In one of my previous article I revealed how ‘Mamata is building a New Bengal under Modi’s New India’. I stated how the Bengal Govt is officially supporting, sponsoring and encouraging Islamic fundamentalists in the name of minority empowerment. Some people will call it ‘minority appeasement’ but what is happening in Bengal under the Mamata Govt is more evil, sinister and draconian than appeasement.
And what makes it more dangerously evil is the deliberate support of a leading Bengali News channel and its corresponding newspaper. Whether it is covering up scams of TMC govt or whether it is atrocities on Bengali Hindu community, the channel has adopted a policy of ‘zero coverage’ on it. Before I go on to suggest some examples of their misdeed one should know the difference of Bengal mainstream media with National media. Lutyen elites feel Modi and Amit Shah is controlling National media. Their allegations are baseless and don’t have any solid proof to indicate such thing. Combining Hindi and English there are more than 15 MSM channels. With such diversity and stiff competition among channels no two channels can have same pattern of reporting and news programs. Often you can see serious criticism of Govt which I feel is required to some extent. Some even masquerading as journalists and Media people spread fake news to show the govt in bad light. Other than social media outrage I haven’t seen any strong rebuttal by the Central Govt. So the main point being the narrative is not controlled by any single media outlet. With various diverse options it is ultimately the viewers that decide what they feel like hearing & reading.
On the other hand the narrative and perception is hegemonically controlled by only one media group in Bengal. For mainstream visual media it is ABP Ananda, Bengali newspaper- AnandaBazar Patrika and English Newspaper- The Telegraph. All from same organisation. If one just follows and reads them for even one week; one would come to know their evil designs of subduing facts as per their convenience. The Bengalees don’t have such diverse options like other states particularly when it comes visual media. This amalgamation of Jihadi mindset of TMC govt and left liberal Bengali media who are hell bent to keep BJP out of Bengal at any cost are doing all kind of dirty tricks no matter what is its consequence. It is not just confined to one front. It covers every aspect which can influence the thinking of Bengalees.
1. Covering up of Radical Islamic violence and crimes: You would be surprised to hear that more than half of Bengal and in particular rural Bengal are uninformed about Malda and Dhulagarh riots. They don’t know how Islamic fundamentalists stopped school children from celebrating Saraswati Pujo in their own school in Tehatta. The Bengali media and in particular ABP Ananda have constantly turned a deaf ear to Muslim inflicted violence. Their logic is peculiar and laughable but at the same time for any Bengali Hindu who knows the ground situation. It will make your blood boil. In one of the recent debates on Bashirhat which the channel was forced to take it up after huge national media coverage and magnitude of the violence one of Bengal BJP spokespersons reacted and I quote him: ‘This Islamic violence is going on from long time. Why you people in media did not cover Malda and Dhulagarh riots. You are doing a dis-service to the people of Bengal’.
This irked the star liberal editor of ABP Ananda, Suman De (who considers himself a messiah of flawed model of Secularism and tolerance in Bengal). In reply he said, “I m not going to follow your communal agenda. We will not show anything on our channel that hurts religious sentiments”. This hypocritical statement revealed his true colors. What he meant is his channel will not cover any Muslim inflicted violence. He has time to debate for full 2 hrs about Ram Navami procession calling it a violent celebration. He has time to discuss about Yogi’s UP and crisis of Tunday Kebabs but he turns a blind eye to the happenings in Bengal. The Bhadralok debate panel will not pay heed to rape and arsons that happened during Dhulagarh riots which is mentioned in NCW report. They will criticize and mock processions of Rath Yatra but will carefully ignore how Maulvis and Mosques are preparing ground for complete implementation of Sharia Law. 60 counselling centres are being opened for this sole purpose.
2. Covering Up of Scams of TMC and focusing on fake news: The recent expose by Times Now on TMC Commission Gate shows how Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhisek Banerjee benefited from fraud transactions. Abhishek Banerjee’s company ‘Leaps and Bounds Private Limited’ received payments from a realtor called Raj Kishore Modi. Modi is under investigation for criminal activities including land grabbing and attempt to murder. Times Now claimed that they have documents regarding this. But local Bengali media has again ignored it. Forget about prime time debate this news was not even mentioned as a headline. The print media, Anandabazar Patrika mentioned this by giving it a complete twist. The headline was ‘New target after Bihar is Bengal’ and inside this it attributed one small paragraph highlighting the scam of Abhishek Banerjee. While they turned a blind eye to this, ABP Ananda conducted one hour debate on Amit Shah’s increase in assets illegally which turned out to be fake. This is same channel which banked on Sahara Birla diary to defame Modi govt. After SC rejected and humiliated Prashant Bhushan they still didn’t stop.
3. The Bengali Media converts Scheme of Central Govt into Mamata’s pilot project: One of the main reasons of Mamata’s strong position in Bengal is her rural popularity. According to National Food Security Act passed in Nov 2016 central govt under food welfare program says that it will cover 50 percent of urban and 75 percent of rural area. Under this Act, beneficiaries will get wheat at Rs 2/kg and rice at Rs 3/kg. Mamata cleverly turned this into one of her own state sponsored projects. Media created a lie that center deliberately stopped giving subsidized foodgrains and now state has to bear the cost. Same goes for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna. Excellent and fast paced work has been going on particularly in Sunderban areas by the Road & Transport Ministry under Nitin Gadkari. But the local Adivasis living there are made to believe it is initiative of state govt. The media channel directly helps the state govt by asking questions to the local Adivasis such as ‘How do you feel about new roads constructed by state Govt? What are your suggestions to the state govt? Would you like to compliment them?’ Away from exposure to any media they are made to believe that stupendous work is being done for their upliftment by the Mamata Govt.
