Monday, April 6, 2009

NSA on the Media ?

Indian politics has always been interesting, but the media coverage of specific aspects of our polity has made it ever more fascinating, and if i look at my blog most of my recent posts seem to have centered around the media which, believe me, is purely unintentional, somehow the media has been able to evoke the strongest emotions in me lately.

Now this post is about the alleged "Hate Speech" by Mr Varun Gandhi and the events leading to his arrest and subsequent imposition of the "National Security Act", as his actions were considered to have endangered national Security.

Recollecting the sequence of events, this is what has happened -

1) Varun Gandhi makes the alleged hate speech at a Pilibhit rally attended by a few 100 people, apparently the speech is recorded by someone. (we have no idea about the identity of this "someone")
2) For the next 12 odd days things are as normal as they always have been in Pilibhit and the rest of the country, no signs of communal disturbance reported or attributed to Mr Gandhi
3) Suddenly a CD appears which is directly sent to the main stream media by "someone" (Now this "someone" can be the same "someone" referred to in point 1 above or can also be "someone" else, the identity of any of the "someones's" not yet known.
4) Now every one in the country can see the alleged speech 24X7 , and it is played and replayed over and over again by our active Media.
5) Now instead of one of the "someones's" mentioned above the EC asks the media for the CDs.
6) In a couple of days the EC assumes the role of the judiciary and pronounces Varun Gandhi Guilty.
7) Varun Gandhi courts arrest in Pilibhit and by now thanks to the media everyone in the world has heard the speech, and there is a show of support for Varun Gandhi , also there are reports of rioting.
8) The UP govt declares Varun Gandhi a threat to the Nation and charges him Under NSA.


In view of the above there are 2 distinct possibilities -
a) The CD was doctored as proclaimed by Varun Gandhi

This clearly makes the Media guilty of playing a fabricated Video over and over again leading to communal tensions and a possible threat to national security.

b) The CD was not doctored and Varun Gandhi actually made the speech.

In this case Varun Gandhi is guilty of delivering this speech to a few hundred people, with apparently no effect as there is no word of anything happening in the 12 days since the alleged speech was made.

Logically speaking even here the Media is guilty of showing a hate speech over and over again on national TV in an attempt to raise communal passions directly responsible for the kind of rioting seen in pilibhit and endangering National Security.

So, in my unbiased view,either way, based only on the facts listed above the real threat to national Security and maybe to our nation has been our Main Stream Media, Shouldn't it be charged under NSA ?

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