*** CAUTION: Not Suitable for Children and May Not be Suitable for Workplace Viewing ***
About 10 hours ago, late afternoon yesterday, Times of India published an article headlined, “Incest: Haryana’s shameful social heritage” by Sukhbir Siwach.

Most of you probably missed it…I did too…until I was alerted to it by centerofright. The article talked about disturbing incidents and reports of incest in Haryana and appeared to suggest that this practice was widespread in rural Haryana:
These are not isolated incidents: incest is reportedly a real part of life in rural Haryana
It …

The day of coronation appears to be coming closer…The machinery seems to be working full-time to establish the dynasty in the “hearts and minds” of the people of India.
First you had the “celebrations” around the Prince’s coming of age. Last week we witnessed the pleasing face of the late patriarch beaming from hoardings, posters and advertisements in newspapers…Today, I was alerted to this painstakingly compiled photo album, courtesy NDTV that talks of (emphasis added):
“Priyanka’s aura…that definitely cannot be ignored

Wait there is more…
Her poise and elegance coupled with her settled attitude, …

…or how some news is best left out of the main pages. Courtesy Ashok-ji,  my attention was drawn to this brief news-item about a Dutch missionary who was asked to leave Jammu & Kashmir within weeks  – just after his visa was renewed for four years. Read on:
A Dutch missionary of the Institute Mill Hill working in the Kashmir region of India has been asked by authorities to leave the country by the end of July.
His expulsion came as a surprise since the government had just renewed his visa until …

Continued from Part-I. Dear All: I am opening this thread to avoid overload of comments on the previous thread. The last few comments have been reproduced here.
Please continue the discussion on this new thread. Thank you.
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Comment by Sid:

Just to add some discussion here:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100730/jsp/frontpage/story_12749135.jsp Note the last para:
“Attacking Hindu terror works fine for us. But taking on Muslim extremism is a very sensitive issue and so we should be careful. Achuthanandan is sounding like the Bajrang Dal and the central party is backing him,” said a senior …

Thanks to JKV and Sudhir Kumar for alerting me to this nugget (UPDATE: Credit for picking this story must go to Venkat Kumar. Thanks).
From a PTI news-story filed by a staff writer (6th Aug ‘10; 14:21 hrs IST; emphasis added):
Alappuzha (Ker), Aug 6 (PTI) The right hand of a 24-year-old man was nearly severed by a gang, allegedly to wreck revenge for his questioning one of them for teasing his cousin sister near Cengannur here, police said here today.
Abhilash, an autorickshaw driver, was waylaid and attacked by the gang on …

There is a new kid on the block. (S)he is called “Hindutva Terror” (aka “Hindu Terror”).  Chances are you have heard the word before; Chances are you have got annoyed, perhaps just a little bit angry and moved on. Chances are you have never paused to think who – and what – is this “Hindutva Terror”? Until a few days ago, I was in the group of people who – when they heard the word – would get a little annoyed, perhaps a little angry and then move on.
हिंदी अनुवाद …

Dear All: It is my pleasure to invite you to a Live Chat on CoverItLive on 4th July, Sunday between 430pm – 630pm IST (11am – 1pm GMT; 7am – 9am EST). The chat will be a relatively free-flowing discussion covering news-reports, Mainstream Media (mainly English MSM) and perceived biases and prejudices in news-stories. We will also discuss ways in which we can help raise awareness about this offline and help improve standards in reporting.

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Mainstream Media and Prejudices
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Two recent examples of worrying news-coverage (or …

Courtesy Mukta Lad, some findings from the latest Edelman Trust Barometer (Report) that will cheer all of us who have long given up on MSM (Hat Tip: Dosabandit).
1. This year, India’s trust in the media has gone down by 7%, as compared to last year.
2. Even as trust in mainstream media is declining,  search engines are now the most “trusted” source of information in the digital/online world. Not just that, the credibility of search engines and free content sources (such as blogs) now rivals that of traditional …

As Manipur tries to sleep through the *60th night* of blockade…

…girls paint their bodies with World Cup slogans in far-away Moradabad…

…the top two “Most Read” news-items on Timesof India’s website are “Bride turns out to be a boy” and “Big B Wishes speedy recovery to SRK” (which reminds me, can we please request SrBachchan to put Manipur on the national agenda through his blogs/ tweets?)

