CHAPTER THIRTY THREE - Media and its frill sides - VED from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS' Writings Page

VED · from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS, Deverkovil; ved036@gmail.com

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE - Media and its frill sides

VED · from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS, Deverkovil; ved036@gmail.com

I can relate what one person who was a staff member in a prominent Malayalam daily with headquarters in north Kerala once told me.

He said, ‘The owners address almost everyone in the daily with a Nee, and refer to them as Avan or Aval. One owner’s family runs estates in Wynad, and they attitude to the staff here is just like they behave to their estate workers. Among the staff members, there are terrible mutual jealousies. The mood is to continuously backstab each other. We get a lot of ‘respect’ from the public who think that we are great people. So we cannot leave the organisation. For, if we leave, we would lose this respect. The owners also know this. They know that we have to remain under them to maintain this respect. Persons who are known as great intellectuals outside are actually low level servants to the owners here. Sometimes some of the management members do use lower indicant words right in front of others, which can really be unbearable for them. For it is equal to exposing their innate low worth to outsiders. However, they have to bear the snubbing, for without this identity they are nothing outside’.

When this is so, what is the meaning in maintaining that it is the media that is the correcting force? Indian media is really a low class institution run by equally low class persons who have no qualms about deprecating the common man. They simply do not have the guts to post the common man on par with or above the public servants. They themselves are of dirt levels. When they dirty the common man here, it is more tragic. For, it is dirt that is dirtying the people. Not an elevated person.

Indian bureaucracy is corrupt to the core. They simply loot the people here by astronomical pay, pension and even commutation of pension (when a government employee retires, he has been given the right to opt for seven and a half years pension to be given in a lump sum. He will get half pension for 15 years. Or else it will come as a monthly pension. Not many people know about this and there is more to be mentioned about this rascality. This is apart from gratuity and provident fund). DOWNLOAD THIS FILE FOR MORE

No news media reports this. Or takes it up for discussion. I remember once a Times of India resident editor mentioning that such writings about the bureaucracy have no value. He told me that what has to written is flashy news. Sensational, but without any serious merit.

Actually if the news media posted their focus on corrupt or abusive officials one by one, it would have terrorised the bureaucracy into good behaviour. But then that is a tedious process, with a lot of dangers. No media business house wants to incur the wrath of the officialdom. However, they have no qualms about writing nonsense about ‘how the British looted the nation!’

VED · from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS, Deverkovil; ved036@gmail.com

A personal experience

Around one and a half years back, there was a very concerted effort to compulsorily impose Malayalam on all students in Kerala. The basic issue was a lobby of Malayalam-educated persons who wanted to generate a lot of government jobs for themselves. This lobby was connected to so many other groups who wanted to remove English from the scope of a common man to learn. For, a propagation of English was sure to be a threat to so many business organisations, including the visual media as well as the print media.

Since this issue could directly have bearing on what my children would be forced to study in schools, I had to file a Writ Petition in the High Court of Kerala. My arguments were quite strange but also very powerful. All it wanted was a popular discussion on the ideas mentioned. It would have really generated a real insight about the cheating of the common man going on. However, no media was willing to even mention this issue. Actually I did directly approach almost all the major print media, both the vernacular as well as the English ones. Everyone seemed to act as if I was being funny. In one English newspaper regional office in Cochin, at least one journalist went on arguing for Malayalam. It was quite funny. For, he was in an English newspaper and arguing for Malayalam. His direct boss seemed to act as if either I was a nitwit or he himself. I couldn’t figure out exactly which he signified with his actions.

In another English newspaper, (the same one headquartered in Madras which had spoken against the Tamilians when they were being mercilessly killed), I was told by the Bureau Chief that he would go into prison for contempt of court if the news item was mentioned in the paper.

None of the Malayalam newspapers would give it a news value. One newspaper correspondent heard about the news from one of his companions. He understood that there is news value in it. He searched online and found my phone number. He called me. I sent him the details by email. He made a long talk with me. He said he is writing a ‘Story’ on the news. However later in the night, he sent me an SMS: Filed the story. Not sure abt publishing.

