Date: 29 Jan 2012
Dear Editor / Journalist / Writers,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Namaskaram, You are well aware, that the Press and Media i.e. Print and Electronic media has a “right-to-inform” (to the people). Now, the people think that the media also has a responsibility to lend a sympathetic ear to what the people say. Recently Mumbai was rocked with ‘serial-bomb-blasts’. Won’t you like to know what the Nation is thinking about it? Well, an ‘Open-letter-to-media’ is appended in the attached file, please spare some of your valuable time and be kind enough to read the letter and respond.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Thanking you, Sincerely A citizen\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An open letter to Print & Electronic Media \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Sir / Madam, \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Prologue \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\In the morning of 14th July, 2011 with a cup of coffee in hand, I causally looked at the newspaper headlines. I found nothing new or interesting in the day’s news. Only the usual and routine stuff, like Serial blasts rip through Mumbai, yet again. Only 21 killed and 130 injured. Not a big figure to be worried about, indeed. So without going into the details I thumbed through other pages, only to find the rest of the news equally stale. So I thought, I can as well take a look at the “terror update for today”. Sounds stupid, odd and silly? Well let’s take a look at this extract from a newspaper ‘no other city in the world has been the tragic target of as many serial terror attacks and bombings as Mumbai’ and the report proceeds to inform you further ‘Mumbai was attacked in 1993, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008 and again July 13, 2011’. Behold, this statistical report speaks of attacks on Mumbai only, it does not cover the attacks in other parts of India, the most unfortunate country in the world.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Political scene\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ We just don’t understand the psychology of our Government. In no other county, terrorist attacks are treated so lightly and so shamelessly, totally devoid of patriotic sentiments or a sense of responsibility. The way our so-called leaders, who govern the country, the way they Act, Behave, Conduct themselves with an unmitigated callousness towards national interest, is simply loathing and causes revulsion. Sounds like an unkind remark? But truth is always harsh and bitter. Whenever there is an attack, instead of plunging into action to find and arrest the terrorists, our politicians, intellectuals, media men and the ilk, vie with one another in issuing appeals to people to remain calm, as though the people were agitated or angered during the earlier attacks. Central government says it has given intelligence in-puts to states and tries to wriggle out from the responsibility. States say the in-puts are not serious ones. What’s happening to our country? It has become a playground to every Tom Dick and Harry among terrorists. Instead of pondering about country’s security, blame game between politicians goes on. State list, Central list, Concurrent list and what not, are endlessly debated. Nobody talks or thinks of safeguarding country against the ever increasing terror threats. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Yes, Mumbai is attacked. The tragedy is not the attack in itself; the way it is treated politically, is what causes pain. The Islamic terrorist is not attacking Mumbai, he is attacking India and hapless victims are not Mumbaikars, they are Indian citizens. Immediately after 26th to 29th November 2008, Pakistan’s war on Mumbai, a spate of promises were made and steps announced to make India better prepared to meet the terror challenge. As many 13 steps including NCTC, MAC, NATGRID, NIA & NSG Etc. have come into being. Without any meaningful outcome.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, Chief Minister, Maharashtra was helpless in the initial moments after the bombs went off, he was unable to interact with Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik. He averred Mumbai was ill-equipped to fight terror. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Congress leader Mr. Digvijay Singh went to the extent of making a remark that the role of Hindu groups cannot be ruled out in Mumbai blasts, and then he quickly retracted his comments and said he did not use the word Hindu, but said that Sangh parivar is fascist, so goes his crazy talk. If he has veritable hatred towards Hindus, so be it, but he has no business to make such remarks at a time when the nation is in peril. Even during Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s rule, the liberation of East Pakistan with sacrifices of Hindu blood and lives was taken up on priority over liberation of Kashmir from the clutches of Pakistan. What prevented Mrs. Gandhi from defending India and liberating Kashmir? May be her political sagacity placed East Pakistan above Kashmir. What a misfortune, that is India?\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Mr. Rahul Gandhi, the would-be Prime Minister observed “we will stop 99 % of terror attacks, but 1 % of attacks might get through. Terrorism is something that is impossible to stop all the time” very well said, may I ask Mr. Gandhi, how many attacks have you stopped so far, let’s not bother about percentages, please give me one example. