We, the ordinary people, cannot match the power of some of the media, its barons - the emerging fat cats - but thanks to the Internet we can at least write our blogs about our angst to our countrymen and women. Let's write in our blogs how cynically some of the media is getting its TRPs by denigrating and demolishing the great Indian Army through half truths and rhetoric. How cynically this section of the media is getting its TRP on the graves and funeral pyres of our soldiers.
After each salvo of innuendo and insinuation, this shrill media has this sly refrain: "Mind you, we are proud of the Army but....." And then they go on to say, "....the people are asking, why blah, blah, blah......," it is not the people but this section of self serving media which is insinuating.
A section of media is saying that the Army Chief was soft on a particular General. Does its anchors sitting in air conditioned rooms and mouthing Queen's English even begin to understand what it is to be tough? Speaking good English is not enough to be tough. These paragons of virtues will have to walk over hot and bloody minefields, chest bullets to understand what it is to be tough; they will have to walk their shrill talk to understand what toughness is. The Chief was not transported to the chief's chair by some fast forward time machine. He went there through the trenches, through the minefields and through wars to reach there.
Whatever our internal squabbles and contradictions we cannot let the Army down. Let's blog, let's tweet, let's Facebook, let's Orkut and nail this ingrate section of media's blatant lie. I urge our people not to go with that section of media that is encouraging kangaroo media courts. This will only fuel their TRP ratings. These kangaroo courts pronounce a person guilty even before the trial has started. If the person is acquitted by the courts of this country will these media-courts recompense the innocent person for the harm already done? Or will it be another collateral damage that could not be avoided at the altar of TRP?
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6 comments:
Lets not get emotional about this. The fact is the Lt Gen Has wronged and the C-in -C is shielding his collegue. (The reports say so and I too hope its not true.)
But when the Def ministry too sends a message it has to have some truth if not all.
Since the haloed percint needs to be kept that way summary, extraordinary punishment is required so that the message goes down the line to the jawan digging the trench on the border. Let me also I must tell you that the Jawan whilst digginging the trench in a remote part will have a smile and say insaaf to hua. In the defence no quarters given no quarters asked. officers lead by examples.
On the issue of the soldiers bleeding their body and soul with all due respects are doing their chosen job and we need not at every juncture stop by and say they can do no wrong. The reality is like every section of our society they too are as corrupt if not more than the civil society. A can of worms are waiting to be opened. As regards the media like I said are also just doing their job and are part of the same society. Ranjan Biswas
Dear Ashish,
Couldn't agree with you more on the recent phenomenon on trial by media. It is really sickening to see these self professed guardians of nations morality trying to run down an individual or an organisation without even bothering to find out the full facts of the case or understanding the functioning of the system in the organisation. They donn the role of a detective, lawyer, jury, judge, police, jailor and the hangman. The More they do not understand of an organisation, shriller are their comments on the same. These unscruplous, self serving, pompous and high headed idiots love to hear their own voice, a cue probably they took from Karan Thapar. They love to interrupt when a person is trying to make a point which is unpalatable to them, or in case of the print media, they simply don't publish your arguement. I have reached a stage where I switch off the TV the minute the start on the 'Big story of the day' and confine my reading of the print media to headlines and sports page. I prefer the net, where there is still freedom to speak your mind out with out the fear of you being cut short or simply blanked out. So let us tweet, let us orkut, let us face book and to hell with the TRP ratings.
Bye Chhibber58
Obviously, RB was the fly on the wall (can't see him anywhere near a trench for a hundred miles)when the jawans digging that trench said 'insaaf to hua'.
India must be the only country in the world where there are citizens who think dying for the country is same as a 10 to 5 job.
But I agree with RB about media doing its job. They are doing a good job in profiting. After all they are a for profit organisation.
Guys,
I have not understood what the problem is. If some impropriety has been committed by someone, there is a proper mechanism in the organisation to sort such matters out. I would like to know a few things:-
(a) Was any exchange of money involved in the so called scam?
(b) Was any Army land sold/ leased/gifted/bartered?
(c) Had Army ever evinced interest in acquiring the said land?