One of my students tried to post it on Wikinews. The experience over there was equally funny. The news was taken up for review by some Indian editors. They went on asking for more and more inputs. Such frivolous things like What is Malayalam is not clear etc. were mentioned. The general refrain was that there was not enough evidence about the news. After some time, I gave the contributor a scanned copy of the Courts directions to the government after taking up the case. He submitted it as evidence on Wikinews. Then came the next funny dialogue. ‘The scanned file seems to be from some ancient manuscript. So it can’t be taken up as evidence’.

Well, it is media that can create news. Otherwise there is no news. The general consensus among the media bosses is that the people should be fooled.

Screening a national misdemeanour

There is a terrible thing going on in India. It is an unmentioned theme. In Bombay there is a huge market for females who are kidnapped, lured or tricked and brought to brothels. Girls, who go to Bombay without proper information about the place and without people there to support them, get entrapped. Usually this is facilitated by other females who appear in the guise of good Samaritans.

Very rarely do the Indian media bring out such stories. I am not sure what it is that limits them. Some 10 to 15 years back, one news bit came in one English newspaper. It was that a young girl from a Karnataka city had gone to Bombay by bus. However, the bus had a breakdown and it was made to go to another location in Bombay, quite far from where the bus was supposed to reach. The bus ‘cleaner’ got her into a taxi and asked the taxi driver to take her to the other place. On the way the driver got down to make some phone calls. Then he took her to a place, from where she was quietly evaluated by some people. She was lured to enter into one place for something like going to the toilet. When she entered the building, the doors were closed. Money transaction was done in front of her. She was immediately forced to undergo a series of sexual activity.

After some weeks she became quite unwell and was taken to a doctor. There she met someone of her language with whom she confided the problem and gave that person her home phone number and her whereabouts. That man called her almost frantic family in Karnataka. Her brother-in-law came to Bombay and met the City Commissioner who was then riding a huge popularity based on supportive media comments. He made the necessary enquiries and then informed the brother-in-law thus: ‘We can go there and get the girl out. However, when we reach there, there will be other girls crying out for help and begging to help them escape. You should not even mind them. Because this is Bombay. So many things happen here. We can’t do anything about all that. You simply get your sister released and go home’.

Now this story does raise another issue also. However the first point is that this story came one day. From the next day onwards, there was no more mention about this news, which should really have been a very sensational news in India. The question is, who did the censure and who wants such news contained?

The second issue that pertains to this story is this: During the debate on the Independence of India Act in the British parliament, it was Sir Winston Churchill who described the Indian leaders and other men with power in India as ‘men of straw’. Meaning utterly spineless, low quality, despoiling characters. Now, look at this ‘Commissioner’ of Bombay. He knows a terrible crime is being perpetuated right under his nose. And what is his attitude? Just to save his own skin! Well, a time should come when all such Indian officials as well as political bosses should be taken to task for accommodating themselves in positions for which they do not have calibre, spine or intellect. When a person takes up a responsibility, he or she should at least assure himself or herself that he or she is fit for the job. Otherwise it is a criminal thing. For many lives depend on his capacity. Taking up leadership without any capacity is a thing that has to be punished. And that too in quite exemplary terms.

See this news item that came in one of the Kerala newspapers. It came only one day. From the next day onwards, there was no mention about it. What happened in the intervening 24 hours? Well, the question again goes to: how dare Clement Atlee hand over the fate of a huge population as well as British-built infrastructure and institutions to the hands of unfit persons?

Indian Policemen beat up a local man if he is in their custody. When taking up for questioning, they have no qualms about using terrible expletives and profanities. The Indian media which claims to be the protector of so-many non-tangible liberties here, has no spine to even take this issue up other than on occasions when some one gets killed in the lock up. They could have taken up a campaign and a deep investigation on this issue. A lot of officials, who are reputed to do this, could have been focused upon and cornered. Yet, the fact remains that no one in the media would dare to do such a thing.

VED · from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS, Deverkovil; ved036@gmail.com

A very curious media created news

Once I went to Trivandrum and met one of my old classmates who was then a senior journalist in a major Kerala vernacular newspaper. The years must have been around 1995 or so. There was a very major news issue in the newspapers. It was called the ISRO Spy Case. It was reported that major nations like the US and others had infiltrated the ISRO and pilfered a lot of technological secrets from there! For the Malayalam speaking people, this totally unbelievable news was quite plausible. For, they had been fed with the regular input by the vernacular newspapers that the Malayalees are the greatest geniuses in the world. So naturally the US-based NASA and others would be sweating to get at the hidden knowledge of the ISRO officials in Kerala.