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Let’s consider the following:\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ • Often terrorist action is termed as cowardly act. But be informed that, a coward can never launch such attacks. It’s only our hypocrisy that is making such silly remarks. • Fresh talks with Pakistan scheduled on 26.07.2011 – Government is worried about adverse effect on talks (terrorism is no worry). \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\• Mumbai blasts to figure in Indo-US strategic dialogue next week (as on 16.07.2011). What for? Mrs. Hillary Clinton made it aptly clear that the US can warn Pakistan, can do only so much (nothing more). She is right; an attack on Mumbai is not a problem concerning United States of America. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\• Mr. Man Mohan Singh said “The government will do everything in its power to prevent such attacks in future” – Why not now? Media – Print & Electronic\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ A friend of mine sent an e-mail which read “Indian Media watch - Crooks and Liars in the Indian media are the greatest danger to our democracy. Bias, outright lies, paid news, plagiarism and political leanings characterize much of our media”. While I don’t wish to comment on this, it is fact that, in our country both Print & Electronic media are, by and large explicitly anti-Hindu. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ This reflects in their reporting of news, such as terror attacks etc. Want evidence? Just switch on to any channel on your Tele Vision and watch, any thing that is even remotely connected with Hindus is Criticized, Condemned, Derided, Ridiculed, Scoffed, Mocked-at and Made fun of. The same is true in the case of many newspapers particularly an English daily that calls itself a 'National news paper'. Such things can happen only in our country. Usually when something serious happens, media persons promptly jump to conduct interview sessions with an array of ‘personalities’ who invariably hold diametrically opposed views. An endless discussion ensues, where shouting or shouting-down rules the roost. The entire exercise finally proves to be highly argumentative without any Direction, Aim, Purpose or Objective. The tragedy is that, all such rhetoric ultimately ends up in some participants even taking the side of terrorists just to prove their ‘point of view’. National interest will be totally be eclipsed, if not eliminated. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ One repetitive remark frequently observed in media is resilience of Mumbaikars, it goes something like this ‘despite explosions, mumbaikars the very next day carryon with their usual normal activities like rushing to work, schools, colleges etc’. Regarding the so-called resilience of Mumbaikars, let us understand unambiguously that, it is total and abject haplessness and helplessness of the people, but by no means can it be termed as resilience. After all, what else can a people do, than to be resilient, where there is no Government worth the name, where total chaos rules the roost, where everything is decided by vote bank politics? Another pain with the media is, whether it is voluntary or in voluntary, almost immediately after every attack, all sorts of irrelevant talk are brought to the fore, such as Terrorism has no religion, Mercenaries are executing attacks for money, even Pakistan is facing attacks so on and so forth. All this idiotic talk only results in diluting the seriousness of anti-national activity and directly abetting interests of terrorists. One newspaper has however commented that ‘Mumbai has emerged as the country’s terror capital. Situation here is as bad as Kabul or Karachi’. There seem to be an urgent need for the media to make some introspection. Now, let’s examine how our neighboring countries, though small in size, are patriotically responding to terrorism and internal strife.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Sri Lanka\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Sri Lanka a small country off the southern coast of our country, often called the pearl of the Indian Ocean because of its beauty, is a republic. The country belongs to Sinhalese, who form the majority of the population. The largest ethnic minority in Lanka are Tamils, who are concentrated in the north and east of the island. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ The notorious Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) representing Sri Lankan Tamils fought a bitter war for over a quarter of a century throwing the tiny nation into anarchy. What do you think that the Sinhalese people did? \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ • Held discussions with LTTE \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\• Lodge a protest • Discussed at international forums • Went begging to UN\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ No sir, they are not Indians, they preferred to fight-it-out and that’s what they did. Result, LTTE was defeated on the battle field, all its ‘leaders’ mercilessly killed including the so-called tiger Velupillai Prabhkaran. Today Sri Lanka is victorious and a proud nation, envied by other nations. Manliness pays, spineless does not. Remember Sri Lanka is a small country and does not stand a comparison with India in any respect. So what? They know how to fight with the enemy and defend their motherland.