By Habib Siddiqui,
(The article is written as a critique of an article published on Niti Centeral, authored by Akhilesh Mishra which was a rebuttal of an article, which earlier appeared on New York Times, authored by Gardiner Harris )
“We will try to look beyond the obvious, and tell you stuff as it is. We will democratise public discourse instead of talking down to you. We are not infallible and hence we are open to fair criticism and correction. We will evolve over the coming days and weeks. For us, free speech is irrelevant unless it is frank and fearless.
Yes, as our motto says, we are bold and we are right. We are honest and we are upfront. That’s what we are.”
Mr. Akhilesh Mishra chides NY times for going against its claimed ethics and morals of journalism, the question arises, what about the portal on which he is publishing his rebuttal?, The above quoted lines are from the Kanchan Gupta, Editorial Director of Niti Centeral. The tag line of ‘bold and right’ was employed at its best when an Indian Citizen, Fasih Mahmoud was arrested in KSA by Indian security agencies and detained him illegally for 160 days, Niti published an article about him, got his name wrong and forgot the word alleged. The article kept on being modified for many times and I followed up by commenting on the article, which is available even today. Their written principle of ‘we are honest and we are upfront’ was not sufficient to raise any question about the illegal detention period of 160 days.
Continuing on the same ‘ethics of journalism’, analysis of Niti Central, will put it either at the bottom or will not throw away from the list of fair media organizations. Even skimming through the portal for some time can give an idea that the portal is more or less BJP election campaign website. I understand ‘right’ but if you jump into the world of media and claim to be ‘honest’ and ‘upfront’ then there has to be a substance of balance in your reporting. Niti has been publishing eulogy for Mr. Narendra Modi with great frequency and failed to publishing even mild criticism of him (at least I can’t find any). There is no space for any dissent, any other view, any counter view, it cannot be termed as a media portal with ‘honest and up front’ values.
The next thing, Mr. Akhilesh Singh has problem with NYT article is the use of term, Hindu chauvinist, but Modi is on record, he is a ‘Hindu Nationalist’, the chasm between a ‘Hindu chauvinist’ and a ‘Hindi Nationalist’, I do not think are very subtle. Mr. Akhilesh brings Iraq and tries to find hypocrisy of NY times at that time, but a fault at one time does not negate, a fact at some other time.
He argues that, Mr. Gardiner Harris cannot call, Modi to be accused of ‘mass murder’, and his reason is because, SIT failed to find evidences against him which can lead to his prosecution. But, the point to ponder upon and which Mr. Akhilesh very skill fully skips is, Mr. Gardiner never tried to say that he is accused by law, in fact he writes, ‘he was never charged’, but there are people, an example of which is Mrs. Zakia Jafri, who accuse him of mass murder.
Then Mr. Akhilesh takes his tirade on Muzaffarnagar riots, although, Mr. Gardiner’s assertion to draw a parallel between riots and Modi’s anointment as a PM candidate of BJP seems to be absurd but Mr. Akhilesh twists the incident which lead to the riot. He puts the eve teasing as a sexual harassment, and forgets that the matter is still under investigation and passes the cardinal judgement over a Muslim boy, guilty of sexual assault of a Hindu girl. But when he describes the murder of Shahnawaz by two brothers of the girl, he very diligently uses the ‘allegedly attacked by knives’. Is this the contribution of Niti Centeral for ‘changing minds and transforming India’, which their Editorial Director writes as one of their aims?
He mentions the sting operations by news channels which allegedly showed that Mr. Azam Khan asked police authorities to release arrested Muslim youths in the case. Though Mr. Azam Khan’s behavior is suspicious and if allegations against him are true, are condemnable, but if we take sting operation as a tool of judgement, the whole ‘Gujarat model’ will demolish in front of us brick by brick. I think he forgot the Tehelka tapes. The term ‘mass murderer’ becomes a reality and report of SIT becomes a fallacy.
Mr. Akhilesh then talks about the three illegal public meetings of Muzaffarnagar, one held by Muslims and two by other party. He talks about the first public meeting of 30th August in which Muslims gathered, some local SP leaders (no elected member) were also present, incendiary speeches were delivered. The whole assembly was illegal and every one present, participated in an illegal activity. But then when he talks about next two assemblies of Hindus, he starts seeing from one eye so that few visible things remain invisible to him. Even these two public meetings were illegal, he does not mention any incendiary and inflammatory speeches here which are also on recorded tapes, he fails to ostracise elected BJP MLAs present there but rather says, they were there to demand justice for Hindus. So this is the ‘new idea’ and ‘new initiative’ of Niti, as said by Kanchan Gupta.
He also, do not want to blame BJP MLA for sharing a fake video, and his reason is that it did not sparked the riots. Even if we accept his reason, isn’t such a stupid and naive action by an elected MLA (who is to serve every one under the oath) is condemnable. Where is that great journalistic ethic based on which Mr. Gardiner is being chastised?
Mr. Akhilesh then seems to have resentment towards Gardiner for saying that, ‘Modi is hated by Muslims’, and his reason is BJP has won elections in Muslim localities. But, in those localities did Modi fight an election? Elections in India are always fought on local levels, and voting for certain candidate from certain party can be done for political compulsion or pragmatism. Even considering all these, there is no reason to believe that Muslims are overwhelmingly voting for BJP, even as per Mr. Modi, 20 to 25% Muslims in Gujarat.
Mr. Akhilesh, very nicely cherry picked things, which he wanted for rebuttal but failed to see things which may be, I suppose, sour to him. At one indecent, Gardiner quotes, Mr. Vyas “India needs a strong leader who does not allow, democracy to be passport of misbehaviour’. As ‘misbehaviour’ can be a subjective matter, I think the whole idea of democracy can be compromised as per Mr. Vyas, for his or his party’s perceived misbehaviour.
Towards the termination of the write up, Gardiner mentions the great development of Gujarat, and as an example throws a case of Mani Nagar, he takes us through a locality with excellent roads and good amenities which he says, ‘even richest localities of Delhi and Mumbai lack ‘ but once you pass to certain locality, where majority of residence are Muslims, roads become ‘potholed and crumbling’, houses are of tin roofs and trash is everywhere. The reason for this, Mr. Akhilesh is well, mature enough to understand.
On a positive note, Mr. Kanchan has clearly written that, they are not ‘infallible and open to criticism’, I hope such views will ignite a change in niti of Niti centeral.
(Habib is currently based in Doha and can be contacted at [email protected]. He blogs at http://www.lets-find-truth.blogspot.in )