The actual fact of this case was that one youthful female from the Island nation of Mali had come to Kerala for some legitimate reasons connected to some medical treatment for someone. When presentable females arrive from low muscle strength nations arrive in India, it is a usual ploy of the police officials to try to corner them with legal implications if they did not share their body with them. However, this female being some level of a bureaucrat over there did not concede to the demands. She was taken into custody, and sort of mistreated to some extent. A case was cooked up connecting her meeting with some officials in the ISRO.

Her arrest was recorded and a case of espionage into ISRO secrets was registered. Soon it became a news issue with one particular section of this same newspaper going in for regular stories about her various espionage tactics. I asked my old classmate as to why this was being done. For, from my own perspective, it was an utter rascality going on in the name of news reporting. I got the answer that a particular journalist was trying to protect the police officer. And since so much had come about there was no way to retract the news. It was continuing in full steam. I remember my own brother who was a journalist in Delhi saying some of his friends in the other newspapers’ Delhi office were being besieged with requests for some daily inputs on this issue, to feed into the paper. They had to inform their Kerala colleagues that they had no idea about this case, and that the Central government organisations were not bothered about the case.

Actually the case had no basis. However, the state police had to continue their game. They arrested at least one official from the ISRO, and he was to spend a lot of days in police custody. Many years later he was exonerated. GIVE LINK TO EXHONARATION

I do have to do a follow up on this story here. The woman was imprisoned and kept in jail. However some years later the courts did have to agree that there was basically no case against her. The central Police agencies such as the IB, RAW (counter intelligence) etc. declined to get associated with the case, and they stated that the Kerala state police had no business to go ahead with a case, which if true, should have been dealt with by the central agencies. The female was to be released. The newspapers reported it. However she immediately made a mistake. She said that she would approach certain statutory organisations in India, including the Women’s’ Commission to get reparation for her plight. This she should have not mentioned when she was still in the jail. This statement naturally gave the creeps to the police officials.

It so happened that on the very next day I was in Trivandrum. To make some enquires inside the state Secretariat, I had been given links to a clerk in the Secret Cell in the Police Department inside the Secretariat. I met this man and did get to see a few other clerks who were manning the Secret Cell. All of them had the demeanour of the servant class. This man’s English proficiency was not next to zero, but somewhere near. As we became friendly, he told me that he was busy with the ISRO-case female’s issue. He had been specifically asked by ‘Saar’ to send a lot of evidence files to the court immediately. The ‘officers’ wanted to block the lady’s release from the jail with more filing of evidences and other papers. Naturally if one evidence is admitted, it may take weeks or even months for the hearing to end. This man was naturally quite happy to be of service to the ‘Saars’. He said that the Chief Minister was also very much interested in having her to continue in the jail. This clerk was a communist party man.

Now, this Chief Minister was a Communist leader who had a reputation of a buffoon among his detractors and that of a great revolutionary among his followers. As usually happens with revolutionary leaders in all feudal language nations, once he became the Chief Minister, he was on camaraderie with the police officials and the rest of the officialdom. Naturally the police officials and their relatives would be communists.

As the clerk in the Secret Cell continued his narration on what he was going to have achieved by means of sending the papers to the government advocates in Trichur (where the lady was imprisoned), I asked him what would happen to her then. He spoke with a hand action that symbolises fornication. He said she will remain in jail. A feel of power seemed to pass over his face. I asked him whether she really had done anything wrong. That question seemed to jolt him. He looked quite uneasy. He simply said that such things are of no relevance.

