Finally, the BJP is waking up and putting its parliamentary strength to some good use, by highlighting the red terror that has engulfed Kerala over the past few decades.
God's own Gulag or Stalin's own Archipelago, as Kerala deserves to be called--pick yours--has been in the news over past couple of days for all the right reasons. Marxist thuggery has stalled Kerala, and particularly Kannur, for a while now. CPI-M monopoly has ensured that freedom of choice took a backseat in the biggest democratic playground where it matters most: free and fair elections. Hopefully, BJP will keep the facts on Kannur in public conscience long enough so as to bring meaningful democracy to this ignored section of India's hinterland.
Anyway, what struck me particularly are the determined efforts by media towards establishing a false moral equivalence while discussing Kannur violence.
Their alacrity in banishing this inconvenient topic from front-pages, and from public memory too, is astonishing. They want to move on, as fast as they can. Does it have anything to do with who the bad guys are? I think so.
Expect similar dissimulation from popular talking heads in the articles that will ensue.
Indian Express's effrontery can be gauged from this piece where it smugly pontificated:
Elsewhere, the ruling party or majority is solely to be blamed--no shades of grey in between, no shared responsibility, well Kashmir is an exception to this rule. But then again, the uber liberals of the editorial class have always had more than a soft corner for Marxists, which shows up in their coverage and commentary of matters concerning CPI-M. Same goes for the perpetually victimized "minority."
How is it that the same voices who exhort restraint and caution after every act of terrorism in our cities turn around and are judgmental in readily declaring the identity of the "perpetrators"? Do we not have ample data on who the perpetrators of bomb blasts usually are? Yet we're supposed to wait until the investigations are over, and the law has taken its own course. But no such restraint is required of professional pontificators.
God's own Gulag or Stalin's own Archipelago, as Kerala deserves to be called--pick yours--has been in the news over past couple of days for all the right reasons. Marxist thuggery has stalled Kerala, and particularly Kannur, for a while now. CPI-M monopoly has ensured that freedom of choice took a backseat in the biggest democratic playground where it matters most: free and fair elections. Hopefully, BJP will keep the facts on Kannur in public conscience long enough so as to bring meaningful democracy to this ignored section of India's hinterland.
Anyway, what struck me particularly are the determined efforts by media towards establishing a false moral equivalence while discussing Kannur violence.
Their alacrity in banishing this inconvenient topic from front-pages, and from public memory too, is astonishing. They want to move on, as fast as they can. Does it have anything to do with who the bad guys are? I think so.
Expect similar dissimulation from popular talking heads in the articles that will ensue.
Indian Express's effrontery can be gauged from this piece where it smugly pontificated:
[that] it is up to the CPM and the BJP to curb their excesses in Kannur. And this is not to assume any moral equivalence in this Delhi episode, where it is clear who the perpetrators of violence were...It precisely does what it claims not to. It cleverly establishes moral equivalence between CPI-M's terror tactics in its citadels, and the feckless response it incurs. Is it conceivable that IE would ever posit in an equally condescending tone, had the clash involved Muslim aggressiveness, asking Muslims to curb their "excesses"? They have ample opportunity to demonstrate such evenhandedness when it comes to the so-called minorities, but I would bet my wallet on anyone citing an exception.
Elsewhere, the ruling party or majority is solely to be blamed--no shades of grey in between, no shared responsibility, well Kashmir is an exception to this rule. But then again, the uber liberals of the editorial class have always had more than a soft corner for Marxists, which shows up in their coverage and commentary of matters concerning CPI-M. Same goes for the perpetually victimized "minority."
How is it that the same voices who exhort restraint and caution after every act of terrorism in our cities turn around and are judgmental in readily declaring the identity of the "perpetrators"? Do we not have ample data on who the perpetrators of bomb blasts usually are? Yet we're supposed to wait until the investigations are over, and the law has taken its own course. But no such restraint is required of professional pontificators.
2 comments:
In fact, the people outside Kerala still knows only very little about the CPM terror in Kerala. Have you heard of Jayakrishnan murder ? Jayakrishnan, a primary school teacher was brutally murdered by CPM men while he was teaching, in the classroom, in front of his students.
http://www.hindu.com/2003/08/27/stories/2003082704550700.htm
Imagine, primary school kids witnessing their teacher's murder, in the daylight!
CPM threatened many of those kids and their parents and asked them not to turn up in the court as witnesses!
There are many such terrible stories, which media and people tend to forget very fast!
I knew about Jayakrishnan murder. That was appaling, the media silence that followed is stunning.
What irks me is that the media has done a lousy job in not detailing the persons who were butchered by CPI-M and why they were chosen.
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