Rajdeep,
While I'm struggling to write my SOP to apply for colleges, all I keep doing is refreshing my twitter feed where I see 'bhakts' and you engaged in a twitter battle mainly about Modi, Democracy, secularism or pseudo-secularism, liberalism. I'm almost sure , after reading this open letter( if you ever read it), you might call me a bhakt.
Yesterday when I saw you debating with Anupam kher, I was quite perturbed. Simply because a lot of the things he was saying might hold a lot of weight. And it got me thinking, so I decided to write this letter, more so to clear my head, so I can move on with my life.
The role of media in a democracy is very important, as I've studied in my 10th standard civics and history class (now I'm not even sure what I studied in my school was the truth), and with this great power comes great responsibility.
Dadri like events have happened for years, but it never caught media's prime time attention but it found it in it's best interest to be discussed so extensively now because it seems to be able to project the government in a true right wing image intolerant to minorities. It is your right to ask people in power questions, but when you do it selectively, it builds communal tension and insecurity in the masses of people watching your channel. When the bajran dal incident happened, it was barely even spoken of. My point of bringing this up is, if you just show stories of minorities being killed, you build tension as the minority no longer feels safe. They should be shown in isolation.
Now the issue of beef ban, it was introduced in most States by the congress government(18 if I'm not wrong) but suddenly it becomes an issue. Prohibition of cow slaughter is in the directive principles of the constitution. It's not so much about liberalism and democracy than about an identity. Some countries ban alcohol, some disallow public display of Nazi symbols like tattoos which may hurt sentiments. Ban on slaughter of cows is to protect sentiments but India is liberal enough to allow people to eat it bar a few incidents. But this seems like a perfect time to raise this issue because of the rising tensions so it can hurt the image of the man you allegedly hate.
The kashmiri pandits exodus which if happened in any other country, would have caused civil war, but the media failed to get justice that time and sidestepped the issue on so many occasions because it may not have suited your pseudo secular agenda.
I know your views polarize people but being a journalist, you ought to show both sides of the coin fairly. Maybe it's time everyone has a monopoly on patriotism.
Regards,
Akshay Khatwani
