Projecting Non-Issues (Indolink.Com. 19/04/04).

-- By Dasu Krishnamoorty

Though it is summer, we have the benefit of a rain of articles onGujaratin the English media, a rain that sends up communal temperatures that generally go up and never come down. The media have become so obsessive that they see the devil of communalism in everything. This hurts the very constituency they pretend to be protective about. We are anxious to repair our relations withPakistandespite the three wars it had forced on us and despite a history of half a century of hostility. Millions of Indians have seen how simple revival of cricket between the two countries brought their people emotionally together, something hundreds of Indo-Pak goodwill missions failed to accomplish. This is how it should be. We can extend the same courtesy to our own people. No, say the media.

Even as the seasonal floods inAssamabate, the flood of articles onGujarat, two years after the event, continues to drown vast areas of readership inGujaratdebris. Since this is not a dissertation onGujarat, I refer to a few pieces done by Kalpana Sharma, Jyotirmaya Sharma, SagarikaGhosh and J.S.Bandookwala. This is what Bandookwala (The Indian Express,27/03/04) says of the laurels IrfanPathan won for his country: “Suddenly, this poor Muslim lad, who’s only passed his class X. is an icon. But can he bridge the vast Hindu-Muslim divide inGujarat? Would many of those in Wednesday’s adoring crowds have gladly killed the same Irfan two years ago?” When it is the Bandookwalas who created the divide, why should poor Irfan bridge it? These are the sort of people who would dream of a funeral in the midst of a wedding. What did Irfan’s father Mehboob Khan tell NarendraModi when the latter congratulated the father on his son’s performance? “I told him that Irfan isGujarat’s son…. Your son. We are very proud that he has brought laurels to the nation.” It is evident that Mehboob Khan is not a journalist.

In contrast to Bandookwala’s funereal sentiments, see what ShashiTharoor writes (The Hindu,11/04/04): “But since this is not a sports column, there is another aspect that thrills me about IrfanPathan playing forIndia. And that lies in the simple fact that his very existence is a testament to the indestructible pluralism of our country. He hails fromGujarat, a State in which many — many with loud voices and great influence — have sought to redefine Indianness on their own terms.” Tharoor tried to laugh and cry at the same time.

Nineteen-year-old Zaheer Khan,India’s first genuine pace bowler, refused to swallow the bait whenPakistan’s Dawn newspaper asked him if he regarded Bal Thackeray as anti-Muslim. He said, “No, he is not at all against the minorities.” On hearing this Bal Thackeray is reported to have said that Zaheer Khan was a true Hindustani Muslim. Whether Thackeray meant it or not is not the point. The point is that Zaheer Khan saw the motives behind the question that nearly every one of our media gurus would die to use to whip theGujaratdead horse to life. Here is Anil Dharker’s gloss on Zaheer’s reply (The Hindu,04/03/04): “There have been other straws in the wind, some related, some not. There was Zaheer Khan's reply to a question put to him inKarachi. Is Bal Thackeray anti-Muslim, he was asked. "No," was his forthright reply. Obviously, Khan has an alternative career as a diplomat open to him should his bowling arm ever get tired, but truthful or not, his words got a pleased response from Thackeray.” So, if Zaheer Khan does not share Dharker’s cynicism, he must obviously be angling for a diplomatic sinecure.

It is not necessary that Irfan or Zaheer should do well to keep alive theGujaratnightmare. Just the itch to write is enough. SagaraikaGhosh (The Indian Express,04/04/04) begins with good intentions, trying to show how several Muslims succeeded in life. I have written (The Tribune,04/05/03) about how Aneesa Begum became the first Muslim woman to be elected as mayor and that too of Ahmedabad as evidence of Hindu-Muslim harmony. But Sagarika says, “There remain crucial spaces where the whirlwind is stalled. Sure, in the entertainment industry, in sport, Bollywood or television, even in enterprise, where talent is the prime need, religious identity is irrelevant. Yet there are other areas where the Muslim presence is often determinedly stamped out.” Sure. Who do you blame for it?

Those Muslims who did well in entertainment, music, sports, industry, television etc. came from the same ranks that did not do well. Communalism/secularism has no role in this. The success of a community depends on how it takes advantage of its own talent and opportunities open for every one. Johnny Lever, an errand boy with Hindustan Lever, successfully marketed his art, as did any of the Muslim maestros millions of Indians adore. Did any of Thackeray’s men interrupt a Parveen Sultana’s concert? Did Togadia issue a fatwa to boycott matches featuring IrfanPathan or Zaheer Khan? Sagarika and her ilk only indirectly point out that the plight of the Muslims has something to do with Indian politics. If that is true, it is the Congress that ruled the country for 45 years and faith-based parties that should take the blame for it. None of these parties ever told the Muslims that Urdu and Babrimasjid are not crucial for their progress and existence.

The media, if they are really concerned about the Muslims, should project the success story of the Sikh community to inspire the Muslims. They belong to the same community that threw up the Khalistan movement. But where people want to succeed they succeed. They do not go on brooding over Operation Blue Star. One can compare Punjab with Kashmir, both states ruled by minorities that are a majority in the two states and ask what prevented Muslims in Kashmir to replicate the success of the Sikhs in Punjab. As we have said earlier, conflict is a major news value with the media and where there is homage to conflict, development suffers.

Back to where we have begun. Jyotirmaya Sharma of the Hindu stable travels all the way from Hyderabad to a small nook of Gujarat, Maliya, to interview just one Muslim and draw scholarly conclusions from his prey. He writes, “Fatehbhai and his family had voted for the Congress in the past, but in the 2002 Assembly elections, he changed his allegiance and voted for the BJP. Why was that so? "The wind is blowing in another direction, so we have to follow," he says. Fatehbhai goes on to explain that if he and his community stayed with the Congress, there would be little help coming their way if the Congress candidate lost. "There was tremendous pressure from above. If we had resisted the pressure, there was the possibility of unsavory fallout. The police harass us anyway, but it could be worse.” ”

Kalpana Sharma of the Hindu (04/04/04) asks, “What are the issues that will decide the way the Muslims vote in this election?” She gets the answer from AneesaSarang of the KokanMahila Coop Credit Society, a unique Muslim women's bank. Aneesa suggests that the events inGujaratin 2002 will have a profound impact on their choices in this election and adds, "People have seen what happened through films, read about those events in newspapers and they feel sad and have not forgotten." But I have seen other reports citing Muslims inGujaratas saying that their main problem was water. As Kalpana had earlier said (The Hindu28/12/03), she does not want people to forgetGujarat. I want to assure Kalpana that there are historians in the country who will includeGujaratas a special chapter in their revised edition of Indian history.

There is the other question that is never raised because it is censored at the center. The question is why do editor-level journalists travel to unknown nooks and corners of the country to report where they have competent special correspondents who know their region, its people and their problems better than their editorial bosses? Just unadulterated love for the minorities? But for media overkill, what happened inGujarathas happened several times inGujaratand elsewhere in the country. It should not happen but it will happen if the media continue to harp on what even its victims are prepared to dismiss as a bad dream and go ahead with finding answers for questions of life and death like basic needs.

There is no dearth of issues if the intention of the media is to swing the wave against the BJP and bring back the Congress or any other political combination. But kindly do not suppress the truth that the Muslims do not suffer any special disadvantage that millions of other Indians do not. The problems of poverty, illiteracy, disempowerment etc. should be solved not on a Hindu vs. Muslim basis but as problems confronting the entire nation. Have the media ever asked ifGujaratis an issue with voters in other States also which are going to polls? What happened inGujaratis issue only for the media. The majority of the Muslims do not share the media view.