If the answer to the above is NO then where is the scam? And pray "what can of worms" has been opened? As regards the chosen profession and not "chosen job", let those who have no idea about it, not try to comment on it. It is not Army's (read Defence forces') job to take out children/ grown ups from the wells or for that matter save the population from all man made and natural calamities. Army never tells the civil administration why it has failed in its job of maintaining the law and order and have created conditions of abject poverty and deprivation even after so many years of our independence. And no let us not blame the political class for the same as I have never come across any politician or a political party who has said that it wants poverty, chaos and anarchy in the country. Will our babu logs raise their hands and let us know their contribution in making and running this country. Talk of letting the country down is not restricted to the political class and the defence forces - who drated that famous "SHAME -el- shiekh" declaration? Has any babu been pulled up for the same? As regards the media doing its job, less said the better it is. The more shriller you are - (you think) better you are. One image of the media eating the humble pie never leaves me. The then NDTV's (Read congress') Rajdeep Sardesai was going hammer and tongs at Mr Modi in Gujrat in the aftermath of the Godhra riots and predicting ouster of Modi Govt after the 2002 elections. Modi kept quiet and said that he would talk after the elections. On the day of the result and Modi's victory, a sheepish Rajdeep was interviewing Modi, who then turned around and told him "rajdeep I was never bothered about your views and predictions, I knew that you were not aware of the ground situation and I wanted to speak to you only after my victory" or words to that effect. A sheepish Rajdeep Sardesai did not know where to look and as it was being telecast live they could not remove it. But this interview was not shown as a repeat telecast. Mind you the fact that Modi is responsible for the carnage has nothing to do with above anecdote. As regards my views on the media I have already expressed the in my earlier comment. Finally to so called message being sent to the jawan digging trenches on the border. I think we are a democracy and have a constitution which says every one is innocent till proved otherwise. Are we going to have travesty of justice here just to send the message down to the jawan whose immediate concern, besides doing his "job" on the border, is the safety and security - physical, emotional, social and MONETARY, of his family back home about which the political and administrative class is doing nothing about. With respect to "insaf" RB need not bother about it, for every man / woman in the army knows the army does insaf without pity, without remorse, without fear and above all without delay, which is the least that can be said about every institution and every profession in this country. Let us not look for flies on the wall to swat. Till then no trial by media please.
Bye Chhibber58
Our Armed Forces,like all other organisations, are not without its blemishes, corns and moles. They are also some of the finest institututions left in our country amongst the ruins of all others which are visible around us. The media too,once was a fine institution…..a pillar of our democracy if you please. No longer so today. The electronic media with its dubious funding and its insatiable craving for TRPs often tends to overreach itself without a care for any ethics or morals….creating news where there is none; spinning senseless hype needlessly ; often on the premise that the viewer is a fool and a cretin.
More often than not it is sickening to watch smug,sanctimonious& presumptuous
TV anchors/reporters (who have little or no sensitivity to the occasion or sentiments) making grandiose comments& passing moralistic judgements based on half truths, untruths , twisted facts & biased analyses. Chhibber mentioned that they act as detective,policeman, judge ,jury etc…….No Sir !. They act as God—no less !!
No code of conduct for them. Say the word ‘censorship’ and they see red. …Freedom of press etc etc. The laws of decency and propriety don’t hold good for them. As a result they use this as a licence to say and do what they want, when they want, how they want….norms of decency and fairness be damned.
Somewhere down the line the media forgets that the Common viewer or reader is slowly but surely getting sick of of the tripe that is dished out as competitive reporting. He begins to reject it after a point and the TRPs be damned.
Coming to Ranjan Biswas comments:-
--He is uninformed ( or at best ill informed ) about the Army and hence his take
does not merit serious consideration.
--His comment on the jawan and LOC and trenches are patronizing,presumptuous
and smug. What Mr Ranjan do you know of any of these ?. TV mein dekhke aur
Kitab mein parne se nahin hota hain.
--The great thing about this country is that everyone is entitled to his opinion and
is free to express it and Ranjan has done that. Armchair experts making
tuppence moralistic pronouncements are par for the course . We need the
mediocre and pedestrian comments too so that the truly mature and good ones
. standout against them. .. Jai Ho.
A K Jayachandran
It was an excellent piece Jayachandran. I still crave for the time when we had morning, afternoon and evening news both in hindi and english on the same channel along with a few quality programmes like TWTW, Ankhon Dekhi and NewsTrack as well as some good debate for about half an hour to one hour leaving you free to do other things and watch other programmes. Todays 24 hour news channels have lost their appeal as the are repetetive in nature and in order to fill in the time they make you see excerpts of some stupid laughter challenge of some mentally challenged or such like things. In such an environment in order to survive the war of TRP ratings. They are left with no other choice but to hang on to some non issues and keep hammering it in your face till you are fed up. There is no research involved in the story and you have the same set of so called 'experts' on a panel for a discussion which is totally hijacked by the anchor and a few genuine experts are left wondering why were the called there in the first place. Perhaps the most annoying feature of today's news reporting is total lack of apathy for the subject and terming every stupid story as Breaking News. In fact one stupid channel has a full fledged programme called Breaking News. Pray what is it that they are breaking other than obnoxious wind? I agree with Ashish, when he says that these sanctimonious mentally challenged anchors, (or shall we say differently abled anchors) always add the line 'mind you we love our Armed forces' before running it down. I think that in order to increase their TRP ratings the need to look for new sensational stories drives them towards pulling down the few institutions still left in the country which people look up to. And who better than the Armed Forces which is still regarded as the most noble profession in the country with the least amount of pull, to rope in a measely 16000 odd young and dynamic men from the population of over one billion. Perhaps the reason why some are still joining this noble profession is because there are still some people in this country who feel they need to do something for this country. "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" I wish we had more people in this country who could think like this. I am a serving soldier and I am proud of having a son who has followed in my footsteps and is presently serving on the icy wasteland of Siachen, not because he got posted ther but he voluteered for it. And so I know what I am speaking when I say that there are other things that the jawan of this glorious Army is thinking about things other than the so called Sukhna land scam. As Jayachandran said 'Jai Ho' I say Jai Ho India and Jai Ho Indian Army.
Bye, Chhibber58
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