This is beyond funny…

….. or The great joke that is Indian Media – Part X. Courtesy BarbarIndian and the post  Let Afzal hang Pramod Muthalik,

So, here is the latest transgression of Mr. Muthalik:

  • a group of men intercepted the bus on the outskirts of Mangalore  forced Shruti out, along with her co passenger, Shabeeb
  • They were interrogated about their relationship for over 20 minutes before being released.
  • “It is the Sri Rama Sene which is responsible for this incident as well,” Kunhambu told HT
  • Kunhambu told NDTV that his daughter and her friend were assaulted by Bajrang Dal, Ram Sena goons. 
  • The MLA said that the bus conductor belonged to BJP. “He called Bajrang Dal, Ram Sena goons.”
    “They let my daughter go after holding her captive for one hour. The Muslim boy was released much later,” he said. “Ram Sena, Bajrang Dal activists snatched away my daughter’s mobile phone,” he added.
  • According to reports Sene activists allegedly barged into the bus and picked up the girl, Shruti, and the boy and took them away in an autorickshaw.
  • Shruti said Ram Sene activists were angered by the fact that her companion was a Muslim.
  • Her father and Kerala MLA CH Kunhambu told CNN-IBN that he suspected Ram Sene to be behind the abduction.
  • On the way, a boy, her classmate, also boarded the bus. As they were reaching Mangalore, she said a few men started shouting abuses at both of them,” Kunhambu said over telephone.
  • Later, these people were found to be activists of Sri Ram Sene, said the legislator from Manjeshwar in Kasargod district.
  • Kunhambu suspected the hand of Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sene men behind the merciless beating of his daughter and Shabeeb. 
  • Mr. Kunhambu said Shruthi and the boy, Shabeeb, a resident of Kasaragod, were forcibly dragged out of a private bus at Mahaveer Circle (Pumpwell Circle) and were made to sit in an autorickshaw allegedly by the Hindutva activists. 
BUT WAIT….

Courtesy Offstumped, The Times Now makes this stunning disclosure that the accused were no un-Hindu hoodlums but instead they were members of the DYFI, the CPI-Mafioso’s student wing.

Two days after the attack on CPM MLA’s daughter and her friend, the accused claim to be a part of CPM’s student wing-the DYFI. More shockingly, these men say that their attempt was to protect the MLA’s daughter’s modesty. While police refused to share details,the arrested claim they belong to CPM’s student wing – the DYFI. On asked as to which party they belonged, the driver of the bus the couple was travelling in – Arvind Das said, “DYFI.” Surprisingly, the accused claim they were keeping the MLA’s daughter out of harm’s way. “They were oly trying to protect the girl’s modesty from being compromised,” defence lawyer told TIMES NOW.

This disclosure raises an interesting question if the whole episode was at the behest of the CPI-Mafioso father who perhaps may have shifted the blame once the story was grabbed the national media.

Be that as it may, this episode once again exposes the Talibanised closed mindset of the 24×7 national media which no longer cares about approaching news with an open mind.

Even before the police investigation was completed and the facts of the case were established, the media was quick to ascribe blame to saffron outfits.

***
Who exactly was behind the attack and attempted abduction?  Can I request Tehelka or one of the other channels to do an investigation?
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Related Posts:
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I Hate Bloggers*

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“The great joke that is Indian Media” series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

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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.

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25 Responses

  1. Nanda says:

    this is so ridicular, now why can’t NDTV be sued? I clearly don’t have the experience. So if anyone is suing NDTV (and others as well if possible), i’m ready to put as much money as possible on that.

  2. Dr Arindam Bandyopadhyay says:

    Part of a blog of mine on Sulekha.com on the same subject.

