MxMIndia

Tag: Shiv Sena

  • We saw how today’s media celebrated when the Supreme Court handed the land to the destroyers of the mosque to build a Ram temple in 2019, especially our friends in television, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Nation’s Shame, and Now?

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    “The scenes will return, like deranged ghosts, to haunt those of us who were at the graveside to witness the burial of a secular dream. The screams of exultation with each blow of a pickaxe, each thrust of a rod, each dome that came crashing down…

    “3 p.m. Sadhvi Rithambara starts singing and dancing and, as if in a trance, repeats over and over again a mesmeric exhortation: “Ek dhakka aur do, Babri Masjid tor do” (Give another shove, and tear down the mosque). A village lad from Kanpur district rushes past with a piece of brick held aloft like a trophy. “These are Babar’s bones,” he shouts in unholy glee…

    “A red cloud of dust settles on the rubble, all that remains of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid shrine. And, all that remains of the myth of Hindu tolerance.”

    These are excerpts from Dilip Awasthi’s report, in India Today magazine, on the demolition of the Babri Masjid, December 6, 1992.

     

    The magazine cover read: “Nation’s Shame”, as I was reminded by my former boss Inderjit Badhwar on Twitter, who was then editor of India Today. He now runs India Legal and more.

     

    I only use India Today as an example to demonstrate that 1992 was a different India, for the media at least. You can compare this report to India Today as it is now, as well as to its TV spin-offs to see the change for yourselves. 1992 was 28 years ago. A whole generation and more have grown up in between and never known what that India was. A whole media generation and more does not know what the media was. No relentless 24-hour news television. No internet. No social media. Those who could, watched the demolition on the BBC World Service. But there were witnesses.

    A special CBI court on September 30, 2020 acquitted all the 32 accused in the Babri Masjid demolition, including the LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. The judge said there was no conspiracy and the demolition was not “pre-planned”. The CBI put forward 351 witnesses and 600 documents as evidence, apparently not good enough. The judge however did say that the demolition was an “egregious violation of the rule of law”.

    Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan, who led the commission of inquiry into the demolition from 1992 and submitted his report in 2009, said this to Indian Express on September 30, 2020: “I found it was a civil conspiracy, I still believe in it. From all the evidence produced before me, it was clear that the Babri Masjid demolition was meticulously planned… I remember Uma Bharti categorically took responsibility for it. It was not an unseen force that demolished the mosque, human beings did it,”

    He also said his “findings were correct, right, honest, and free from fear or any other bias”.

    “For posterity, it is a report that will provide an honest account of what took place and how. It will be part of history.”

     

    According to Justice Liberhan’s report, the accused had either actively or passively supported the demolition.

    https://indianexpress.com/article/india/justice-liberhanbabri-masjid-demolition-6657370/lite/?__twitter_impression=true

    Between then and now, between the action and the decision, the changes to India’s population, sense of self, of identity, and to India’s media have been incalculable and not all for the better. The fact that the media itself now sees the likes of LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and the planners and implementers of his Rath Yatra and Ram Janmabhoomi movement to be comparatively benign speaks to how much we forget and choose to forget. The comparison is made to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah as the fount of Hindu majoritarian hatred. But they are only the inheritors of a tradition laid down long before their time in power. Even the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi was chief minister of Gujarat happened under the watch of AB Vajpayee as Prime Minister of India and his deputy, Advani.

    The role of Bal Thackeray and the Shiv Sena in the demolition and the subsequent riots in Bombay cannot be forgotten either.

    Already however, you will find from within the media itself, the blame being laid on the Congress government in power at the Centre in 1992 and PV Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister. And on Rajiv Gandhi who as Prime Minister opened the locks of the mosque to allow Hindu prayers. This blame cannot be escaped. But it is a sideshow compared to the RSS’s Hindutva agenda carried out by the BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and all those of the “mob” that did the actual demolition.

    In the Indian Express article linked above, there is a photograph of the BJP’s Uma Bharti and Murli Manohar Joshi celebrating the demolition. It is possible that the CBI’s investigation was full of loopholes. But whatever the “mob” did that day, not all the acquitted actually wept with sorrow. Many were extremely happy at the actions of their own “kar sevaks” as we can see.

    We saw how today’s media celebrated when the Supreme Court handed the land to the destroyers of the mosque to build a Ram temple in 2019, especially our friends in television.

