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Pulp friction

Newswise, this certainly has been the most boring week of the year. And I'm afraid it's going to be the same for a while. Some may consider the recent statements from the major players worthy of interest or alarm... Nah, it's nothing but electoral rhetoric. What is interesting though is the way the press is going about it: From all the papers I scan, I now see that Indians in every walk of life have suffered only doom and gloom ever since the BJP-led coalition took control. And I wonder, have these past few months been all that different...?

Unfortunately, no. Except for the tremendous escalation of organised crime in Bombay, things are exactly as bad as they always were. It's just that the media has chosen to not only concentrate on the worst, but also run a parallel campaign against the "communal forces" by being partisan to the Opposition. That can't be helped: about 90% of the writing corps is pinko. Of course, the BJP is also at fault: It kept providing the suicidal ammunition by introducing issues that could have waited and behaving as if the party had a full mandate -- when it should have been consolidating its power base by improving the conditions that affect everyday life.

But how does the press create an anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva aura? Take this report from The Asian Age of November 18, titled "Kalyan men try to rewrite history": The journo is shocked that the new history books, being supervised by a panel called the Lekhak Mandal, "will be giving more footage to Hindu rulers and leaders... The (UP education) minister unhesitatingly admits that the BJP's brand of history will magnify the role of Hindu kings and rulers. Mughal emperor Akbar the Great, for instance, will no longer be known as 'great'. 'Why should Akbar be great? Why can't Maharana Pratap be recognised as a great king and warrior? Why can't Shivaji be given the same status,' asks the minister."

Note the use of the words "unhesitatingly admits." They immediately suggest that the minister should have at least mulled over before confessing the crime of highlighting the role of Hindu leaders. Any thinking person would wonder: why, indeed, is Akbar "great," but Maharana Pratap and Shivaji aren't? Because Lord Macaulay said so...?

It's to be noted that the UP government also plans to re- incorporate the famed ballad by Shyam Narain Pandey on the battle of Haldighati -- which poem Mullah Mulayam had deleted from text- books in 1994 on the grounds that it offended Muslim sentiments... If this is not a negation of the Hindu ethos of Hindustan, what is? And so the hack repeats: "the UP government has no hesitation in admitting that it is on a history re-writing spree..."

The scribe's objection (as, indeed, all the scribes' objections so far), is justified thus: "Government sources, however, admitted that the majority of the panel members had RSS backgrounds and strong ideological leanings." A "senior official in the education department" -- who, of course, cannot be named in case it proves or disproves his/her existence -- is quoted thus: "That is precisely the purpose behind the whole exercise. The Kalyan Singh government wants to influence young minds to believe that non-Hindus made no contribution to nation-building and in shaping the country's history."

Not a word, not a question about the contribution of Hindu rulers defending their native land. You see, in this "secular" country, the RSS bogey is all it takes to suspect the lives and achievements of Maharana Pratap and Shivaji...

So also on Rediff. Sharat Pradhan writes: "And cleverly enough, the government has taken care to not just add a few chapters on BJP-RSS icons like Deen Dayal Upadhyaya or Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but also ensure the inclusion of several other 'forgotten' eminent personalities like Ramakrishna Paramhans, Vinoba Bhave, Jayaprakash Narayan, K M Munshi and, to top it all, Mother Teresa."

Note that "cleverly." It implies that the BJP is cunning to introduce lessons on Upadhyaya and Mukherjee, who, apparently, are only RSS icons and not thinkers of any stature. In a news-piece (which, as a rule, is not supposed to be opinionated) casting doubt about the place in history of the "RSS icons," shouldn't the reporter enlighten readers as to what their opus was and why their views shouldn't be introduced in schools? Is Indian political thought to begin and end with Nehruvianism? Does Pradhan wince that children have to learn about Marx and Mao in this age of globalisation and the free market? And, of course, not a word about why the BJP *needs* to ensure the inclusion of Paramhans or Bhave... Too, damned if it doesn't recognise the Mother and damned if it does...

Then there's the fracas over the requisite singing of Vande Mataram in government-run schools in UP: The Deobandh Islamic University has actually issued a fatwa against its recitation since it's a "violati