    “THERE IS A SERIOUS LACK OF INTEREST OF MAINLINE NEWS MEDIA TO SHOW ‘WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MLA’S DAUGHTER WHO WAS ABDUCTED AND HER MUSLIM FRIEND WHO WAS ASSAULTED BY HINDU TALIBANS’

    AN EARLIER REPORT BY IBN LIVE
    MLA daughter kidnap: 5 held, no proof of Ram Sene link
    http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mla-daughter-kidnap-5-held-no-proof-of-ram-sene-link/84739-3.html?from=search
    HAS MYSTERIOUSLY VANISHED AND LEADS TO AN ERROR PAGE.

    BUT THE DESIRED DAMAGE TO THE SAFFRON BRIGADE AND HINDU TALIBAN HAS BEEN DONE.

    NO APOLOGIES TO BE EXPECTED OR WOULD BE GIVEN

    ONE MORE ‘SUCCESS STORY’ FOR THE ANTI HINDU MEDIA! IT WILL MOVE ON TO LOOK FOR THE NEXT ‘AGENDA’

    IF THEY HAVE THE MEANS THEY WILL EVEN REMOVE THE SAFFRON COLOR FROM THE NATIONAL FLAG AND MAKE IT PLAIN WHITE AND GREEN.

    THIS IS NOT A SATIRE SO TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT OUR MEDIA STANDS FOR AND HAVE TO ACT.
    IN NO OTHER COUNTRY, PERHAPS, IS THE MEDIA SO STRONGLY AGAINSTS ITS OWN MAJORITY POPULATION AND STILL GETS AWAY WITH IT.

  3. AG says:

    India is circling the drain and hindus have only one choice

    Rise up, unite and fight (ignoring the ‘ahimsavadi’ voices and stand their ground.
    Or be annihiliated, and remembered in history as a barbaric civilisation.

    Frankly, the way we’re going…

  4. Nanda says:

    How come you missed ‘Times now’. They are not too different either. Refer to their earlier report here http://www.timesnow.tv/NewsDtls.aspx?NewsID=28870
    “Barely days after the Mangalore pub attack, moral policing reared its head again when activists of a suspected saffron group dragged both the daughter of a Kerala Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and her accompanying male friend out of a bus and reportedly kidnapped them before releasing the victims.”

  5. roy says:

    I feel so ashamed that we hindus are consistently maligned in a country where we make up 83% of the population. I feel so lucky to be living in America. Hindus are actually appreciated here *rolls eyes*. It’s only a matter of time before hindus are pushed so far into the corner that we will be forced to pick up the gun and defend ourselves. All these left parties, cong, media folks just need to go. It also sickens me that our brothers and sisters in the armed forces have to lay down their lives to protect these incompetent, vile, and corrupt characters. And to top it all off they get treated like those jihadi **** that they kill everyday crossing LoC by the same so called “elite” with their fancy anglicized accents.

    I think what India needs are people like those fine young men on bharat-rakshak.com. They have no idea how much good they are doing. They are a total hit in my social circle. ugh i just wish i had a paid email service lol.

  6. Vijay Gupta says:

    How tragic it is; how the people are being misled; is it worth believing what is being reported in the media?
    How far can it go? Just think about it.

  7. S says:

    Shantanu, you have mail(s)

  8. Dr.N.Ganesan says:

    Best way to put a check on our news media’s indifference and bullying attitude only against anyone who supports Hinduism is to have a separateun-biased channel as Audit channel of all channels to show all their contradictions summarized and put it to the public 24X7.

  9. Blogger says:

    Posted in Interesting articles of the day 2/9/2009.

    Protest over skier intensifies in J&K
    Angry crowds blocked the main road to Gulmarg on Sunday as massive protests continued to rock the north Kashmir resort town and adjoining areas, a day after police detained a Swedish skier for hurting Muslim religious sentiments.

    Youth brutally murdered for marrying Muslim girl
    A kangaroo court brutally “punished” one Sailendra Prasad at his in-law’s village Lakshmanpur in Berhampore as he married Manera Bibi. The judges of a self-proclaimed village court never agreed to their inter-religion marriage.