    You could replay that 1992 India Today headline for the media now: Nation’s Shame.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays, except this week because it’s a ‘no edition day’ tomorrow. Her views here are personal. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona

     

     

  • Once again we lean on the Amul topicals to tell the story – on Sharad Pawar, the race for the CM post and on the Shiv Sena

    Utterly Butterly Maha-licious

     

    Once again we lean on the Amul topicals to tell the story – on Sharad Pawar, the race for the CM post and on the Shiv Sena. We were a little surprised though that there haven’t been, but guess doing a funny ‘un on the Sena is a serious matter…

     

    This is when Sharad Pawar came back to the political arena in Maharashtra as Chief Minister (1986)

     

    Return of Sharad Pawar as Chief Minister of Maharashtra in 1986

     

    There was a furore when the Australian cricketers pushed the then BCCI President Sharad Pawar at ICC Champions Trophy prize distribution ceremony at in Mumbai in November  2006… the joke doing the rounds is that only Ricky Ponting & Co had the you-know-what to push Pawar!

     

    Amul reflects the Shiv Sena’s popularity in Mumbai. This was in 1989, when the city was still called Bombay.

     

    Politicians fighting for the CM’s post… may not have been done for Maharashtra, but we all know what’s been happening over the last few days

     

    Was a topical that appeared in October 2014

     

    Remember there was a problem in Maharashtra in September 2014 too…

     

    This was done when there was a change of CMs in Maharashtra in Jan 2003
  • Ensure you, family and friends are registered in the electoral rolls. To check, visit https://www.nvsp.in

    Is Your Name on the Voters’ List?

     

    By Your Editor

     

    So the general elections have been announced.

     

    We all have our cribs about our politicians. Narendra Modi, Amit Shah. Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi. Mamata. Mayawati. Kejriwal. Shiv Sena. About the inefficiencies in the country: potholes, corruption, traffic, trains, buses, educational system, no jobs. We are fed up of our systems, and many of us believe that things will never improve in our lifetime.

     

    Perhaps this belief is correct. But we can try and make a difference. For starters, elect a candidate and political formation to represent us. And pray the elected reps do something. Make them accountable.

     

    The question is: how many of us will beat the summer heat, the lethargy and the attraction of sleeping those few minutes extra because it’s a holiday? For those in Mumbai, the voting day is April 29, a Monday. Perhap enough reason to get out of the city for a long weekend.

     

    It’s however important for each of us to vote. If there’s no candidate who you think is worthwhile, press the NOTA button. It’s critical to express ourselves and get the right person elected as Member of Parliament.

     

    Please check if you are on the voter’s list.

     

    Visit: https://www.nvsp.in

     

    If you get an error, just click on reload. It will come on.

     

    Then enter your name and search. If  you don’t remember your Assembly constituency, don’t bother. The search facility is pretty powerful.

     

    Also, please check with all those eligible to do the same, if they haven’t already done that. If they haven’t registered, they must. And if they have registered, they should keep checking at the website.

     

    The submissions (for proof) are simple: photograph (passport- or ID card-sized), birth certificate, passport, driving licence. If you don’t want to link your Aadhar Card with this, you can manage without it. The only painful thing is that if the first-time voter is over 21 years of age, then there’s a self-declaration to be filled in, signed and uploaded (click here). Please ensure that the scans of all of the above are jpegs/jpgs, not pdfs.

     

    We’ve done it ourselves for a recently turned potential voter and are hence convinced that it’s simple. You’ll get an sms near-instantly giving you a reference number.

     

    Please do visit the website. Check if your name is on it. As also your family. And then get your friends, colleagues etc to do something.

     

    Also, if you are an employer or a biggie at an organisation, dream up something to incentivise voters. An extra day’s salary may be a bit much, but how about a meal at a good restaurant? Or tie up with a Big Bazaar or Book My Show and get some discounts. Even tie up with the Nykaas of the world asking them to cosmetics at a 50% rate.

     

    We need some of upscale stores to step in too. Foodhall, Nature’s Basket, the five/seven star hotels, an extra discount to Zomato Gold members who have voted.

     

    How about some brands sponsoring hot and healthy/unhealthy breakfast outside the voting booths? Meal boxes.

     

    Can our TV channels position their popular stars at selfie points for people who have voted. Take a selfie with Shankar Mahadevan?

     

    If brands can do major activations at the Kumbh Mela, this is a Maha-Maha-Maha-opportunity for a public connect.

     

    Dream on, folks. Let’s make the 2019 Lok Sabha elections an unforgettable one. And elect a government we want out there.