Now since I have mentioned the ISRO, there is this item that can be mentioned here. There was an ISRO unit in Trivandrum. Many graduate engineers used to aim to join that organisation for some very specific reasons. My elder sister was studying in the local engineering college then. So, this much I gathered. The pay and other perks were exorbitantly high as per Indian standards. But that was not the real benefit. It is easy to go to the US from there by writing some papers and submitting them for presenting in some US science conferences. Once they reach there, they try to get a typist or some other type of job in the US. Once they get it, they are reported to have added to the number of great Indian ‘geniuses who are now receiving huge salaries like 25000 rupees (around 1000 dollars then). That time, Indian salaries were around 2000 rupees for a slightly high level job. Actually such Indian organisations remained as launching pad for the officials therein to take-off to the US. Or they become involved in high stake international businesses. Or at least get their children abroad over there.

VED · from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS, Deverkovil; ved036@gmail.com

The frail daring of the Indian media men

There was a tribal revolt in the district of Wynad. During the British rule period, they were the possessors of forest land, and forest resources. A powerful forest department which brooked no nonsense from the outsiders protected their areas from encroachment. With the formation of India, the forest department became one of the numerous fully compromised departments of the government. Almost all forest lands were encroached upon and the tribal population driven out into the open. They were made the servants of the settler class, who spoke to them in feudal Malayalam and more or less made them exist at the abominable sections of the communication code.

A few years ago, under a leadership of few tribal leaders they gathered strength and took hold of a section of the forest land. Clement Altee, the bloody fool, had handed over all this land to Nehru and his group, without having the least of decency to enquire if this was what this people wanted.

The Kerala state police attacked the tribal people who were demanding their rights to their traditional land, which had been taken away from them. The female leader was caught and brought to the police headquarters in the district. The media was fully there. They saw her been taken inside. Then they heard the sound of sharp questioning and expletives, and then the sound of sharp slaps. They heard her screams of pain. None of the brave Indian media-men gathered there had the daring to question this act of the police. Later I did see some political leaders of that place asking in public meetings as to who she (aval–lower She) was to lead the people, when they were there to do the same.

Ajitha

When speaking about this female, there is another female that needs mention. That is Ajitha. She was a communist revolutionary of the late sixties and early seventies. She was just around 17 when she was caught by the Kerala police. Well, when mentioning communism, the natural feeling that arise is of the Soviet Union and China. Actually there is nothing to compare these nations with the so-called communists who called themselves Naxalites. They were trying to uproot a social system that was deep-rooted in the feudal social communication. The fact is that they wouldn’t be able to change the society with revolution. For social change can be made only by bringing in a language like English. However, her relevance here is that a young girl was in the hands of the Indian police. What would happen to her? Ajitha is now a senior-aged person, engaged in women’s rights. No one asks her as to what was her experience in the custody of the Indian police. When the US takes a blatant stand against all revolutions in the various feudal language nations, it is being quite vain and idiotic. Communism cannot bring in answer to the errors in these social systems. However, there is tragedy in these social systems that are borne by the lower class populations.

Incidentally, I did read a short news items that mentioned the issue of indicant word attack on her and her reaction to it. It seems that the Sub Inspector addressed her as Nee, and she, it seems, retorted, ‘Who are you to address me as Nee?’ I do not remember as to what was the word she used for You to the Sub Inspector. However, it is a hopeless stance. For, all the policemen will address her as Nee, and that would be the end of all her human qualities and refinement. They would treat her as dirt and also as their possession.

Only in an English custody would the captured person have any right to human dignity. When in the custody of feudal language speakers, the captured person is literally dirt and abominable material. In the mentioned case here, there is no need for the Sub Inspector to be rude or terrorising. He can mention the word Nee in a very soft voice. The damage is done. In other words, the very interaction with feudal language speakers can make the other person who is in a corned position a piece of shi*. Such persons and groups of persons have to be kept apart. Not just racism and apartheid, but the something more terrible should be imposed on them.

VED · from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS, Deverkovil; ved036@gmail.com

A digression and a diversion

Herein my mind simply wanders to another issue. There are a number of elite educational institutions in India, where the government inputs an astronomically large amount of money per student. The state of the art technical facilities are provided there. The students studying in these organisations feel that they are intellectual giants while the rest of the population are pygmies. At the end of the studies, many of them go abroad and join American companies, more or less ousting the local people there. Naturally a vital element in this would be the huge competitiveness they provide in terms of pay packet. However, with many others from India also there, this factor has become a less critical issue. The other reason is the general growth in the number of persons from these educational institutions already entrenched over there. Powerful links that they provide to the students from their alma mater in India then becomes a major help.

