The super-secular Chindu could only notice a few visitors raising a protest against two paintings. It gives you the impression that everything went so peacefully. Contrast this with the article from The Statesman.
The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Art exhibition on Aurangazeb cancelled
The protesters have been clearly identified as Muslims. The exhibitors have been arrested and interrogated. Chindu chose to censor this information.
There is no sermon by the ELM on the "freedom of expression".
The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Art exhibition on Aurangazeb cancelled
An art exhibition on the life of Mughal emperor Aurangazeb in the city was closed down on Thursday following protests by a section of visitors who objected to the “communal nature” of some of the exhibits. However, some visitors raised a protest against two paintings showing demolition of temples in Somnath and Mathura.The Statesman
An art exhibition on the life of the Mughal emperor Aurangazeb was today cancelled following directions from police after some Muslim individuals objected to two paintings showing demolition of temples in Somnath and Mathura on the ground that they would “disturb peace” in Tamil Nadu. Four persons, including Mr R Saraswathi, a volunteer of the Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism (Fact), the organisers of the exhibition, have been detained for interrogation, a senior police official said. “If found innocent, they would be let off,” he said. The foundation is run by Delhi-based French journalist Francois Gautier. Police said some Muslims, who came to the Lalith Kala Academy, the venue of the exibition, raised objections to the paintings, depicting Aurangazeb's forces demolishing Hindu temples at Somnath and Mathura. “They claimed that the pictures were sending wrong messages which could lead to communal hatred following which we asked Fact to cancel the exhibition,” the official said. The exhibition which opened on 3 March was scheduled to run till March 9. Earlier in the day, regional secretary of the academy Mr RM Palaniappan told reporters that he was waiting for orders from the Delhi headquarters on cancelling the show. - PTI
The protesters have been clearly identified as Muslims. The exhibitors have been arrested and interrogated. Chindu chose to censor this information.
There is no sermon by the ELM on the "freedom of expression".
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8 comments:
The persons (such as the "Prince" and "Nawab")who objected to this exhibition perhaps consider themselves as the descendents of Aurangazeb! Aurangazeb was also known to despise music. It will be interesting to see if these secular Princes and Nawabs will protest in front of the Music Academy (now under the control of the very secular Chindu family and great buddies of the Prince-cum-Nawab).
It is a good Journalism practice not to name any religion/caste and say "Section of people".Not sure why you object to this.I have seen numerous posts on clashes where the caste or community was not directly named and it is good
"If found innocent, they would be let off," he (the police official) said. It is interesting to note that the police were quick to detain the organisers, but not the protesters (who are assumed to be "innocent" a priori).
One is left to wonder if M.F. Hussain was ever detained (for his "secular" paintings) by the police under the condition, "If found innocent, he would be let off,".
@anonymous (who thought of this as 'good journalism practice')
Why dont you spend a few minutes going through the recent posts in this blog. You can learn more about the 'good journalism' that Chindu practises.
Are they reporting about an ongoing religious riot to be this cautious?
How is it good journalism to witheld information and suppress facts?
Can any problem be solved if you even refuse to acknowledge its existence in first place?
It is bad journalism, and insulting journalism, to treat your readers as immature which is what Chindu excels at. Issues don't go away by such wishful journalism.
Here is some more of what secular Chindu chose not to report.
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At the Police Station:-
When the poor volunteers were taken by a police van, a big group of Muslims were seen standing outside the gates enjoying the show. The five people had been detained in the station for about 45 minutes and enquired. The enquiry had been conducted by the ACP Mr.Murali inside his cabin and the volunteers had been offered seats in front of him. They had been questioned about their profession and their connection to Mr.Francois. The ACP had even talked of confiscating the Passport of Mrs.Saraswathi's daughter Ms.Anupama. He had again termed Mr.Francois as a "Foreign Terrorist" and had blamed that the volunteers were helping & assisting him to incite communal violence in the otherwise peaceful Tamil Nadu. He had asked the venue in-charge Mr. Palaniappan, in front of the volunteers, to give a written complaint on the organizer / volunteers. He had not bothered to listen to the explanations given by the volunteers and started taking notes of their details. Before that, he had asked the senior citizen Mr.Raman (72) to go saying that someone had phoned up for him.
In the meantime, as the news of the arrest of organizers / volunteers had spread, Mr.V.sundaram, IAS had phoned up the Home Secretary & DGP thrice, Mrs.Chandralekha IAS & Dr.Subramania Swamy (from Delhi) had phoned up the Commissioner of Police, Chennai City and Smt.Radha Rajan Secretary, VIGIL Public Forum, had spoken to the Joint commissioner Mr.Bala Subramaniam condemning the highhandedness of the police and demanding the immediate release of the detainees. While the ACP Mr.Murali had been vehemently blaming the volunteers during the course of the enquiry, he had got a call from the Joint Commissioner and immediately after that, he had calmed down and asked Mr.Palaniappan to stop writing his complaint and had ordered the Inspector to allow the volunteers to go after taking a written statement from them. They had been asked to give a statement saying, "We were brought to the station from Lalit Kala Academy, the venue of the exhibition for enquiry and were allowed to go home after completion of the enquiry".
The four volunteers, who had been detained in the station, have very decent family backgrounds, are well educated and they have never gone inside a police station even once in their lives so far.
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For more details, see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hinducivilization/message/26579
@ anonymous in comment 2:
It certainly is a good journalistic practice, but this paper is very selective in "applying" this practice. What happened when it reported the Bhaiyalal Bhotmange incident?
"All Bhaiyalal Bhotmange, the Dalit whose family members were killed......" http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/17/stories/2006111702871100.htm
Why is the word "Dalit" mentioned here?
The reader's editor was once asked why the paper identifies the community of the victims when they are dalits/minorities. The LiC was unapologetic and said atrocities against the weaker sections of the society must be highlighted. When Brahmins in Tamil Nadu were attacked by DMK goons, the paper did not identify the community. Brahmins constitute less than 3% of the state's population. Aren't they a minority? Why did the paper not identify the community as victims? It is this double standard that this blog condemns and not the principle of not identifying a community/religion.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/17/stories/
2006111702871100.htm
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