The muted reaction of the Indian media and pseudo liberals to the Charlie Hebdo attack has again exposed their double standards. A week ago, this gang was condescendingly acting preachy over the protests against the apparent ridiculing of Hindu rituals in PK. Arguments like, ‘freedom of expression,’ ‘freedom of art,’ were casually thrown about. The idea, needless to reiterate, was to portray that the government of the day was hand in glove with the protesters. That these protesters did not have support from the general public was ignored and also ignored was the fact that at no stage did the central government encourage the vandalism which anyway did not threaten to go out of control. In contrast, the media and the pseudo liberals are virtually treating the attack on Charlie Hebdo as comeuppance. NDTV repeatedly referred to the magazine being ‘provocative’ and ‘controversial.’ Excuse me!! Does being provocative or controversial justify this abhorrent attack on freedom of expression? And by the way, satire has always been controversial and provocative as it exposes the underbelly of the system which resorts to suppression of expression. So what do you do, go about killing satirists? It is this conniving with the bestiality which is encouraging the Islamic terrorists and assisting the spread of this virus. Anybody who thinks that this attack resulted from the affront caused to some maniac/ group of maniacs by reprinting of cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten is deluding himself. The cold blooded assassination of the injured policeman lying on the ground was indicative of the true face of terror. The policeman did not publish the cartoons and was not even trying to protect anybody! It was only a pretext to create fear amongst free thinking individuals and subdue any differing opinion. The act has already gone viral in the Islamic world and has triggered the process of earning more recruits. The terror groups are making ample use of the social media sites to target the impressionable youth and such acts come in extremely handy. But did any of our newspapers, most of whom are pretty protective and sensitive about freedom of the press take a principled stand against the abhorrent act? NO! They know that standing up against some idiot from some goddamn Sena in India is radically different from opposing these Islamists. As the threat from the competitive killing machines of Al Qaeda and Islamic State grows larger, the media houses will have to shed their selective amnesia and assist the society in confronting an ideology which is more dangerous than the Ebola virus and AIDS combined. While the symptoms of this ideology can be physically restrained by security and intelligence agencies, the ideology itself will have to be confronted ideologically. The media and intellectuals will have to call a spade a bloody shovel. The ostrich approach of mollycoddling the Islamists either because of fear or favour will only allow them to replicate their bestiality on even larger scale. The religious leaders will have to be forced by the media to take a proactive approach. No offense or provocation is grave enough to justify murdering people. In a civil society, no religion can condone this macabre approach to life. If any religion does so, then it is time to change the religion! P.S- Channels like NDTV need to realize that you cannot run with the hares and hunt with the hounds all the time. The terrorists decide what is provocative for them. And then someday……………
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 07:28:55 +0000
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