Of Haj Pilgrims and Unruly Fliers

Or “The Great Joke that is Indian Media” – Part XII, courtesy BarbarIndians.

*** Excerpted from India’s “insecure” minorities ***

Haj pilgrims confine crew in AI plane for 15 hours

Mumbai, Jan 3, PTI:

Haj pilgrims on board an Air India flight from Jeddah refused to leave the plane on arriving here and confined its cabin crew for 15 hours resenting the diversion of the aircraft from fog-hit Delhi.

Due to fog, the flight AI-891A was diverted to Mumbai at 5.30pm on Saturday and the plane could not leave until 9 pm. When the passengers were asked to deplane and make their way to the transit lounge and hotel for overnight stay, a few of them refused and created a ruckus on board the aircraft.

“The unruly passengers blocked the exits and prevented the security and traffic from coming on board and/or deplaning the other passengers into the parked buses,” a statement issued by All India Cabin Crew Association said. [source: Deccan Herald]

This piece of news was not meant for public consumption, but it made it to you anyway. What you don’t know, couldn’t possibly hurt you, at least not in the immediate future, subject to abrupt changes of course.

By the time news reaches you, several filters get applied. Some of it does not reach you at all, or, sometimes when they do reach you, they get sanitized by the “style guides”. For instance, once the news factory churns out the above piece of news, it becomes something like this:

20 unruly fliers ‘hijack’ AI flight for 15 hrs

Manju V, TNN 4 January 2010, 03:31am IST

MUMBAI: It was a 15-hour nightmare on the ground for over 200 air passengers and flight crew at Mumbai airport thanks to the hijack-like

The unprecedented case of unruly passenger behaviour in the country came about when around 20 Air India passengers—who like hundreds of others found their flight diverted to Mumbai because of fog and technical glitches at Delhi airport—stopped their co-passengers and 12 flight attendants from leaving the aircraft that was parked on the Mumbai tarmac from Saturday evening to Sunday morning. [source: The Times of India]

See, how easy it is? “Haj Pilgrims” become “unruly fliers”, like they say, news is like sausage, you don’t wanna know how it’s made. At least you know the broad outline of how this one panned out, including how the security personnel made no attempt whatsoever trying to rescue the crew. What you don’t know is just how much never makes it beyond the editorial desks.

You didn’t hear about Miraj riots, perhaps you didn’t hear about violent stone and bottle pelting at oncoming cars at Mahim during Muharram either.

*** End ***

I don’t know what to make of this…Is there some kind of self-censorship in operation? Reminds me of the days when newspapers used to report on “clashes between two communities”.

Earlier posts in the series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 and Part 11.

Somewhat Related Post: Chhatrapati Shivaji, Afzal Khan and a mini riot.

Headline Image: Courtesy Air India

B Shantanu

Political Activist, Blogger, Advisor to start-ups, Seed investor. One time VC and ex-Diplomat. Failed mushroom farmer; ex Radio Jockey. Currently involved in Reclaiming India - One Step at a Time.

You may also like...

5 Responses

  1. Jiggs says:

    The role of the media is to be the people’s voice, but here in India the Media is INFLUENCING THE PEOPLE INSTEAD.

    This article amongst many others are all spiced up to PROTECT SECULAR VALUES OF THIS COUNTRY.

    Sometimes, I wonder that till how long will the people of this country continue to pay this heavy price for protecting Psuedo Secular values?

  2. Anonymous says:

    Anyone knows what happened here?

    Haj pilgrims” kin hold protest at city airport:

    Kolkata, Dec 12 (PTI) Relatives of Haj pilgrims on board an Indian Airlines Jedda-Kolkata flight today held protests at the N S C Bose International Airport here as the flight had to be diverted to Mumbai due to fog conditions.

    However, angry over the continued delay, about 1000 relatives of the pilgrims, waiting before the international terminal, began protest at the entrance, leading to inconvenience to the passengers.

  3. Your blog is nice..keep it up..
    Post your blog link in our web and get more web traffic free.
    We are a web Journalist Group. We invite you to our group. Join wit us.

    For dateless mail us

    biplabpal2000 AT gmail.com

    bhaskarbanerjee03 AT gmail.com

  4. Anon says:

    Brings back older memories.

    The Jeddah flights are the worst for the AI crew or so i am told.

    The round trip to Jeddah and back is Rs. 12000/– only thanks to the subsidy.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haj_subsidy

    A Mumbai to Delhi Jet costs more.

    1.64 lacs went to haj this year. Subsidy per passenger is Rs. 50000/– only.

    Works out to 820 crores.

    If 1 lac low-land holding farmers with average loans of Rs.30000/– per year, in the drought prone districts were given Rs. 82000/– for one year, that would take them out of poverty and the loan trap.

    That would set 1 lac families free from debt, suicide and give them some money to buy seeds and fertilisers. Some would drink the money away, some would buy Bajaj motorcycles ( believe me, Bajaj motorcycles and Mahindra tractors – new as well as seconds- have huge sales force in Vidarbha), some would migrate to better places. Most will however repay and invest the rest in agriculture. Until the next monsoon fails and the rain fed farmer is in trouble again, which , however is another story.

    Yet, the money would be better utilised than spending on “unruly fliers”.

    But then this is fake secularism. Subsidise those indian muslims who can fly, but never improve the lives of lacs of indian muslims in Kerala and WB and elsewhere by creating an economic growth that helps people sustain themselves. As a result, the slave trade in the Middle East continues.

    In Gujarat, in Halol, kalol, Ankaleshwar, and in many towns Saurashtra, the muslims are engaged in trade as well as in providing services. But in Kerala, they have to fly out to the ME to work as slaves? Why?

    The fake secularism of the past sixty years perpetuated by the secular party keeps poor and illiterate as poor and illiterate and subsidises flyers. Jai Ho.

  5. Need media watch says:

    The mainstream media massaging facts and still presenting it as “news” is the problem. Once the massaging begins (for whatever lofty “purpose”), it is no longer news but opinion. Let opinions and views be *clearly* marked as such, and not be purveyed as news!

    There is the need for a media “watchdog” organization. In addition, it helps to have multiple media sources and citizen journalism as well.

    Part of why citizen journalism being unable to break the threshold in India (as compared to say, USA) is the laws and lawlessness of India. The abuse of police machinery to quell freedom of expression, corruption that delivers police and justice on a platter in service of private interests, and the draconian application of old British laws, the continued existence of criminal defamation in the statutes, and the retrograde Cyber legislation are problems that will plague our country.

    Criminal defamation was recently abolished in the Maldives. India is one of the countries which still has defamation as a criminal offence, an idea which is foreign to the timeless Indian values and culture which gives better guidance. Even Singapore is clipping the wings of the abusive application of criminal defamation though their legal system has much that originates from the days of the British rule. But India ?