     

     

  • The law needs to be amended. And parents need to inform and educate their children on ground realties. Because when virtual world collides with real world, the result can often be traumatic

    Anil Thakraney: The IT Act needs to be rewritten. ASAP

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    ‘If you have nothing good to say about the departed soul, best to keep quiet. Safety of Mumbai comes first.’ This was my tweet immediately after the announcement of Bal Thackeray’s death. This was not because I panicked, it’s because, one, I wanted all those Mumbaikars who were out on work or on personal errands to make it home safely. And if possible, stock up on rations in case the Sainiks decided to go on a rampage. Two, people from my generation are well aware of the Shiv Sena’s methodologies, and a violent reaction was always to be expected. That nothing happened is largely because of Thackeray Jr’s call for peace.

     

    Which then brings me to the two young girls from Palghar who were made to face the music over an anti-bandh FB update. (Wish they had been following me on Twitter!) First, the girl who posted the message made a technical error. The Shiv Sena had not called for a bandh (though there were stray incidents of a few goons intimidating shopkeepers). The city had decided to shut down on its own. Partly because of fear, partly because of respect. Secondly, and this is where I blame the parents, many young Indians may not be aware of the Sena’s violent ways because that outfit hasn’t launched a big campaign in the last ten years. But those of us who lived through 1992 and 1993 are perfectly aware of what these men are capable of when provoked. I think parents need to make their kids aware of political realities, now that the social media has given everyone an unfettered platform to speak. In that sense, I don’t really blame the two girls.

     

    So does that mean there’s no place for dissent in this so-called democracy? Obviously not. But belting out criticism even before a mass, hugely popular leader has been cremated is inviting trouble. Had the young girl posted her update later this week, I suspect there might have been no reaction at all. Also, it must be said she got unlucky, many others had posted far more damning messages. I do believe timing is the key out here. Unfortunately, the social media has turned many young fingers very itchy, and I have often noticed folks hit the buttons before they think.

     

    So then what now? Well, the goons who attacked the hospital need to be punished, for sure. Charges against the girls need to be dropped and the case withdrawn. But more importantly, the IT Act needs to be totally re-written and made abundantly clear so that there’s zero scope of misuse by the cops in the future. That is a no-brainer.

     

    However, that still doesn’t change the fact that the Facebook-addicted girl has caused two big harms. One, many, many young Indians will now think ten times before commenting on hard issues. I am told many have already deleted harmless updates and tweets on Thackeray. Two, she may have unwittingly given the Sena the bite it needed after their patriarch’s demise. The Sena shakha pramukh from her area is already being hailed as a hero amongst the party cadre.

     

    Net net: The law needs to be amended. And parents need to inform and educate their children on ground realties. Because when virtual world collides with real world, the result can often be traumatic. As we just discovered.

     

    ***

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N8axp9nHNU[/youtube]

    PS: An utterly charming, endearing Christmas ad from the UK. The power of love. And the power of advertising. Brilliant! This is what festival ads should be like.

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and editor based in Mumbai. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own.

     

  • He wasn’t the social hypocrite that many politicians can be. Even journalists who disliked his politics became his friends, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Bal Thackeray and the media

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Bal Thackeray started life as a cartoonist in a newspaper. He carried that necessary incisive humour and sarcasm with him to his political life to great effect. From this, one might conjecture that he should then have had very good relationships with the media. But instead, it was up and down, like a see-saw. Once he got into his particular brand of divisive, identity politics, a difficult relationship with the media was inevitable.

     

    Thackeray’s irresponsible off-the-cuff remarks made for great reading but he rarely accepted that they had consequences that could be potentially dangerous. As he started to flex his muscles in Bombay – as it was then – and control his cadre to do his will, his relationship with the media continued on this shaky path.

     

    Also Read
     

    He was a Bindaas cartoonist: Hemant Morparia

     

    The Anchor: How the Sunday papers announced the Bal Thackeray news the morning after

     

    Anil Thakraney: Insensitive for channels to call know Thackeray-baiters

     

    Ranjona Banerji: How the channels & papers fared

     

    Jaldi 5 with Bharat Dabholkar: Thackeray was unique… he was a Brand

     

    However, it is important to keep in mind that the media was not this over-bearing constant presence in our lives the way it is now. The mainstream Marathi and English newspapers both were somewhat distant from the reader and the media was placed far more to the left than it is today. And Thackeray was initially used as a tool to attack trade unions, a domain of the left. The very erudite ivory-tower editors of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s were rarely impressed with either Thackeray’s bluster or his tactics.