In this issue, there are these things that come to my mind. One is would a nation like England run educational institutions that make the rest of the population look like pygmies? Would the students who pass out from such extremely well-fed educational organisations be allowed to join organisations in competing nations?

Second theme is this. Has the US and its native citizens gone daft?

Now, going back to my talk with my classmate, I did ask him why the news media always reported the police station version of events even when there might be signs that they are not true. He said that their various levels of correspondents would have to maintain a good relationship with the police officials at all places. Otherwise they wouldn’t have access to news, especially the official versions. So it is only very rarely the non-official versions of news would come out.

When the police say that a person is such and such, the media makes the pubic to believe it. The question of whether the police personnel’s behaviour is exemplary is never taken up for discussion.

The other option of going and asking or demanding information cannot be conceived of. Even a simple speaking to ask for news cannot be done in a mood of right. For, the feudal language codes would effectively block such talks.

It is here the sheer idiotism of the English nations, especially that of the US comes into the clear. The general attitude of the US towards the various people’s revolutions in many feudal language nations is that the people should first try to negotiate with the government and make demands for reparation. This very attitude speaks miles about the sheer naivety of US policymakers with regard to the truth about social communication strictures in feudal language nations. This is why the modern US stands in direct contrast to the personnel of the British colonial times. The British colonial officials really understood the problems of the local people and went out of their way to bring in salvation and liberty to them. However, these things couldn’t be understood clearly, back in their home nation, where they were generally seen as dominators of colonial societies. Actually they were playing out a very complicated game of outmanoeuvring the local native social dominators.

This game had very fine elements in which the lower sections of human beings had to be improved from their position which was right under that of the upper classes. At the same time, it was not safe to be on equal terms with them, for they would pull them down to their level of dirt.

The issue was more complicated by the fact that the lower sections were not very articulate about improving nor were they sure whether they were actually suppressed. For, their state of suppression was seen as a natural corollary of their limited personal capacities. This last stated issue is something I had also faced when trying to convey the full power of personality improvement for a lower person when he or she is given the full command over English. However, what limited this desire was the fact that the lower guy is not fully keen on improving much. He or she would be splendidly happy to get a peon’s job in the government or a menial work in the Middle East. His or her main mental preoccupation is not innate improvement, but just to rise above his immediate social neighbour. He or she would love to trounce at neighbour rather than aim for an overall personality development.

Speaking about the power of the right to articulation and the sheer terror connected to feudal strictures to effective communication can be understood from this incident that took place in a north Indian state some 25 years ago.

An illustration on the power of unidirectional communication valve

I do remember an incident that happened in a north Indian police station. In the local village, one female absconded with another man of social levels unacceptable to her family. They put in a police complaint. Later the female was brought to the police station by the family members.

The policemen asked the family members to stand outside the police station while they question her. They sat waiting outside from morning till evening. They saw a number of police officials arriving and going in a very satiated mood. Whenever they asked about when the questioning would get over, they were brusquely asked to wait, for senior officials had to arrive to question her properly.

In the evening she was handed over to the family members in a very totally disfigured manner. She managed to mention that she had been sexually used by a number of police officials, who arrived one by one.

A native-English speaker might not really understand the reality of the scene. The question as to why the family members cannot go inside the police station and address the officer concerned thus: ‘Mr. Sharma, what is the questioning you want to do? You can’t keep our daughter here inside’, will be there in the native-English speaker’s mind. The reality is that such a communication cannot even be imagined in an Indian vernacular language. For, communication has direction. The Aap side cannot be questioned by the Thoo side. If the Thoo side even stands straight and dares even to discuss an issue, it will be taken as an affront and an impertinence. They will be beaten to a pulp. Usually no one does. There is no meaning in saying the people can and will react. No one will react. In the whole of the history of this geographical area, very few people have reacted. This reaction again, is not English. For, it is reaction and not easy communication.

To see a visual illustration of what would happen if a Thoo side person dares to argue or discuss an issue with the Aaap side, see this video

VED · from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS, Deverkovil; ved036@gmail.com

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