[Assam] Hotel Taj: Icon of whose India?

[Mridul Bhuyan]

This is quite an interesting piece with some really valid points. The role of the media while covering the attacks are definitely we should look into. The credibility of the socalled outstanding journalists are in question.
 
Some of the points woth mentioning about the terror attacks are:
 
1. Except the admission by the captured terrorist, the items used by the terrorists bearing 'Made in Pakistan' marks and satelite phone intercepts, what other proofs are available to show Pakistan's involvement? Are they enough to indulge in mudslinging accusing Pakistan of its involvement, as done by many popular channels long before the evidences collected by Police? This has resulted in immediate reaction from the Pak media and the whole seriousness of the matter got diluted.
 
2. When the Indian media will be matured enough to realise that while an operation is in progress there are limits to which the media coverage should be limited to?
 
3. During the joint press conference with US Secretary of state, Pranab Mukherjee mentioned about all the terror attacks recently including Jaipur. However, he never ever mentioned even the name of the Guwahati incident? Not a single Indian mentioned about the bomb blasts in Guwahati showing that they don't care about the Bomb blasts in Assam.
 
4. In a panel discussion, by ND TV, the famous celebrities in the likes of Simi Garewal, Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing) etc. and in the mass rally, likes of Preity Jinta , Prahlad Kakkar (Ad film maker) have expressed faith in their famous Mumbaikar Spirit (What is that? Is it something that while partying, it is Mumbaikar spirit and while attacked by terrorist, it is Indian spirit waiting for 9 hours for NSG to reach).
 
5. The timing of the blast suits whom, while elections to about 5/6 states are being held.
 
6. Who will benefit the most out of these terrorist attacks?? Let the election results come in.
 
7.  How the top brass of the India security like Heman Karkare, Kamte & Salaskar got killed even before the counter attacks against the terrorist began. Is there any link with the investigations of Malegaon blasts???
 
These are some of the vital points, which needs to be deliberated upon seriously in the aftermath of the terrorists strike in Mumbai. 
 
Rgds
Mridul Bhuyan

--- On Wed, 12/3/08, baruah at bard.edu <baruah at bard.edu> wrote:

From: baruah at bard.edu <baruah at bard.edu>
Subject: [Assam] Hotel Taj: Icon of whose India?
To: assam at assamnet.org
Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 4:51 PM

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: girish karnawat <girishkarnawat at gmail.com>
Date: 2 Dec 2008 15:44
Subject: Hotel Taj: Icon of whose India?

Hotel Taj: Icon of whose India?

Gnani Sankaran- Tamil writer, Chennai.

 Watching at least four English news channels, surfing from one another during
the last 60 hours of terror strike made me feel a terror of another kind, the
terror of assaulting one's mind and sensitivity with cameras, sound bites
and non-stop blabbers. All these channels have been trying to manufacture my
consent for a big lie called - Hotel Taj the icon of India

 Whose India, Whose Icon?

 It is a matter of great shame that these channels simply did not bother about
the other icon that faced the first attack from terrorists - the Chatrapathi
Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station. CST is the true icon of Mumbai. It is
through this railway station hundreds of Indians from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamilnadu have poured into Mumbai over the years,
transforming themselves  into Mumbaikars and built the Mumbai of today along
with the Marathis and Kolis

 But the channels would not recognise this. Nor would they recognise the thirty
odd dead bodies strewn all over the platform of CST. No Barkha Dutt went there
to tell us who they were. But she was at Taj to show us the damaged furniture
and reception lobby braving the guards. And the TV cameras did not go to the
government run JJ hospital to find out who those 26 unidentified bodies were.
Instead they were again invading the battered Taj to try in vain for a scoop
shot of the dead bodies of the page 3 celebrities.

  In all probability, the unidentified bodies could be those of workers from
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrating to Mumbai, arriving by train at CST without
cell phones and pan cards to identify them. Even after 60 hours after the CST
massacre, no channel has bothered to cover in detail what transpired there.

The channels conveniently failed to acknowledge that the  Aam Aadmis of India
surviving in Mumbai were not affected by  Taj, Oberoi and Trident closing down
for a couple of weeks  or months. What mattered to them was the stoppage of BEST
buses and suburban trains even for one hour. But the channels were not covering
that aspect of the terror attack.  Such information at best merited a scroll
line, while the cameras have to be dedicated for real time thriller unfolding at
Taj or Nariman Bhavan.

 The so called justification for the hype the channels built around heritage
site Taj falling down (CST is also a heritage site), is that Hotel Taj is where
the rich and the powerful of India and the globe congregate. It is a symbol or
icon of power of money and politics, not India. It is the icon of the financiers
and swindlers of India. The Mumbai and India were built by the Aam Aadmis who
passed through CST and Taj was the oasis of peace and privacy for those who
wielded power over these mass of labouring classes. Leopold  club and Taj were
the haunts of rich spoilt kids who would   drive their vehicles over sleeping
Aam Aadmis on the  pavement, the Mafiosi of Mumbai forever financing the 
glitterati of Bollywood (and also the terrorists) ,  Political brokers and
industrialists

 It is precisely because Taj is the icon of power and not people that the
terrorists chose to strike.
 The terrorists have understood after several efforts that the Aam Aadmi will
never break down even if you bomb her markets and trains. He/she was resilient
because that is the only way he/she can even survive.

