Is Indian media anti-semitic?

A corollary of secular dissimulation by Indian media happens to be its overt flirtation with anti-semitic tendencies. This is only to be expected since the media secularism is unabashedly aimed at courting Muslims. Antisemitism, then, becomes but a handy ancillary tool to appease their minority constituency with.

This systemic bias has subsequently seeped into the bloodstream of establishment intellectuals. Various commentators in major newspapers have displayed a contemptible attitude on op-ed pages of the Telegraph, Calcutta, and the de facto Marxist mouthpiece, The Hindu, Chennai. One only needs to google articles by the diplomat K.P.Nayar, communist ideologue Ashok Mitra, and several editorials in the southern daily The Hindu, on issues ranging from, or related to, Palestine, Hamas, Iraq, Hezbollah etc. Their apathy, and, quite often, antipathy for Jewish concerns is in striking contrast to their animated embrace of pro-Muslim causes, further reinforced by the alacrity with which they cheer it. Indian media attitude in such cases is "disproportionate," to purloin their pet epithet deployed after the Israeli action against Hezbollah last year.

Recently, the putative grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, who goes by the name, Arun Gandhi, made, what largely amounts to anti-semitic remarks, on a blog, which itself is symptomatic of the prevalent Indian elite sentiment. Those remarks carried the now familiar slur directed at Jews that they, namely Jews, wish to exploit the memory of Holocaust by making everyone in the world feel guilty about it. This in turn is the same language employed, most recently, by the likes of Michael Scheuer, Pat Buchanan and traditionally by arch leftists.

Arun Gandhi has quit his position following the controversy over his remarks. Apparently, some people in the media are disturbed by this development, and have reported the event in a rather lugubrious tone.

Excerpt this:

"The alleged comments were made, media reports said, during an online discussion on faith..."

[When it comes to antisemitic comments, the happenings are somehow always "alleged", but can never be confirmed. Such restraint is utterly lacking when the issue involves Muslims.]

"Arun, whose comments ruffled the Jews' feathers"

[Poor construction, but the sentiment is clearly unfriendly.]

"But that did not pacify the angry Jewish community, which wanted the writer to resign, media reports said."

[The implication being: You see, the Jews are never content with mere apologies. They will not settle for anything less than total revenge.]

But then this perversity has been a staple of Indian media's discourse, even though the little Jewish state of Israel, and the Jewish diaspora in US, has been immensely helpful to India-- most notably, during hard times such as the Pakistani invasion of Kargil.

Deliverance from this crass vulgarity is not in sight though, what with the middle-eastern robber barons pouring petrodollars and bankrolling the English media in India. At this rate, such attitudes can only be expected to worsen.