Showing posts with label indian media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indian media. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

India's Opposition And Media: कुछ तो लोग कहेंगे, लोगों का काम है कहना



Losing the story in Nepal
“In this new world of transnational threats and the information age, it is not just whose army or muscle power wins, it’s whose story wins.” ..... This weekend’s events, with the temporary detention of 13 Seema Sashastra Bal personnel by Nepal’s Armed Police Force personnel and the Nepal government’s decision to take Indian channels off air, only drive the point home that Nepal is rejecting India’s power, both hard and soft. ..... The situation is made only more ridiculous by the decision of the Ministry of External Affairs this week to fly two batches of Indian journalists into Kathmandu to explain what the government calls the “Indian perspective”. Now reports indicate that the Nepal government is planning its own counter-propaganda offensive by taking Indian journalists to Madhes to see the effects of what Nepal calls a “blockade by India”. ....... officials in both Bhutan and Bangladesh say they are watching the situation closely, even as the SAARC Motor Vehicle Agreement awaits ratification. Sri Lanka’s closeness to the U.S. should send out alarm signs in Delhi as much as Beijing’s has in the past, however much the two sides claim to be on the same page.


I have been resigned to the fact that India is a democracy, and so the Indian political classes and the Indian media will take all possible sides in the ongoing conversation in India about Nepal and Madhesh. But it always amazes me how some sections of the Indian opposition and media fall for the line of the corrupt ruling elite in Kathmandu hook, line and sinker, an elite whose central organizing principle is Indophobia. The day they stop hating India, they become irrelevant, or so they think. This is not a playful situation. As a Madhesi who grew up in Nepal, I have not seen the kind of anti-black racism in the United States that can be compared to the anti-Madhesi racism in Nepal. Madhesis don't get hated for being Madhesi. Madhesis first get called out as Indians and then get hated, marginalized and subjugated. It is a well thought out structural subjugation. The entire state apparatus is involved.

I have the luxury to take sides in Indian politics. Modi and the BJP might be right on some issues, Nitish, Laloo and Rahul might carry the day on some other issues. No one can accuse me of being pro-apartheid if I take sides between Modi and Laloo. But Nepal is different. The Madhesis have been fighting what can, by all means, be called soft apartheid. They even get called "blackies." To the Madhesis India has been this sleeping giant. If India can't protect its own in a country that it has all along claimed to have excellent relations with, then what are the chances it might be able to project its power far and wide? The British have not completely left until the Madhesis of Nepal are liberated. Part of the Mughal Empire, the Madhesh was gifted to Kathmandu by the British. 

Indian politicians and the Indian media need to stop pretending what is happening in Nepal is day to day politics. This is a moral fight. There is a right side and there is a wrong side. India's ruling alliance as well as the opposition needs to speak with one voice. The Indian media needs to wake up and see the black and white situation unfolding in Nepal. Blockade se pahle jo 50 Madhesi mare, wo kya Modi ke log the? Aap ko kya lagta hai? Sar par, sine pe goli lagi hai. South Africa mein 1980 mein aisa hota tha.

This Could Be A Gamechanger
The Indian Century Begins In Madhesh

And, by the way, the Cold War narrative that India and China are competing in Nepal is tired and untrue. China is not competing with India, at least not right now. China feels the Madhesi quest is justified and is doing its best to stay neutral. Both India and China have been acting magnanimous. Both have been at pains to get the message across to Kathmandu that all both want in Nepal is peace, stability and prosperity. No power, not India, not China, not America, not Europe, stands with the fascist people in power in Nepal right now. Nobody, except some members of the Indian chattering classes.

Why Nepal's New Constitution Is A Sham
Nepal Needs A Constitution
Nepal: Political Laboratory
HRW Report
Nepal's Decade Long Political Transition

Tuesday, September 01, 2015

#ComeComeIndianMedia

मैं भारत के समस्त टीवी पत्रकारों को नेपाल में आने का निमंत्रण देता हुँ। आइये और नेपालमे हो रहे क्रांति के बारे में अपने करोड़ों दर्शको को अवगत कराइए। अग्रिम धन्यवाद। पधारिए।

#ComeComeIndiaMedia





Friday, May 15, 2015

#GoHomeIndianMedia (2)

English: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Baner...
English: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee attends a news conference in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata September 7, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
ठमेल: Mini India?
#GoHomeIndianMedia

Even since the #GoHomeIndianMedia Twitter trend, I have been on a lookout for video clips that were supposedly offensive. Let's look at this one. My first observation was a racist hatred of Indians is the primary ideology of the elite in Kathmandu, with the Madhesis of the Terai plains bearing the full brunt of it, and this Twitter trend was that same vitriol surfacing onto social media.

भारतीय मिडियालाई नेपालबाट लखेट्नु पर्छ #GoHomeIndianMedia भनेर त्यसै भनेको होइन रहेछ... हेर्नुहोस् भिडियो...

I am not offended. I see a few inaccuracies here and there, but I don't see any malice.

India is a democracy. China is not. India is close to Nepal, China is not, geographically speaking. Ordinary Indians were much more interested in the earthquake. The Chinese in Beijing and Shanghai were less interested. Not because they are less human and less caring, but because they are too far. The US media gave major coverage to Haiti in 2010, and that is why $13 billion was raised for Haiti. The US media did not give the same kind of coverage to Nepal, and so Nepal raised less than 50 million in America. The Indian media's 24/7 coverage was good for relief and reconstruction. That is what prompted Mamata Banerjee to send 100,000 tents, the most needed item at the time. The Indian media is Indian. They cater to an Indian audience. Why are you offended that the Indian media is interested in Baba Ramdev and in Narendra Modi. Modi, FYI, is a duly elected Prime Minister of India who got a majority after a long break of 30 years. The India media is interested in Modi because the Indian people, the Indian audiences, are interested in Modi. Several European countries thanked Modi for what he did in Yemen. I have not heard any Nepali politician or organization thank Modi. For both India and China, this has been the largest relief operation they ever carried out outside their own countries. There is no need to minus the Chinese work. But you have to be really cynical (and racist) to try to play China against India at this time of tragedy, especially at a time when China and India themselves are not interested in that. They realize this is a time of tragedy. Even at a time of peace they both just want Nepal to develop. This China-India game is the smokescreen of the corrupt elite in Kathmandu. It is used to distract the Nepali people from corruption, mafia raj, and sheer incompetence.

Stung by its neighbour's reaction, India plays it cool after 2nd quake hit Nepal

नेपाली मीडिया नेपाल और नेपाली के बारे में बात करती है, किसी नेपाली को बुरा नहीं लगता।  इंडियन मीडिया इंडिया और इंडियन के बारे में बात करती है तो इस बात का किसी नेपाली को बुरा लगता है तो वो नेपाली बेबकुफ़ है।