    My take>>>>>>Welcome to Incredible India! Where in this supposed Democratic Non-Islamic Secular country people are deported for putting Quranic verse on a ski, women are beaten black-and-blue by the real Muslim Taliban in a Mumbai mall for putting a Quranic verse tattoo on their body, women guests like Tasleema Nasreen are beaten and given death threats by Muslim extremists led by an elected Muslim MP for writing about Hindu Genocide in Bangladesh but Anti-Hindu bigots like MF Hussain are felicitated for drawing only Hindu Gods, Goddesses, Bharat Mata (Mother Nation depicted as powerful woman) as naked. Where the Police is more worried about…..It doesn’t seem like the same country where our great Vedic Rishis (seers) had set one of the million principles of Sanatan Vedic Dharm…..

    Rest posted in Interesting articles of the day 2/9/2009.

  10. Amit Bhadhuri says:

    *** COMMENT MODERATED ***

    NDTV is an enemy of the nation,it is anti-national and fiercely anti-Hindus and very much pro-pakistani. …

    The kind of anti-Hindu and pro-pakistani journalism is carried out by NDTV is certainly a threat to Hindustan. The BJP, Shiv-Sena and similar groups need to expose…NDTV…for the sake of Hindustan.

    *** NOTE BY MODERATOR ***

    Pl. stick to civil language…and please refrain from personal allegations and abuse. Thanks.

  11. borneveryday says:

    Should we even beleive the Media anymore? Finally is it the ram sene or the DYFI.

    http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/feb/08dyfi-responsible-for-assaulting-mla-kunhambu-daughter.htm

  12. Jayasankar.N says:

    This is really funny. Media is going crazy… crazy to the core. I dont know wat they are upto. They are making things sensationalized and reap the Rating and based on that Advertisement, This sucks man. Who is gonna tie bell on these cats??

    Biased News, Hooked up stories, Useless news sensationalized! Important News like Srilankan War or Local issues suppressed. Need One good Media which can give the right News without any biased vision on it. Hope we need to push them to it.

  13. AR says:

    First, I’m still in the middle of exams, excuse the delay in the reply.

    Second, check this out: (via:http://communalism.blogspot.com/2009/02/cpm-statement-re-violence-against.html)

    Communist Party of India Marxist

    February 7, 2009

    Press Statement

    The Polit Bureau of Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

    The CPI(M) strongly condemns the violence against the school going daughter of a Kerala CPI(M) MLA, in Mangalore. The violence included forcible abduction from a public bus, confinement, physical beating, humiliation, threats. Alongwith her a young Muslim man who was traveling on the same bus and who was a brother of a school classmate was further targeted. It is the fascistic agenda of the sangh parivar and the Hindutva brigade targeting minorities and women’s rights in the name of culture which has spawned such criminal elements. They act with impunity because of the patronage if not connivance of the BJP-led government of Karnataka. It has not only refused to book such elements and proscribe their organisation under the Unlawful Prevention of Activities Act in spite of repeated attacks, but which has provided justification for their criminal acts as in the case of the assault on young women in a Mangalore pub.

    The Karnataka government must be forced to act. The Central government is duty bound to ensure that women and minorities are protected in Karnataka.

  14. Let at look at the “issue” again.
    It would have been a non issue, far from being news worthy, had she not been an MLA’s daughter.Such incidents happen in India, don’t they? So, making this an issue to be given air time on national media shows the decay in media’s discretion and moving away from a non- partisan view.
    Okay, it has happened.Find the culprits than starting a political blame game.

    On the TOI report: As far as I know, DYFI is NOT a student wing but a youth wing.SFI is their student wing. Let me not get started on the “virtues” of DYFI. I am a Malayalee,Kerala suffers a lot thanks to these men in red.

    -Nikhil
    (I am a usual non commenter, have been following this space for long)

  15. Indian says:

    I m just thinking what would be the reaction of muslim community in name of culture if muslim girl is seeing Hindu Boy? Double talk! of protection of minorities!