…the top 2 “Most Shared” news item are “Five foods every woman must eat” and “Bride turns out to be a boy”…(can you please share …

Most of you must have missed this news (below)…I almost did. Pl read through and see if you can spot something odd. From Politicians behind Orang encroachment (emphasis added):
…facts…reveal how vested political interests have joined hands with illegal settlers and encouraged them to encroach on land, including sensitive Protected Areas..
The latest incident in which scores of people entered Orang National Park and built up shelters within a span of few hours has demonstrated how well-planned and motivated the entire operation was.
It was timely action by forest department personnel, assisted by …

Q: What is common to remittances, media houses and covert evangelism?
A: Grow India

If you have never heard of “Grow India“, I don’t blame you. I was alerted to this combined “effort” of Remit2India and WorldVision via two separate emails yesterday morning (Thanks to M Balaji and S Venkat).
A little bit of digging revealed that Grow India’s aim is
to bring sustainable development to the underdeveloped areas of India…The strategy is to have a sustainable development in…underdeveloped villages that will be monitored by the local governance community ensuring the well being of …

*** CAUTION: Long Post ***
Most of you reading this may not have visited Bareilly. And if you are not a particularly avid follower of twitter or any of the “newfangled-tech-stuff”, you may be wondering why on earth am I talking about Bareilly on a lazy weekend morning.  I don’t blame you – especially if you rely primarily on the English mainstream media for your dose of news.
Bareilly is a small city in Uttar Pradesh in a region called Rohilkhand. It is one of the hundreds of sleepy cities in “Bharat”. …

…so am I.

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Images courtesy: The Hindu, ET, ToI, IE
Related Post: Explaining AfPak to a 14-year old

A brief & hurried dissection of  Exposing Indian democracy – the Op-Ed in today’s The New Indian Express. Comments and thoughts welcome, as always…

It has now become abundantly clear that Qatar has offered M F Husain citizenship, though it is not entirely clear yet whether one of India’s greatest artists has accepted the offer yet.
What is abundantly clear is that Sh Husain does not have to accept it. It has been offered not forced on him.
If he does, he will have to renounce Indian citizenship. And that, as members of …

*** A ROLL CALL OF SHAME ***
PTI News:
Army captain, jawan, militant killed in J-K encounter
Srinagar, Feb 23 (PTI) An army captain, a jawan and a militant were killed in an encounter between ultras and security forces in Sopore district of North Kashmir early today.
DNA India:
Gun battle ends, 3 soldiers killed in Kashmir
Srinagar: Militants holed-up in a house at Chinkkipora village of Sopore on Tuesday killed three soldiers of Special Forces who had gone to flush out the ‘high-value target’.
Hindustan Times:
Sopore encounter: Two army men, one militant killed
An Army officer and …

This is…

and this…

and this…

and this…

I don’t think any comment is necessary.
I would simply like to reproduce two tweets from Kanchan Gupta and Atanu Dey respectively:
KanchanGupta: Folks it’s amazing, the manner in which the avalanche story is being downplayed to promote SRK interview! Sad. Very sad.
AtanuDey: My heart goes out to those soldiers and their families. They died to protect a callous Bollywood/Cricket crazed public.
P.S. The sites/publications that redeemed themselves: Indian Express, Pioneer and Hindustan Times
Related Post: The great joke that is Indian media – Part XIII (posted just …

…in which “opinion” masquerades as “news”.

Pl. read these concluding lines from Austerity proves costly for BJP:
In pursuit of happiness or their own lives, voters expect our netas to be honest, not corrupt but not really austere. Voters want accommodating vision, accurate polices for them. They know what’s austerity, what’s tokenism, who is working for the nation and who for self .
I wondered whether I was reading an Op-Ed. By the way, this is why I love NDTV
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Earlier posts in the series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part …

2 snapshots from the “Aman ki Asha” Facebook Page presented below without comments…

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Snapshots taken at around 1030pm IST.
Comments and thoughts welcome.
Image logo: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/amankiasha.cms

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 …

In the first part of this post, I cited evidence contrary to Sh Sanghvi’s assertion that “Hindu kings destroyed Buddhist monasteries…”
Sh Sanghvi’s second point was that, as a consequence of such destruction (which we now know is not supported by historical records) Buddhism declined in India – that land of its birth.
Let us start by what Dr B R Ambedkar had to say on the decline of Buddhism in India:
“..There can be no doubt that the fall of Buddhism in India was due to the invasions of the Musalmans…Islam came …