Offstumped stumbled on this rather revealing piece in the NDTV by Sunetra Chaudhary on how she came of age.
Now before your eyes start rolling we are talking all things cranial and nothing below.
This piece is a must read for two reasons.
The first reason is it provides a window into the mind of an entire generation of Indians who were too young to remember the Indira Gandhi monopoly on national politics, barely absorbed Rajiv Gandhi’s muslim appeasement and soft Hindutva but quite vividly absorbed the 1990s through their adolescence and were intellectually primed for adulthood by the 2000s with an overdose of leftist political correctness.
The second reason it explains why most reportage in the media is biased one way and most of those who report have consciences laden with an excess of guilt.
Offstumped will spare you an entire?reproduction of this exercise in naivety by Sunetra but a few comments are worth highlighting.
In 2002, I was barely 3 years into journalism. I didn’t understand the difference between riots and genocide.
Little wonder she doesnt even now,be that as it may this comment is very interesting as it highlights how poorly informed this generation is with no appreciation of recent history on justice to riot victims.
Endless newspaper reports, NGOs, citizens groups and the Tehelka expose had all exposed the slow and sometimes perverted pace of justice for the Gujarat riot victims.
Well that is just beginning of it. This particular sequence of comments are even more insightful on the overdose of political correctness this Generation has been intellectually nurutured with.
it seemed like maybe, just maybe, professing love for Modi may just be a survival technique in Gujarat.
Now for a moment let us speculate on what exactly one must be attempting to “survive” in Gujarat. Especially a state which this Business Standard story quoting a RBI report and a study by CII, IRMA talks of increase in average employment, 97% increase in net enrollment of girls in schools, and a reduction in drop out rate to 3%.
Well Sunethra provides you the answer
How else do you live with signs across the city, which welcome you to a Hindu Rashtra?? Perhaps Muslims have to develop partial blindness to these VHP boards across Gujarat, which deny the very existence of their community.
Perhaps Sunethra has not heard of?the Bible Belt?or the Presidential debate in the United States that has candidate after candidate affirming their Judeo-Christian credentials. But then she wont because religious minorities in the U.S. dont just survive suffering paranoia, they thrive exploiting Opportunity. To them an affirmation by the majority of its judeo-christian faith does little to diminish the separation between Church and State or the Secular nature of Governance or the freedom with which they enjoy their faith unencumbered like the Hindu Temple in Atlanta in the heart of the Bible Belt and the largest in North America.
More drivel by Sunethra reflecting her generation has been brought up to feel guilty about a public affirmation of faith but let us close this piece with this remark that explains how political correctness has fuelled a sense of offense and paranoia into the minority community.
They also won’t hear leader after leader in an election rally crying out Bharat Mata ki Jai. Amnesia is not a bad quality to have either. How about forgetting that you are a Muslim?
But then little does this generation know that every election rally in secular, progressive and liberal United States, across the political spectrum from the Democrats to the Republicans ends with “God bless America” which neither has Hindus in the U.S. forgetting they are Hindu nor Muslims in the U.S. forgetting they are Muslims.
Now one can have an intellectual debate on how?important faith is to one personally and if the separation of church and state is intact and if governance is secular.
Offstumped Bottomline: To paint a public affirmation by the majority of its faith as being wrong and then to ascribe offense and paranoia to the minority faith on account of this affirmation is reflective how much intolerance towards faith this generation carries much thanks to the overdose of political correctness.
To discuss this at length visit Orkut Discussion Forum Offstumped
http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=41790982&tid=2573174740308785424&na=4
Filed under: Gujarat Polls 2007, Uncategorized
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I think it is more than mere political correctness. How else does one justify making fun of Ram in the name of rationality or the indifference to the plight of Kashmiri Hindus or the failure to recognise Islamic terrorism.The selective amnesia which disturbs the p-secs when faced with Hindu symbols and Hindu slogans in a Hindu majority country remains obdurately unfazed when confronted with symbols of aggressively proselytising relegions or even the refusal to sing Vande Mataram. Today all acts of criminality by minority relegious groups or anti national groups are to be condoned and the forces of Hindutva/nationalism to be vilified. This is plain anti-Hinduism very much on the lines of anti-semitism. The presence of Hindu community itself is provocation enough. No further reasons or justifications are required to oppose it.
I don’t understand how “Bharat Mata ki Jai” should offend Muslims?