4. Media and Mamata falsely implicating BJP as anti Bengali by raking up cultural sentiments: This is where it gets ugly and more desperate. I can understand TMC’s compulsion to paint BJP as anti-Bengali but the problem starts when local media too starts propagating this lie. Durga Puja is the soul of Bengal. It is not merely a 5 day festival but the central theme of Bengal. After GST came into effect from July 1st, recent articles have cropped up in newspapers how cost of idol making has increased drastically. Debates have been conducted that Mamata was opposing GST so that it doesn’t effect Durga Pujo this coming September. Another lie. Let us analyse the materials required for making Durga idols-
Ganga mati- The basic material which gives the idol its shape is clay collected from banks of Ganga. There is no GST on that.
Next- the wooden framework comprising of bamboo pole- GST rate on such raw bamboos is 5%. Gradually the cost decreases when earlier it was taxed at around 15%.
Now comes the paint- GST rate is 18%. Previously the cumulative tax was around 18% to 22%. Asian paints has declared the effect of GST on paints as tax neutral.
So how does GST increase the prices of idol? If anything, it should decrease by 2 to 3%. This is nothing but a malicious propaganda of Bengali media to make BJP appear anti Bengali and anti Durga Pujo. But the same ABP Ananda doesn’t have the courage to do show on Kolkata HC’s verdict on Durga Visarjan ban on Vijay Dashami due to clash with Muharram last year which exposed the appeasement politics of Mamata Banerjee. Another fake propaganda being constantly circulated in local Bengali newspapers that BJP is against fish consumption a favorite dish of Bengalis.
The problem with Bengali media is that they would cherry pick false and baseless articles from Wire and Scroll and conduct a lengthy debate around it but will carefully ignore news about communal riots and scams in Bengal which are showed by National Media. Reason- They want to maintain communal harmony. So what if they have to cover up crimes of one particular community? So what if Saraswati Puja is not allowed in a school? So what if Durga Puja celebration is now a dream in Kanglapahari village in Birbhum district? But the flawed, malicious, obnoxious model of ‘Bhaichara’ and ‘secularism’ has to be maintained.
5. Bengali Media along with TMC are now out to muzzle voices on social media: Social media is the last standing pillar which comes in Mamata’s way of handling media coverage. The TMC govt has decided to completely black out uncomfortable news that troubles them. Come 2018 and I don’t know if I as a common Bengali citizen would be able to express my views through such articles. Because in the next Assembly session, a bill is going to be introduced which says: any post on social media that TMC govt and administration feels as ‘incitement to violence’ would attract life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 30 Lakh! Already there has been FIR on Sudhir Chaudhary for covering Dhulagarh riots. FIR on times now and Republic on covering Basirhat. Times Now’s local reporter Tamal Chatterjee was recently hounded by police as his channel exposed Abhishek Banerjee. The attack on social media comes after it was instrumental in exposing how her own MLA Dipendu Biswas was involved in Basirhat riots and how he along with Muslim Goons harassed young girls and forced police to pick up Hindu boys from home. This comes after social media created a storm and forced the Bengali media to take this issue up (initially they didn’t cover Basirhat incidents).
To decode it: the bill would suppress any social media posts about the Muslim inflicted violence which is now rampant in Bengal. Mamata even says that the police is being trained to keep a special eye on all forms of social media and any objectionable posts would instantly be dealt with. By objectionable she means ‘objectionable to one particular community’. This will be a reality. TMC has the numbers in the assembly and support of local media. What baffling is Bengali media which shouts about intolerance by Modi Govt and has supported thugs like Kanhaiya and co. and their vicious Shradhanjali program to Afzal Guru, now feels such law is a necessity. They have already started preparing grounds by maligning social media.
ABP Ananda is the NDTV of Bengal or in fact worse than that. Only difference is nowadays channels like NDTV doesn’t control the narrative of national media nor does people prefer watching it. But in Bengal there is no alternative. Imagine the same type of propaganda being fed to viewers without any counter arguments and contrarian viewpoint from other channels and its negative effects. That is what is exactly happening here. Delibrate misinformation to malign one community or one brand of ideology.
Communal violence caused in Bengal in recent times is due to social media posts. A time may come in near future when no common Bengali Hindu will be left on social media to express their views. Whether it is the TMC govt, left liberal Bengali media or communist minded Bhadraloks, all are now working viciously with one motive. Motive to keep the flawed and evil model of Bengal Bhaichara and secularism alive. And in the process they are ready to sacrifice the safety of Bengali Hindus. Its time for the BJP to counter this malicious propaganda of local media. They have to find a alternative way to tell the truth to the people of the every remotest village in Bengal. Until they can make people realize about the media lies it will be difficult to get a foothold in Bengal for them.
