New Delhi. Various thinkers and media analysts have criticized Indian media’s handling of Mangalore pub attack where some girls and women were beaten up by an outfit called either Sri Ram Sena or Sri Ram Sene (SRS in either case) for allegedly disrespecting Indian culture. These thinkers and analysts believe that Indian media ‘over-reported’ and ‘over-hyped’ a problem that is endemic only to the elite class. They have appealed to the Indian media to stop calling attack on the Mangalore pub as attack on Indian ethos.
“The Indian media has become a tool for the elite and by the elite. They over-hyped the Mumbai terror attacks, which were clearly an attack on the elite India, by calling it an attack on whole India, and now they are doing the same in case of Mangalore pub beating case. There are no pubs in rural India or even in smaller cities. This is clearly a problem of the elite and let them deal with it. Let’s not involve the whole Indian society into it.” Arundhati Roy, a writer, thinker, philosopher, media-critic, activist, etc., told Faking News.
These thinkers and analysts accused media of having a class bias, which was responsible for creating divisions in the society on the basis of class and language. Some thinkers additionally thought that this bias was mainly due to 'caste' factors as most of the journalists in India belonged to the upper castes and were suffering from Brahminical mentality.
“Why do these television channels not raise such a hue and cry when a dalit woman is raped in some remote village of the country? Is that not an attack on Indian women and Indian ethos? Most of those girls and women beaten up in the pubs were either Brahmins or Baniyas, and hence the media is making such a big issue out of it. Down with the manuwadi and casteist mentality.” Udit Krishna, president of Dalit Patrakar Sangh (DPS), told Faking News.
We tried to get reactions of leading editors of various Indian media houses over the issue, but they asked us to excuse them. One of the CEOs of a leading news channels however commented, on conditions of anonymity, that media bashing had become fashionable in times of recession as more and more people were becoming jobless. He hoped that the economic conditions improved and such unnecessary criticism of media subsided.
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7 Comments:
LOL.. caste and class thinkers can never get out of their shitholes
great...
Arundhati Roy writes couple of novels and somehow this qualifies her to be a great judge of how the elite or non-elite should be treated.
It is obvious that the whole country elite or non-elite is moving in direction where each wants to taste western values (or non-values). Every one imitates the west in dress styles etc...some are not able to afford it. Give all of us a chance and we will all be at pubs. Even the non-elites drown themselves in alcohol and all kinds of activities…may not be at pubs. Moreover, because of social stigma non-elite women do not drink. If it is something this group did not like about women drinking - is beating them the recourse. Is this what they believe in? Is the country going to tolerate a group vigilante mentality - just because some highly visible personalities have opinions about elite vs. non-elite? Are we missing the point about violence and taking law into our own hands? Do we realize where encouraging such violent behavior might lead to? There are ways other ways to stop pubs if you do not like them...but encourage violence by telling media not to over-hype? If we have to discourage copying the West on a superficial level, let’s start with education – our educational institutions have always taught us the western ways…all the uniforms in school are western… English has almost become our national mother-tongue. All our industries/economies are based on western ways of management & theories. If you were to be realistic about how things evolve given the backdrop of education, market, economies – you will see the western ways will finally make its way into our very way of thinking & life in some form or other – and it has, whether we are in a village or in an Indian metropolis. I think, this group of so called elite kids in pub is still a tiny minority and will make difference in few cities around India. Bottom line -it does not warrant violence of this nature. – I thought we Indians tout that we are from the land of Gandhi etc…are we from land of hypocrisy (from all classes of society)?
Even the law says attaining age of 18 & 21, a girl and boy has the right to decide about their marriage. How can an individual like Mutalik decide what we have to do. 'Marriage at sight'- ridiculous.How is that he is allowed to make such comments. Why is he attacking the common man.
Man is different from animal. He wants love. Two people in love are not harming anyone. They are in their own world. They are peace loving people. Love can change even a uncultured man involving in anti social activities. If u want to talk about culture, what happened to the joint family system. Why the nuclear family system is increasing. What about people who are not taking care of their parents. What happened to “Matru devo bhava”.
Arundhoti Roy! Lady lemme tell you, your book " God of small things" was good but that's it! I do not see how you can judge the categories of the problems based on the social class.While I'm not the one to get into the caste argument, I'm very much surprised and disappointed to see this kind of a remark from an otherwise well educated and knowledgeable person like Arundhoti. Now she might go on to say terrorist attack is the problem of the defence, why bother the citizens, the recession is the problem of Finance ministry, what do we have to do anything about it,global warming is something environmentalists should be bothered about, why should WE give a hoot?
I have a strong hunch it was a joint effort of the Pub owners and Mr M uthalik to garner cheap publicity. The incident happened with prior information of the Pub owners who called media to witness and carry pictures. It was like a reality show. If they wanted to avoid the violence,they should had informed Police. But No,The media wanted their bytes to increase their TRP.
A much ghastlier action is going on in Kolkata for last whole week. No media except the victim "The Statesman" neswpaper has covered it.
Please read my take on the issue. some one should start sending black burkas to the muslim activists involved there.
http://kuldipgupta.blogspot.com/2009/02/1885-understudy-prominence-why-should-i.html
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