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Bhutan\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Kingdom of Bhutan, with Thimphu as capital, total area of the country is 38,816 square kilometers and is a protectorate of India located at the eastern end of the Himalayas in our country. The state religion is Vajrayana Buddhism, population is just 6,91,141 it is predominantly Buddhist, with Hinduism as the second-largest religion. Bhutan always maintained strong bilateral relations with India. In 2006, Business Week magazine rated Bhutan the happiest country in Asia and the eighth-happiest in the world, based on a global survey.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Let’s see what this minuscule kingdom has achieved. When ULFA militants have made this kingdom a safe shelter zone and repeatedly attacking targets in India, Bhutan decided to cleanse their land of the militants, even without a formal request from India. It has launched an operation with a combined Royal Bhutan Army and Royal Body Guard force of 6000, attacked an estimated 3,000 ULFA militants all 30 militant camps had been captured. Additionally, the RBA seized "more than 500 AK 47/56 assault rifles and 328 other assorted weapons including rocket launchers and mortars, along with more than 1,00,000 rounds of ammunition. An anti-aircraft gun was also found at the site of the General Headquarters of the ULFA. By 3rd January 2004, all 30 militant camps with an additional 35 observation posts were destroyed and the militants dislodged. A total of 485 ULFA, NDFB, and KLO militants were killed, while those captured along with seized weapons and ammunition was handed over to the Government of India. Captured non-combatants were handed over to Assamese civil authorities. The RBA suffered 11 soldiers killed in action and 35 wounded in action. My dear friend, do you still need any comments on Bhutan’s triumph over the enemy? The example of Israel need not be cited here, as this is too well known to be reiterated. Security forces – Police & Army\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ I recall an observation made by a Police Officer in United States, “You don’t negotiate with terrorists. Confront them. It works”.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Mr. Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister, of Russia also observed something to the effect that “First blow should be from our side. It should be so severe that the other person should never raise his head again.” \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\The thinking and actions with us however seems to be exact opposite, for the reasons best known of the powers-that-be only. There is a widely held view among our people, that our security establishments hardly enjoy any independence in their day-to-day operational activity i.e. there is an unacceptable level of political interference, resulting in eventual failure in any security related actions undertaken by Police or Army authorities. We wonder, if our soldiers and policemen are being used as fodder to the enemy’s cannons, owing to inaction of authorities. Intelligence failure is an oft repeated allegation against agencies, which is not in a position to defend itself owing to the so-called ‘discipline’ imposed on it. Lack of co-ordination between intelligence agencies also contribute to the predicament. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ What needs to be done? \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\• First and foremost, a sense of patriotism has to be inculcated by every individual in the country politicians, administrators, intellectuals, professionals, industrials, rich, poor, young and old, why mention categories, each and every citizen of India shall hold national interest above every thing else. • Put an immediate ‘stop-loss’ on pseudo secularism, which is eating into our very roots of nationhood. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\• Stop forthwith all ‘vote-bank’ politics. • Immediate steps shall be taken to undo all injustice done to “Indian History”, which has been Distorted, Fabricated, Falsified and Doctored by the British, and nurtured by our present day Historians with J. N. University background. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\• Every citizen shall conduct himself / herself in a responsible, positive and pragmatic manner to serve Mother India. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\• Parochial considerations, territorial nationalism shall not be allowed to eclipse our judgment, thinking and actions. • Nationalistic fervor, passion, commitment and zeal shall be embedded in the minds of children through school education.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ While concluding, may I request all my brothers and sisters to ponder over the present National crisis and to pro-actively involve themselves and to serve our dear Mother Land? Vande Mataram \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Please forward to all your friends Sincerely yours, \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Karadala Raghavendra Rao ================================ 000000000