     

    When the Shiv Sena started its mouthpiece newspaper Saamna in 1989, this was Thackeray’s answer to the mainstream media. It was where he got to have his say and take pot shots at all his rivals which could range from other politicians to the cultural elite. The more outrageous his pronouncements, the more his followers loved it. The Saamna edit would sometimes determine the events of the day and how they panned out in Mumbai. It was Thackeray’s revenge on the Govind Talwalkars and Madhav Godboles, you might say.

     

    When Thackeray turned from his Marathi identity politics to Hindutva, as especially after the riots of 1992-93, any gloves that were on came off. His interview to Anita Pratap for Time magazine where he talked about his admiration for Adolf Hitler became something of a scandal. He had a long-running battle with Nikhil Wagle and Mahanagar. And he made some rather needlessly derogatory remarks about women journalists which did not go down too well.

     

    He also kept track of what was said about him. Once in the late 1990s I had a very difficult time as deputy editor of Mid-Day in trying to organise an interview with him for an anniversary issue. The senior reporter who approached him for the interview he felt had been too critical of him. It took a bizarre meeting with Sanjay Nirupam, then still with the Sena, to get Thackeray to agree to meet Mid-Day but he absolutely refused to meet the chosen journalist. The odd thing was none of us could find any critical articles of him by her! (Some of the most critical were in fact written by me, but I had not asked to meet him!) But Thackeray was adamant and initially messages of his anger came to us through various sources ranging from the publisher-owner to the distributor.

     

    Shiv Sainiks also gained a reputation for attacking newspaper offices – a tradition which they have maintained to this day, now expanding their scope to television as well. It was here where the Sena and Thackeray’s relationship with the media reached its lowest point. There have been instances where Thackeray expressed regret or made some kind of amends for the physical attacks on the media including when a woman journalist was roughed up by Sainiks. But it was his aggressive posturing and his subtle encouragement of violence which allowed his party workers to use violence as an answer.

     

    However, almost every journalist who met Thackeray was charmed by him. He had wit and charm and could even display a sense of warmth up close. He was not the sort of social hypocrite that so many politicians can be, and this made him unique. Even journalists who disliked his politics became his friends.

     

    But with a generation change in newsrooms, Thackeray became larger than life and his fans in journalism grew. To many who arrived in Mumbai, he was a grand figure that they had only heard about, and they admired his celebrity. This was the new kind of journalist which emerged in the 2000s, less discerning and more starry-eyed, fed on myths and legends. An older, ailing Thackeray became less accessible, and the legend grew.

     

    The sort of fawning, laudatory TV interviews which were being replayed after Thackeray’s funeral may have amused the man himself. If there was one thing that was undeniable – he was always up for a sparring match.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are her own.

     

    Big Story image cartoon is by Manjul in DNA (www.dnaindia.com). Used with permission from Mr Manjul. Please refer to Mr Manjul’s recent cartoons on Mr Bal Thackeray at http://www.manjul.com/tag/bal-thackeray. One of the toons he had drawn on the Sena chief won him the Maya Kamath Memorial Awards for Excellence in Cartooning 2009.
    Background image of crowds at the funeral: Fotocorp

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and in the papers

    Ranjona Banerji: Sena on shaky ground, polls to decide all

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Mumbai has elections on February 16 to select its municipal corporators. Since the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has a bigger budget than some state governments, this is an important election. It is also a political test for the incumbent Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party and a signal for the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance – which is in power in the state – about the roadblocks ahead for the next general election.

     

    Not surprisingly, election coverage has dominated Mumbai’s newspapers. Most seem to think that the ground is shaky for the Shiv Sena. This is, in a sense, a last bastion for the Sena – it has ruled the BMC for almost two decades. But everyday, newspapers are full of the shortcomings of the corporation and the corruption involved in most deals. Mumbai’s roads and water supply get the most attention and none of it positive.

     

    The general sense you get from newspapers is that this time there will be a challenge to Bal Thackeray from not just the Congress-NCP but also of course from his nephew Raj Thackeray and his breakaway party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Uddhav Thackeray – the son and the main bone of contention – does not have the requisite firepower, seems to be the overwhelming feeling. There is also a discussion on whether both the Senas will cancel each other out.

     

    The Times of India and The Indian Express both carry interviews with chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who says he pushed for an alliance with the NCP this time – to avoid fracturing the vote as happened when both parties went alone in 2007.

     

    * * *

     

    All newspapers have also focused on the low voter turnout in Mumbai and have exhorted citizens to come out and vote. You could pick up any newspaper to find out all about the candidates from their bank balances to their educational qualifications. The new seat reservations have created some turmoil in parties, all of which have been faithfully recorded.