Vikas – wouldnt go that far just yet, remember Jews suffered a holocaust and as far as I can tell India remains very much a Hindu Nation. Just look around at the various symbols. All India Radio starts its day on most days of the week with Hindu invocations, almost every Hindu politician irrespective of political persuasion has his favorite godman or woman. Almost every public function begins with the lighting of a lamp with shoes taken off and every project with a groundbreaking pooja. The nation by and large continues to be influenced by spiritual symbols, mostly hindu ones at that. Fomenting Hindu paranoia is as bad as fomenting Islamist fears. I dont believe the Hindu way of life is under threat. Yes there is a political double standard and an overwhelming media bias but it has more to do with muslim vote bank politics on the one hand and the “Liberal” psuedo-intellectual political correctness on the other hand which is being pursued with Taliban like fanaticism by left wingers.
first of all the US does not need to be a barometer of religious freedom. the US does not offer religious freedom. try building a temple and see the phobia and abuse that you will recieve.
second – sunetra is probably a HINO (hindu in name only)
third – i am waiting for an article from sunethra on the 59 innocent men, women and children who “locked their compartment, set their train on fire, and sat inside and burnt to death” (according to that judas judge chatterjee). maybe she will find that one of the kids there had a doll too!!
fourth – what is wrong with bengali hindus? do you need to abuse hinduism just to survive in society. how come you have made bengali culture soo anti hindu. how can you be sooo heartless and cold minded to take “oil money” money and make fun of the deaths of poor hindus? remember what goes around comes around.
“To paint a public affirmation by the majority of its faith as being wrong and then to ascribe offense and paranoia to the minority faith on account of this affirmation is reflective how much intolerance towards faith this generation carries much thanks to the overdose of political correctness.”
I would say much thanks to more than two decades of rabble-rousing and inflammatory rhetoric on the part of RSS/BJP/Shivsena/VHP/Bajrangdal/etc etc.. Their gripe is not so much about appeasement of minorities, but about becoming the mullahs of hinduism and secure the “political gains” that follow..
Parties which, after all, opposed reforms in Hindu laws in the 50s in their earlier avatars can hardly have a legitimate claim to fight for uniform civil code..
I think we are just falling in trap and being stupid when expecting the Media Personnel to be “morally absolute”.
I think it is better to just accept the fact that Mediawallas are not ‘Mahatmas’ … they are human just like us. They have their own beliefs and notions which are extremely obvious in their work, despite them pretending sometimes that it is not. Lets get over it.
Besides, I think we give too much importance to media. Millions of articles have been written by mediawallas but has that really changed much. Despite their warnings about Modi … Gujaratis still elected Modi in 2002 and 2007. It must be soul crushing for mediawallas to realize that their work and efforts gives so little results.
Rather lets work to create and strengthen “nationalistic media”.
Offstumped is reading too much into some piece of crap peddled by an overly ambitious, clever-by-half journo. Before ascribing conviction to this Sunetra person’s babble, please keep in mind the fact that she is working for NDTV. Every workplace environment has its own criteria and parameters for success. People tend to imitate their bosses, because bosses are often the role models for success. Sunetra has to say stuff that her boss Barkha Dutt, the diva of idiot-box liberalism and chat-show secularism, would approve of. If suppose somebody waves a magic wand and she ends up being in the office of Organiser, she’d switch to singing paeans to Hindutva. Just a smart, career person who knows which side her bread is buttered on.
[...] A Generation fed on an overdose of Political Correctness [...]
Mr. S. Jain gave 2007 victory to Modi. There is still less than 24 hours to go before the official announcement.
I am living in Gujarat and can authentically say that Gujarat is as peaceful as any State can be. The canards spewed by the Media are their figments of imagination and that’s why they do not get registered on Gujarat people.
However, any leader of merit from Gujarat has to solve this jinx and lead the state to where it can reach.
To sum up about Mainstream Media,Secular & so called Intellectual….a song from Amitabh Film
Kali ram ka Phat Gaya Dhol,
Beech Nagariya khul gaya pol,
Ho gaya enka Dabba Gol,
Bol Hari Bol Hari Bol Hari BOL.
Yossarin-
This is not to deny that Hindu symbols have preponderance over Indian ethos. But then it should hardly be surprising as almost 80% population is Hindu. In fact it shocks me that such a natural thing should be bandied about as a badge to be flashed. Moreover my contention is centred on the politics of post-Sonia period, sorry if I could not clear it in my first post.
See how even the govt symbols are beginning to be Christianised- a case in point is the cross on Two Rupee coin. Despite a hue and cry on this issue govt refuses to clarify. It is instructive how Congress and Sonia refused to assuage the Hindu feelings either on the Sankaracharya matter or over the Karunanidhi remarks. . It was almost as if they were savouring the moments. With Sonia’s refusal to sing Vande Mataram, Sachar and the latest on Tasleema even the pretence of secularism, pseudo or otherwise, has been discarded.
Further I fail to understand how lakhs of Hindus killed in Punjab and Bangladesh in 1947 and the 1990 onwards systematic ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pundits in Kashmir doesn’t constitute genocide particularly when the Hindu lives lost in these episodes are much higher than the Jew lives lost in Nazi holocaust. Perhaps Hindus, and not just the lib-left p-secs, are still waiting for some certification from Gora sahibs to believe that it was indeed a genocide. Just some 100 years back there was a population of 1.5 lakh Sikhs, other than the Sanatanis, in Kandahar. Today leave aside Kandahar, even in Lahore you will be lucky to find a Sikh turban. On the eastern side an area larger than the Indian Bengal has already been denied to Hindus, besides abduction of thousands of Hindu women and there forcible conversion. Kashmir, remaining an Indian territory has ensured the ethnic cleansing of Hindus. I do not think that an honest appraisal of this situation, in any way, is fomenting Hindu paranoia.
