises many questions which need to be answered. Why did NDTV, which boasts about its ethical journalism, delete a plain form of direct information which needed no editing? Why did NDTV choose to delete only that part of the section in which AAP is accused of running sleazy communal tactics?

NDTV has often gone overboard to prove how minorities are in danger due to communal politics followed by BJP, but they felt no shame or guilt in deleting communal references to AAP. This forces us to believe that the communal threat picture drawn by channels like NDTV are less of ideological stands and it has more to do with their propaganda. This indirectly also indicates a nexus between journalists in NDTV and AAP.

I feel sad for Prashant Bhushan whose letter was photoshopped by NDTV to hide a big shabby truth. I feel worse for journalism which is degrading day-by-day. From now, NDTV should start looking into mirrors when they write about ethics in journalism or Censor and Bans.

Indian Navy, Air India and MEA bring back smiles to many despondent faces stranded in Yemen

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Navy, Air India and MEA bring back smiles to many despondent faces stranded in Yemen

Amidst chaos and violence in Yemen, India is successfully evacuating many people from Yemen. According to the reports, on 3 April 2015, three aircrafts brought back 664 Indians from strife-torn Yemen, of which 334 people landed in Mumbai and 330 landed in Kochi. The Indian nationals primarily included nurses and workers. Most of the evacuees were from Kerala.

Yemen is witnessing internal conflicts between several different groups. The main fight is between the supporters of their exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and allies of Zaidi Shia known as Houthis. According to the UN, the two weeks of chaos in Yemen has killed many civilians and children. Thousands of people have been wounded over.

India is uninterruptedly putting efforts to bring back Indians stranded in the regions. The rescue operation is led by India’s Minister of State External Affairs, General V K Singh, who also reached Djibouti, Africa to oversee the evacuation operation launched by the government.

Not only that, some foreigners from Asian countries near India were also reportedly evacuated by the Indian Navy on humanitarian grounds.

India is trying many means including diplomatic ones to rescue thousands of nationals who are stranded in the strife-torn Yemen. Indian Navy, General V K Singh, officials from the Ministry of External Affairs and Air India must be commended for their relentless efforts.

#BelurMuttAttack: police and media apathy, from the eyes of a bystander

Guest Author
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#BelurMuttAttack: police and media apathy, from the eyes of a bystander

Last evening, Belur Math was allegedly rocked by a blast close to the shoe racks which is located close to the entrance of the premises. Some reports describe this as “twin blasts” as two low-intensity crude bombs went off just before the evening prayers somewhere between 5:30 and 5:45 PM. No one was hurt, but the blasts led to the breaking of window panes of the building.

I happened to be there with my family at around 6:15 PM. A Friday and a public holiday, the premises were choc-a-bloc with people. Proximity to the Dakshineshwar Kali temple meant huge crowds on Fridays, since it is considered an auspicious day to worship Kali maa.  Rather surprisingly, we had no idea what had happened and did not hear of it during the one hour we spent at the math, barring an observation of high security in the premises. Given that high profile Hindu places of worship have been witness to brutal terrorist attacks in the past (Akshardham temple, Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple, Ramjanma Bhoomi temple, Raghunath Temple to name a few), the security did not seem unwarranted or completely out of place. The evening aarti and bhajans were in progress in a room filled with devotees, spilling outside the large hall. The building could not have looked more magnificent and peaceful in the evening light, the full moon shining behind it.  It was only later in the night around midnight, a good 6 hours after the blast, that I came to know of what happened via news reports shared on Twitter.

Now, it is possible that the blast was just a loud firecracker, or a prank played by someone seeking attention. It could also have meant to be served as a warning as this report suggests, but I wonder if it was taken seriously enough (as it should have been) or if greater efforts had gone into underplaying the incident and hushing it up by authorities. I am all in agreement of not creating panic among the locals, but is it sensible to keep a blast site open half an hour after an incident? Should the area not have been cleared out, cordoned off and swept thoroughly for the possibility of other explosives? I find it hard to believe that all of this had been carried out within a mere half hour of the incident, and I hope investigations and subsequent reports throw more light on this matter.

Since all the facts are not on the table at this point, let me give the police and security officials the benefit of the doubt. Let’s move over to the media. Many politicians and journalists are brushing off this incident as a minor one that does not warrant the kind of strong reactions it has evoked. And let’s assume for a second that this is true- that the incident was indeed a minor one. What they fail to understand, however, is that it is not the reaction to this ONE incident alone that angers the Hindu public. It is the enormous hypocrisy displayed by the very same people that angers and disgusts us.

Last week, NDTV ran a story repeatedly- that of a church-run school in West Bengal being sent threatening letters. The letters were hand-written and were sent to the school principle, threatening to burn the school down. No actual attempts had been made to harm the students or the establishment, but the channel ran the news repeatedly, linking it to other “Church attacks” the state had been witnessing recently. Earlier, a theft in a Delhi school was blown as “attack” and “vandalisation” by Barkha Dutt, from NDTV and others too. Surely, a bomb blast, albeit a low-intensity one, deserves similar attention? Maybe NDTV believes a letter scrawled with mere words is far more fearful than a bomb blast that didn’t, after all, blow anyone up to smithereens?

And then there are the politicians. Tweets by Derek O Brien below are self-explanatory in their blatant arrogance and hypocrisy.


 

Our PM Narendra Modi himself set a precedent when he publicly asked for a speedy resolution of “church attacks” (which subsequently was found to be a case of petty theft). Will he now be vocal about a speedy enquiry into the Belur math blasts? For his own sake, we certainly hope so.

– by @gobblefunk

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