Friday, March 14, 2008

Somnath's blocking tactics

The venerable Mr. Somnath Chatterjee has taken it upon himself to defend the CPI'M's dastardly actions at Nandigram and other places.
Please read the content in its entirety here: Reference to Nandigram violence in U.S. report evokes condemnation

Please read the US State Department report here which lists other CPM activities in Kerala and other parts of the country.
India Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2007

He goes to the level of saying,
“should be ignored with the contempt it deserves.”


He also goes on to say that, our sovereignty should be impinged by external intrusions,
It said the report was based on “totally misplaced facts.”


This coming from the same Mr. Chatterjee who does not raise his voice to Chinese threats on Arunachal Pradesh or Pakistan's comments on Kashmir and Gujarat.
Chindu's reporting does not comment on the rationale behind the statements, nor does it contain balanced details of the happenings in Parliament for that session.
The article does not detail that the report also documented information about killings in Kerala and other parts of the country by CPM associates.
It is likely that we will see an editorial coming up soon, probably the mandarins at Anna Salai are wording it up as we read, probably written by Karat or Yechury.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The amazing thing is a deafening silence from BJP. What is it doing, when the speaker gets carried away with all his biased views and expressions. He seems to have forgotten the fact that he should be unbiased as a speaker. Last week he expressed his unhappiness about the supreme court's views on Teesta's comments. This time this is about US views on Nandigram. People like Swapan Dasgupta risks their life to write critical articles on the speaker and still the main opposition party, BJP, does not care to join an issue with his partisan views. People like Advani are too careful to cultivate the image and relationship with other politicians that they care less about what the speaker says. This is the reason I hate boneless BJP.

Ananya

Anonymous said...

The amazing thing is a deafening silence from BJP. What is it doing, when the speaker gets carried away with all his biased views and expressions. He seems to have forgotten the fact that he should be unbiased as a speaker. Last week he expressed his unhappiness about the supreme court's views on Teesta's comments. This time this is about US views on Nandigram. People like Swapan Dasgupta risks their life to write critical articles on the speaker and still the main opposition party, BJP, does not care to join an issue with his partisan views. People like Advani are too careful to cultivate the image and relationship with other politicians that they care less about what the speaker says. This is the reason I hate boneless BJP.

Ananya

Dirt Digger said...

Ananya,
The BJP like the Congress does not have the spine to take a firm stand on foreign policy. A lot of it is driven from joining the Non-alignment movement, where we would not side up with the Left or Right. You hit the nail on the head that the BJP does not hold the Speaker accountable for his words.
Unfortunately the media which is supposed to hold the Parliament accountable, does not question the honorable Speaker to the same standards as any "right-wing" fundamentalist organization.

Anonymous said...

The Chindu and commies welcomed the U.S. report on Gujrat and denial of Visa to Mr. Modi. Then there was no Somnath to tell us that it “should be ignored with the contempt it deserves”.
And they never considered it as a “grave interference in the internal affairs of India by the Bush administration.”

Here's blogpost on this:

http://jokesfromindianleft.blogspot.com/2008/03/cpim-terms-us-report-on-nandigram-as-in.html

Anonymous said...

I remember Harish Khare writting an article during Godhra violence when EU countries such as Spain and Finland raised the issue of human rights violations there. When the NDA raised objections to that (on the lines of non-interference in India's internal matters), Khare suggested that India need not be too sensitive about comments being raised in some quarters about human rights violations in India. Now there is no comments from Khare and he is talking about the divine rights of congress to rule the country to take on the "deshvirodis". Our "honourable speaker" was MP then and he did not bother to give a hoot about that time.

Ananya

Anonymous said...

To Dirt Digger:

The link to relate media and objectivity is definitely an oxymoron (particularly with The Chindu). Given the intricaxies involved in running a paper (advertisements, sponsorship, etc.), newspapers do not NEED to be OBJECTIVE in their reporting. This is the work of the opposition party. If BJP does not care about confronting the Speaker for his biased utterences, why would any one, particularly in the media, dare to confront him given the privileges he enjoy under the constitution and get hauled up by the Parliament Privileges Committee and get sentenced by these morons. When Swapan Dasguta wrote that article on the Speaker in The Pioneer and his article was criticised by the parliamentarians, no one from the BJP came to his rescue and he was left to dry high. Finanlly it was the "magnanimity" of the speaker that let him go and not the fear of confrontation from the BJP. With people like Manas Dasgupta, Neena Vyas, Siddhardh Varadarajan (what the hell is he doing in the bastion of global capitalism 'US'), Harish Khare, why to expect the media to confront the speaker, when the PM-in-waiting is too careful to nurture his "clean" image by not confronting the Speaker.

Ananya

Anonymous said...

Regret the delay (due to indisposition) in posting the following stuff, which I feel should not go unnoticed/uncommented.

---------------------

http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/10/stories/2008031054320600.htm

Two die in police firing

A.V.Ragunathan

VILLUPURAM: Two persons died in police firing at Eraiyur near Elavanasurkottai in Ulundurpet block on Sunday. Trouble erupted following a friction between two sections of converted Christians over access to church services.

The police resorted to firing to disperse a mob that had ransacked houses of Dalit Christians....... In the police firing, two persons, M.Periyanayagam (40) and Mahimai (30), Vanniyar Christians, died of bullet injuries.

Dalit Christians of about 150 families complained that they were discriminated against in offering worship at the Annai Sahaya Mary church at Eraiyur. Since Vanniyar Christians constituted a majority, numbering about 2,000 families, they got preference in all church functions and Dalit Christians were relegated to the background....
------------------------------

Readers should note the heading, surprisingly mild by Chindu standards, given that the issue involves Dalits. Normally, the story would be flashed in the first page with a full banner heading such as "Atrocities on Dalits". But, here it is relegated to the interior (page 10, in the print edition). Normally, any Dalit issue would invite the obligatory centre page Op Ed by "Rural Affairs" Sainath and a sermonising Editorial (by none other than the Chief himself) to wash it down with.

The problem here is the clashing parties are Chindu's pet minorities, although Chindu calls them "converted Christians" so as to (indirectly) lay the blame on their "purvashrama". It would be interesting to know about non-converted Christians in India (Mataji Sonia, may be the rare one).

In contrast to Chindu, the New Indian Express (Monday, March 10, 2008) carried the same story prominently on the first page.

For a brilliant and detailed write-up on the topic, see:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hinducivilization/message/26735

Dirt Digger said...

R,
The issue we are facing here is selective amnesia displayed by the media and the parties involved.
A vigilant media would question the same politicians about their previous quotes and haul them over coals.
Unfortunately the meek and diseased do not have the courage to do so.

Dirt Digger said...

Ananya,
Thanks for your note on the Swapan Dasgupta editorial.
(For people who have not read it, the article in its entirety is here -http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=SWAPAN54.txt&writer=SWAPAN&validit=yes
)
And Somnaths response here,
http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/19/stories/2005081903761000.htm

The business of running a newspaper should not contradict with the principles on which it was found.
Here the contradiction is significant where the paper has meandered from being beacon of independence to a puppet of coterie of left leaning interests.
Especially in a capitalistic society that should not be the case.
However expecting the BJP or Congress to lead the vanguard is not realistic. The rationale being a rat whichever color it might be is still a rat.
I agree with you that there are several left leaning and inefficient members of the media, but the media is the best way to hold the politicans accountable.