  16. K. Harapriya says:

    There is an even bigger joke. Apparently the editor and publisher of the Statesman–a newspaper published in Calcutta–were arrested for reprinting an article by Johann Hari on Feb. 5. There were numerous protests outside the Statesman offic in Calcutta; so our wonderful police, instead of telling the protestors to go away, arrested the editor instead. Did you hear about this in any detail in the mainstream media? I sure didn’t. While our media beat their chest everytime a fringe organization attacks women in a pub, they find it perfectly acceptable to remain silent when freedom of the press and free speech is attacked.
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/editor-arrested-for-outraging-muslims-1607256.htmle

  17. Sunitha Ramesh says:

    The Indian media is totally in the grip of neo-nazi casteist mafia masquerading as ‘social justice’ promoters. The media goes on proclaiming that “India is the largest democracy”, that there is free speech/freedom of expression etc. But that is limited to presenting only one sided information. SC/ST/OBC issues are big news for the media. They will regularly publish ‘data’ on their employment in the central govt, but will ensure that similar data from states like TN/Karnataka etc (where the ‘reserved’ hold 99% of the state jobs) is carefully suppressed. The biggest culprits are the Hindu, (it should actually change its name to ‘dravidian’), express, toi, etc.

  18. Jayadevan says:

    Sunitaji,

    “states like TN/Karnataka etc (where the ‘reserved’ hold 99% of the state jobs)”. Care to tone that down a bit? We still find quite a lot of high-caste people in government in these states.

    Or could it be that the lower castes, once they get their jobs, adopt higher caste customs and names? We see a lot of this in Gujarat, where people from the lower castes legally change their surnames. They will not take up Rajput surnames, because Solankis and Rathods and Parmars are also found among the lower castes. They go for Patel and baniya surnames (mostly work related names like Banker/Engineer /something-walla which are safe enough and automatically confer respectability). They even buy houses in housing societies that are meant for the upper castes by hiding their real identity from the builders. They are also very active in religious organizations – automatic entry into places which their real identity would effectively bar them from. They even adopt high-caste customs like women covering their heads, organizing pujas at home etc. Some are so concerned about protecting their identity that they restrict relations with family members. This process could be happening in the Southern states too.

  19. Nanda says:

    dear sahadevan,
    “we still find quite a lot of high-caste people in government”. This seems a bit over reaction as well atleast in TN. Though out of context, I had to set the perceptions right. Almost all the government servants from Forward castes are nearing retirement age in TN. Even then their count is too negligible to say ‘quite a lot’. You could provide some reference from offical source if you are sure.
    Caste based reservation coveres 87% of TN population by the 69% quota. Forward caste secures atleast 2-3% of seats in institutions due to participation, but they don’t secure even 1% in govt jobs

  20. Sunitha says:

    Response to Mr.Jayadevan

    99% job capturing by ‘reserved’ (also called weak, backward and marginalised by TN politicians and the shit-scared media!) atleast in case of TN is a fact. The category-wise employment data in central Government is regularly published. But why is similar data not available in respect of states? The reason is only one. Publishing the data would bust their claims of the so-called ‘reserved’ being “marginalised” would go bust. Along with it would go the privileges secured from seven decades of hate incitement.

  21. B Shantanu says:

    Excerpt from Casteist slant in media reportage by Mahesh Chandrasekaran

    …In June 2008, 20 students of IIT Delhi were reportedly asked to leave for poor academic performance. The category-wise break-up was as follows:

    – 11 (55% of those asked to leave) reportedly belonged to the SC category
    – 1 belonged to the ST category
    – The remaining 8 (40%) were of unspecified identity, euphemistically called the “General Category”

    Three facts stand out from an analysis of media reportage on the above issue:

    (1) Total disregard for facts;
    (2) Over-enthusiasm of the media (voluntary or forced, one cannot say) to appear as saviour of particular sections of society; and
    (3) Absolute unwillingness of the media to consider the rights of those outside the reservation system and subject to the same penalties.

    The media reportage on the numbers is quite revealing. Accuracy and truth have become easy casualties. This is how media reported the numbers…

    Read rest of the story here.