  Resilience was another word that annoyed the pundits of news channels and
their patrons this time.  What resilience, enough is enough, said Pranoy
Roy's channel on the left side of the channel spectrum. Same sentiments were
echoed by Arnab Goswami representing the right wing of the broadcast media whose
time is now. Can Rajdeep be far behind in this game of one-upmanship over TRPs ?
They all attacked resilience this time. They wanted firm action from the
government in tackling terror

 The same channels celebrated resilience when bombs went off in trains and
markets killing and maiming the Aam Aadmis. The resilience of the ordinary
worker suited the rich business class of Mumbai since work or manufacture or
film shooting did not stop. When it came to them, the rich shamelessly exhibited
their lack of nerves and refused to be resilient themselves. They cry for
government intervention now to protect their private spas and swimming pools and
bars and restaurants, similar to the way in which Citibank, General Motors and
the ilk cry for government money when their coffers are emptied by their own
ideologies

The terrorists have learnt that the ordinary Indian is unperturbed by terror.
For one whose daily existence itself is a terror of government sponsored
inflation and market sponsored exclusion, pain is something he has learnt to
live with. The rich of Mumbai and India Inc are facing the pain for the first
time and learning about it just as the middle classes of India learnt about
violation of human rights only during emergency, a cool 28 years after
independence.

 And human rights were another favourite issue for the channels to whip at
times of terrorism.
Arnab Goswami in an animated voice wondered where were those champions of human
rights now, not to be seen applauding the brave and selfless police officers who
gave up their life in fighting terrorism. Well, the counter question would be
where were you when such officers were violating the human rights of Aam Aadmis.
Has there ever been any 24 hour non stop coverage of violence against dalits and
adivasis of this country?

 This definitely was not the time to manufacture consent for the extra legal
and third degree methods of interrogation of police and army but Arnabs
don't miss a single opportunity to serve their class masters, this time the
jingoistic patriotism came in handy to whitewash the entire uniformed services.

 The sacrifice of the commandos or the police officers who went down dying at
the hands of ruthless terrorists is no doubt heart rending but in vain in a
situation which needed not just bran but also brain. Israel has a point when it
says the operations were misplanned resulting in the death of its nationals
here.

Kakares and Salaskars would not be dead if they did not commit the mistake of
travelling by the same vehicle. It is a basic lesson in management that the top
brass should never travel together in crisis. The terrorists, if only they had
watched the channels, would have laughed their hearts out when the Chief of the
Marine commandos, an elite force, masking his face so unprofessionally in a
see-through cloth, told the media that the commandos had no idea about the
structure of the Hotel Taj which they were trying to liberate. But the
terrorists knew the place thoroughly, he acknowledged.

 Is it so difficult to obtain a ground plan of Hotel Taj and discuss operation
strategy thoroughly for at least one hour before entering? This is something
even an event manager would first ask for, if he had to fix 25 audio systems and
50 CCtvs for a cultural event in a hotel. Would not Ratan Tata have provided a
plan of his ancestral hotel to the commandos within one hour considering the
mighty apparatus at his and government's disposal?  Are satellite pictures
only available for terrorists and not the government agencies?  In an operation
known to consume time, one more hour for preparation would have only improved
the efficiency of execution.

 Sacrifices become doubly tragic in unprofessional circumstances. But the Aam
Aadmis always believe that terror-shooters do better planning than terrorists.
And the gullible media in a jingoistic mood would not raise any question about
any of these issues.  They after all have their favourite whipping boy ? the
politician the eternal entertainer for the non-voting rich classes of India.

 Arnabs and Rajdeeps would wax eloquent on Manmohan Singh and Advani visiting
Mumbai separately and not together showing solidarity even at this hour of
national crisis.  What a farce? Why can't these channels pool together all
their camera crew and reporters at this time of national calamity and share the
sound and visual bites which could mean a wider and deeper coverage of events
with such a huge
 human resource to command?   Why should Arnab and Rajdeep and Barkha keep
harping every five minutes that this piece of information was exclusive to their
channel, at the time of such a national crisis? Is this the time to promote the
channel? If that is valid, the politician promoting his own political
constituency is equally valid. And the duty of the politician is to do politics,
his politics. It is for the people to evaluate that politics

 And terrorism is not above politics. It is politics by other means. To come to
grips with it and to eventually eliminate it, the practice of politics by proper
means needs constant fine tuning and improvement. Decrying all politics and
politicians, only helps terrorists and dictators who are the two sides of the
same coin. And the rich and powerful always prefer terrorists and dictators to
do business with.

Those caught in this crossfire are always the Aam Aadmis whose deaths are not
even mourned - the taxi driver who lost the entire family at CST firing, the
numerous waiters and stewards who lost their lives working in Taj for a monthly
salary that would be one time bill for their masters.

Postscript: In a fit of anger and depression, I sent a message to all the
channels, 30 hours through the coverage.  After all they have been constantly
asking the viewers to message them for anything and everything. My message read:
I send this with lots of pain. All channels, including yours, must apologise for
not covering the victims of CST massacre, the real mumbaikars and aam aadmis of
India. Your obsession with five star elite is disgusting. Learn from the print
media please.  No channel bothered. Only srinivasan Jain replied: you are right.
We are trying to redress balance today. Well, nothing happened till the time of
writing this 66 hours after the terror attack.



--Girish Dariyav Karnawat

--Groupe SCE India Pvt ltd
Bangalore
Karnataka
INDIA


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