Bias theory in media and govt cosmos: Hindu-Muslim equation

Sample this - A leading news anchor while discussing the Supreme Court's Mumbai Blasts judgments asked a common Muslim man - Do you think the law is sentencing only Muslims? If it had been the judgment for the Mumbai "riots", this question would have been a fair one. But for the Mumbai blasts, was anyone else supposed to be sentenced? Think of the plight of that innocent Muslim guy - no matter what he answers, he was bound to ignite hatred and divide.

Another Sample - A leading newspaper often comes up with a one-liner - Why are minorities always targeted after every bomb blast? Because as Aamir Khan said in Sarfarosh - kuch chand musalmano ki wajah se poori kaum ko badnam hona padta hain. It is like we in US start shouting - why are we always selected for the special screenings at the airport? Simply because few of the brown skinned people committed a heinous act and since we happen to be part of that large set, we will be looked at with suspicion. But should we feel targeted? Certainly not as it is for the safety of each innocent individual because when a blast occurs, it does not distinguish between Hindus and Muslims. It just kills innocents.

Unfortunately, in the past few months it is the media and the government who have done the most harm in dividing the communities. It is easy to immediately blame the BJP - a self proclaimed Hindu Nationalist party for the stalemate. However, it is actually the government and the media who have helped the BJP to regain its lost ideology. BJP was all but dead at the national stage, when one fine day our government told the courts that "Ram Sethu never existed" and few months later "Ram destroyed the Ram Sethu". Compare this with the government's act of revoking the land transfer just because separatists in Kashmir started their agitation. How shameful of the government to provide security to these anti-nationals who openly threaten to do business with Pakistan. And what more, just because a separatist was killed during police firing, the government transferred the CRPF chief on their demands. Doesn't this smell of bias or pusillanimity on the part of the government?

And the media? They claim they always show the real picture. And hence, when they showed thousands of Hindus in Jammu holding saffron and national flags, it was indeed the real picture. However, this is just one side of the story. Why is the media not showing the images of the separatist activists in Kashmir holding the Pakistani flags at Lal Chowk? Trust me, any real Indian - a Hindu or a Muslim would have felt aghast if those images were shown. But then, all along it has been made to believe that Kashmir is burning and innocents are being tortured. Is it really the truth when separatists are all along siding with the POK? It is easy to show a CRPF policeman beating up a man in Kashmir and media claiming that individual to be "innocent". He might be, but if that innocent is out on the streets during a curfew, I am not sure if indeed he was innocent. Such stories create Hindu-Muslim divide.

So is there no "divide" between the two communities? Certainly not. Yes, Hindus feel agitated when time and again the Congress government appeases minorities to the point of ridiculing themselves. In the same vein, Muslims also will be agitated when they see BJP pouncing on Hindu agenda. Hindus get agitated when few Muslims blatantly support Pakistan in cricket matches, when they support fundamentalism of the Shahi Imams. This is but human nature. And hence, it is time that educated people from both sides come up and speak against all this. Especially it is high time that educated Muslims come up and speak against fundamentalism and terrorism because, I agree, it is definitely not a good feeling to be looked at with suspicion. Do not trust any current political party to be your savior. They will create hatred because it is how they earn their living.

I often wonder if media had not reported the Gujarat and J&K in a one sided manner, there would have been lesser causalities. More importantly, by doing all this, media is giving rise to a greater divide between the two communities. Reading the comments posted by readers all across the web, it is very clear that such stories are instigating people who are spitting out venom against each other. And this is where media has to own the responsibility to bridge this gap rather than widening it. Any government will only look for vote bank politics, so media's role becomes all the more important.

So while Hindus decode the chaos theory in their cosmos, it is time the media and the government give up the bias theory in their cosmos - because peace and unity in the Indian cosmos is what matters the most.

Vande Mataram