     

    * * *

     

    Interestingly, the high number of dry days – three have been decided by the Election Commission – has been cause for consternation in print. The bar and restaurant association has put in a plea reported in Wednesday’s papers to allow the sale of alcohol in the evenings of the dry days, after voting is over on Thursday. The right to drink is well-felt by most journalists, so it is easy to see why this forced abstinence should get prominence.

     

    * * *

     

    It is these little titbits which make newspaper reading so pleasant a pastime. The oddities of life rarely find room in the high-pitched breaking news landscape of TV land.

     

  • A good section of the English language media has often gone out of its way to prop up the Shiv Sena, writes Vidyadhar Date.

    Newswatch: Vidyadhar Date on the Thackerays and the English media

    By Vidyadhar Date

     

    There are several dimensions to the way the Shiv Sena looks at the media. I was present at the launch of the party’s mouthpiece Saamna in 1989. Bal Thackeray, the Sena chief, declared quite clearly that the Congress had made money in the municipal corporation in Mumbai for all these years and now they are going to do that.

     

    That was the ideological framework in which their mouthpiece was launched. Uddhav Thackeray had not arrived on the scene then. But now the Sena has launched his son, Aditya as well. The Sena now gets respectability from various quarters.

     

    The recent full page write-up, in what can be termed as ‘paid news format’, praised the Shiv Sena’s performance in the civic body in a ‘Response Connect initiative’ in Maharashtra Times on December 21. The feature can be seen as virtually the launch of the campaign for the civic elections in February 2012.

     

    What takes the cake is the projection of Aditya Thackeray as a youth leader whose efforts gave a roof to poor municipal students to study for their examinations. Night-time study centres were started in 16 municipal schools because of his alleged efforts. The credit is also been given to the Yuva Sena which he heads.

     

    Now a team from the civic body will also inspect sanitary facilities in civic schools, again thanks to the young man’s virtual directive to the municipal standing committee.

     

    A good section of the English language media has often gone out of its way to prop up the Shiv Sena. I have seen this from close quarters in The Times of India where I worked for over 30 years.

     

    A senior executive of the paper claimed that it was because of the Shiv Sena that Hindus in Mumbai were saved, post Babri Masjid demolition riots. Maharashtra Times, headed for many years by Govind Talwalkar, an erstwhile follower of MN Roy, has changed considerably in the last few years. Its editor, Bharatkumar Raut, went on to become a Shiv Sena MP. After this, he ceased to be the editor but remained as editorial adviser to the TOI group.

     

    A Hindustan Times Media Marketing Initiative of December 22 gave full page coverage to the Shiv Sena for providing allegedly ultra-modern health facilities. The page is full of pictures of Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sainiks and medical equipment. All credit is given to Mr Thackeray.

     

    Ironically, Uddhav Thackeray released CDs of the historic daily Maratha earlier this month at a function organised by his family. Maratha, now defunct, was a roaring voice for ordinary, poor people during the Samyukta Maharashtra agitation in the 1950s. It was fairly left-wing and its famous editor, litterateur Acharya Atre, was often accused by the Sena in the past of being a Communist sympathiser. Atre and Uddhav’s grandfather, Prabodhankar Thackeray, were at loggerheads and indulged in much mud-slinging in the media in the late 1950s. It is said that the term Shiv Sena was actually coined by Atre though he had quite a different kind of Sena in mind.

     

    The Atre family deserves credit for preserving the paper for posterity in digital form. Even large media groups with huge resources have failed to preserve their history in this way. The TOI, which claims to be the world’s largest selling daily, has not democratised its content, and one has to pay high fees to see a single page of the microfilm content of the paper.

     

    Curiously, the Atre family was approached by the Congress party, the Sena and the Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, for preservation of Maratha’s old files, according to Meena Deshpande, daughter of Acharya Atre and author of a Marathi novel on the Samyukta Maharashtra agitation.

     

    Interestingly, Narayan Rane, a former Shiv Sena chief minister, and now Congress minister, used his Marathi daily Prahar (assault) to attack the media calling it “dirty media”. “Dirty picture, dirty media” is the headline of the front page signed article by Narayan Rane on December 22. He was incensed by the electronic media’s coverage of legislators when they went to see Dirty Picture at a theatre inNagpurduring the legislature session there. The media had no right to intrude on the privacy of the legislators, he claimed.

     

    The writer is a veteran journalist.