I am a votary of composite cultural nationalism mixed with Thatcherian conservatism as against the parochial Nazi or Fascist variety of nationalism. But for that to ignore the siege that Hindu society has been laid into is to me another kind of political correctness. I am not advocating a direct action against Muslims, but only a realistic appreciation of the grave threat to Hindus by nationalists so that intelligent and meaningful responses to these threats can be devised.
Hi OT
i tend to agree with you . Yossarin is getting too worked about yet another wannabe Barkha clone. Of course any pretty looking girl from the Delhi ‘babalog’ class with ’secular’ convent education has a fairly good chance of getting in to NDTV .And i wouldnt really blame them if these PYTs believe that they could be hailed as the next Barkha Dutt by sporting a faded fabindia designer kurta with a crop haircut and indulging in breathless anchoring and studio activism (by belligerently taking on a idiot BJP representative who is usually send to the studio)
A google search on her reveals that this Offstumped post is among the top 10 results that is returned.I also stumbled upon a interesting site called Desibabes and Hunks in which she is featured and apparently she has a fanclub too
Given INI has emerged has fairly influential blogosphere voice,i think Yossarin would rather save his energies for fighting bigger battles than bothering to provide rebuttal to another quintessential NDTV Journo.
BTW-What hapened to that interesting commentatator hanging around in Yossarin’s blog who called himeslf ‘Matt’.He was usually seen taking up the cudgels on beyond of Indian MSM and locating their leftist biases in the realm of ideology , committment to a cause and bullshit.Quite funny.
MATT along with Secular Media now Planning how TO SPIN in Chattishgarh,Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh.
Now Congress will talk of Godhra,Tehelka etc…
Prasanna, OT et. al – The individual in question is irrelevant we may as well replace this with xxx from channel yyy. The point was no matter which channel you go to increasingly the reportage is by a generation that fits this stereotype. Remember this generation will come to dominate the airwaves for the next 2 decades unless an alternative right of center media emerges like in the U.S.A with Talk Radio, Fox News, WSJ and others.
Contrast Ms. Chaudhary’s remarks:
“How else do you live with signs across the city, which welcome you to a Hindu Rashtra? Perhaps Muslims have to develop partial blindness to these VHP boards across Gujarat, which deny the very existence of their community.”
with the following:
“Huge Government billboards at the National Capital’s main Railway Station invites applications from people belonging to all the non-Hindu religions for getting funds for education and free coaching. Hindus alone are unwanted. Here anything that goes against the majority religious formulations is accepted as a sign of liberty, secularism and broad-mindedness.”
More on the following link:
http://newstodaynet.com/col.php?section=20&catid=33
Before closing this blog: News have just come in that EC has pulled up Modi and Gandhi and closed the applications made against them. EC has failed to judge Modi and Gandhi equally.
FEI/FYI,
Sonia does join in singing the Vande Mataram, and she has been to Mandirs including the Tirupati Balaji Mandir where she has been received with grace and honour. Sonia participates in Ram Lila dahans. There is a Hindu life outside politics in India and in it all have been welcomed and many are the non-Hindus who have participated with tan and man. Let us not be carried away by our political likes and dislikes.
I do not think that just because this journo is a newbie we should just ignore her, hey this is what they probably did when they saw Burkha Dutt initially.
The fourth estate has becme a fifth column. They must have their feet held to the fire. Until we get a true nationalist media arm, blogs are going to be the only way to fight back.
‘Standing there watching a man relieve himself while I was paralysed with fear, I realised the disconnect that has happened to the people around the riot sites. It wasn’t okay for the shopkeepers outside to accept Gulbarga society to be like any other part of their neighbourhood where they can go and urinate.’
I have a suggestion for ms Sunetra Choudhury, maybe she can relieve herself in the burnt compartment of sabarmati express , so that she can ‘relieve’ herself of some of her liberal guilt, of having seen a shopkeeper taking a piss at the gulbarg society.
I find it difficult to find civilized words to describe ms choudhury’s article or a media outlet that publishes such ‘gems of wisdom’.
samiam-
“maybe she will find that one of the kids there had a doll too!!”
too bad the doll will belong to a little hindu girl that was burned alive, not heart rendering enough for the psuedo-secular crowd of ms sunetra choudhary.
[...] Offstumped’s views on a Minimalist Secularism that sees no wrong in a public affirmation of [...]
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Parties which, after all, opposed reforms in Hindu laws in the 50s in their earlier avatars can hardly have a legitimate claim to fight for uniform civil code..
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Oh i see.
But, They eventually did accept right ?
I never see BJP rabble rousing people by saying Congress “reformed” manuvadi laws!! Why ?
[...] Offstumped had in an earlier post clarified how such a label could be consistent with a minimalist secular state where separation of church is intact and governance is secular i.e. laws are applied unmindful of [...]