[nukkad] Reporting bias

[Gireesh Dixit - PCS <>]

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Reporting bias 
Francois Gautier
<http://www.dailypioneer.com/secon3.asp?cat=\opd1&d=oped>

Why is it that in this country, when for decades Saudi Arabia has been
funding madarsas which are openly preaching sedition and are often dens of
terrorism, the Indian Press finds nothing to say? Why is it that when
foreign Christian organisations are pouring billions of dollars to deviously
convert innocent Harijans and tribals, teaching them to hate their own
culture and country, the media here keep quiet? And why is it that when a
few Hindu organisations collect funds for a harmless programme like Ekal
Vidyalaya - which are doing a wonderful job for tribal children - they are
attacked as fundamentalist by most Indian publications?

Particularly targeted nowadays by some US-based Christian and Muslim
organisations, such as "The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate", is the India
Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), a Maryland-based charity which has
denied allegations that it is raising millions of dollars from non-resident
Indians and American corporations and using the money to fund a "hate
campaign" in India.
  
Yet, the Federation of Indian American Christian Organisations of Northern
America, Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand's Sabrang Communications, have
demanded a probe by the US Congress into IDRF and also asked the IRS to
blacklist it and withdraw its tax exemption status. Biju Mathews, the
president of the Federation of Indian American Christian Organisations of
Northern America, a very little known group, has accused IDRF of: 

1) Funnelling millions of dollars every year to be used by "violent,
sectarian Hindu supremacist orgs." 

2) That "the IDRF has funded numerous relief efforts in response to natural
disasters, communal violence, and other social crises. However, the
distributive mechanisms utilised by the IDRF have consistently discriminated
against Muslims and other minorities in India." 

3) That "The IDRF's relief efforts are frequently divisive and have
supported the further communalisation of Indian society." 

4) That "In recent times, the organisation has raised funds for Bangladeshi
Hindu victims of communal violence, Kashmiri Hindu victims of terrorism, and
relief efforts following the September 11 attacks in the US." But that "In
contrast, to date, IDRF has not announced any relief for the victims of
communal riots in Gujarat in February and March 2002." The report goes on to
say that the IDRF uses a network of professional Indian migrants who work
among the large US corporations in the Silicon Valley, such as Cisco, Sun,
Oracle or Hewlett-Packard. "The swayamsevaks (volunteers) within US
corporations, says the 91-page report, push IDRF as the best and the only
way to provide funding for development and relief work in India, thus
causing not only other unsuspecting employees, but also the corporation
itself to fund the Sangh in India". 

"IDRF dismissed the allegations made by the groups as pure concoction,
untruthful and self contradicting," the charity said in a statement last
Friday. The report by Biju Mathew "is merely a string of allegations,
manipulated skillfully by piecing together information available on the IDRF
web site". The statement by IDRF continues: "The allegations do not stand up
to any rational scrutiny. Donors to IDRF are among most well-informed of the
donors to any South Asian nonprofit charitable organisations operating in
the US. IDRF questions the credibility, motives and the political agenda of
these splintered and virtually unknown groups that have launched the Hate
Campaign against IDRF. IDRF does not subscribe to any religious, political
or sectarian agendas. Further, IDRF does not discriminate against any
religion, sect or race in either the collection or distribution of funds." 

But the damage has been done: Sun Microsystems stated that all current
donations to the IDRF have been placed on hold pending a directive from the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It, however, added: "Any non-profit and
non-proprietary organisation that has been granted 501(c)(3) tax exempt and
public charity status is eligible to receive matching gifts from Sun
Microsystems." The IDRF, it observed, does not appear on the IRS list of
agencies known to support terrorist activities. Similarly, a Cisco
spokesperson said the company had terminated all matching donations to the
IDRF. 

This has infuriated many Cisco employees, such as Shyam Palleti, who wrote
that "there is a malicious campaign against work done by some Indians for
the benefit of Indian causes. All the money collected in Cisco went to right
causes, like the Orissa cyclone of 1999, and was accounted and reported to
IRS". Another NRI, Mr Ranganathan, says "that IDRF seems to be gathering
more money than others, because people are aware of the good work done by
IDRF and so money is sure to go into right causes and not because people are
duped". Adds Palleti: "The word 'duped' is insulting to employees who build
innovative networking products and because of whom we can communicate with
ease. I don't think the articles published in the Indian Press cause anybody
to reduce their help to IDRF, but only incense them to think that their own
media is not India-friendly". 

I personally met last August in Washington, the chief executives of IDRF,
Vinod and Sarala Prakash, two old, harmless, friendly persons, who would not
harm a fly. How is it possible that when Muslim terrorists wreak havoc all
the over India, kill innocent people, as they just did in the Jammu temples,
the Press only mentions these as news items, without condemning them, but
that it targets harmless people such as the Prakash, who have never hurt
anybody in their lives? 

Is it not time we called a spade a spade? The spectre of a "dangerous" RSS,
for example, is a creation of the British who had understood, as the Muslims
invaders did before them, that the Hindus were the greatest hurdle to their
grip on India. So their own Press started attacking anything Hindu, or any
group which was trying to protect Hindu culture or leader, such as the Hindu
Mahasabha. It is also time for Hindus of this country to face the truth: We
are looking at the Gujarat riots only through the prism of what the Western
press and the English-speaking Indian media have said - mad "fundamentalist"
Hindus, going after peace-loving Muslims. 

However, reality might be different: Are not tolerant, God fearing,
peace-loving Hindus fed up of being maligned, made fun of, slandered,
attacked, killed, their women raped, their temples sprayed with bullets and
grenades, by a religion which for centuries has made violence and hatred a
way of life? Could it be that Gujarat is giving a warning to the Muslims of
India that Hindus have "had enough", and that they are not ready to put up
any more with their own women and children being burnt like animals? The
Indian media would do well to take notice of this new popular mood of the
majority community and try to understand their feelings, instead of accusing
them of being "fanatics". They should also be careful not to give so much
space to small hate groups such as The Federation of Indian American
Christian Organisations of Northern America. 




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