The Goebbelsian propaganda over a yajna conducted by a private party at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication was spread by vested interests to defame the premier institute
After breaking all previous records, the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), the country’s premier media training institute, received a record number of applications for its various courses across the country for the upcoming academic session. As against 4,733 number of applications received last year, the institute, which is also the Central Government’s information and communication think-tank, received 6,624 applications — almost a 40 per cent jump.
Yet, this significant development at a time when there is a downturn in industry and proliferation of media training institutes, mostly teaching shops, in every nook and corner, hardly found any mention in media. The reasons for this jump includes among other things introduction of language journalism courses from its Amravati and Kottayam campuses and overall improvement in the academic standards.
Unfortunately, this is not a media story. Only negative news sells, and that too manufactured negative. What else would explain the hullabaloo last week over a yajna conducted allegedly by the institute and an invitation to a police officer engaged in anti-Naxal operationsIJ
A Goebbelsian propaganda was orchestrated and unleashed by vested interests and the fraternity of the frustrated who wanted to project the Union Government in a poor light and accuse it of saffronising and undermining educational institutions. On expected lines, the administration was accused of toeing the RSS line and imposing the Hindutva ideology. Even the theme of the seminar in Hindi was deliberately translated by these forces from National Journalism to Nationalist Journalism. So much for the credibility of so-called protesters and those who reported them.
Nothing could have been more ridiculous and one could only pity the biased and motivated agenda reporting by a section of the media, which cared two hoots for facts and objectivity. The choicest abuses were allowed to be used by so-called respectable media houses who played happily in the hands of individuals whose antipathy against the institution for purely personal reasons was known to one and all. They included a disgruntled Associate Professor, who had resigned in protest against a legitimate transfer order, and an Academic Associate, claiming to be a Professor, whose contract was terminated due to indiscipline and disobedience and who is yet to get any relief whatsoever from the different courts he approached. The handful of students (half a dozen to be precise) included one who was suspended for violating the institute’s code of conduct and others who were given showcause notices.
The remaining ‘protesters’ included the president of the students union of a neighbouring institution as also a person who was widely reported for raising anti-India slogans last year. Interestingly, they all shouted “lal Salaam” (Red Salute), which exposed their ideological agenda.
Now the facts. To begin with, the institution had not organised the event. With a view to supporting media organisations who lack adequate resources to host such events in large auditoria, the IIMC provides them only infrastructural support, which does not include food etc. Media Scan, comprising young journalists, including many IIMC alumni, was one such organisation, which hosted the event.
Most importantly, the academic session at the institution is over. Being a Saturday, there were neither teachers nor employees present in the campus (except those looking after estate and housekeeping). Neither students nor teachers or staff were asked by the administration to attend the event. Then, who was the institute ‘saffronising’IJ — the buildings, trees, whatIJ Nobody from the management attended the yajna in which some of the organisers including ex-students participated. Then, what was the uproar all aboutIJ The students who participated had registered themselves and paid the requisite fee for the same. The handful of students, who protested outside, lied to the media that they were not being allowed in the seminar. These students had in writing threatened to stage a sit-in against the event and the management would have failed in its duty to protect them if they were allowed free access to the event where hundreds were participating. But the hostellers were allowed to go to their rooms.
These students had also been indulging in a politically motivated campaign of calumny against the management on social media for long. Are these the kind of people being encouraged by a section of the media because they have a political score to settle, what even if their contentions are based on blatant falsehoodIJ Having been a journalist myself for three decades now, I have never approved of journalistic untouchability. If the same section of media has no problem engaging with terrorists, separatists and people like Arundhati Roy who openly advocate the balkanisation of India, I see no reason why they can’t listen to SRP KalluriIJ He is coming in the midst of journalists. Ask him the most inconvenient and uncomfortable questions, but not listening to him — well, that’s unacceptable.
As for the yajna, it was for the organisers to decide whether they wanted to start the event with lighting of the lamp, Bismillah or Saraswati Vandana. After all, prayers are held in all Government schools. There are mosques inside minority institutions fully funded by the Government. And nobody stopped anyone from offering namaaz at the campus. In many State universities in Haryana, including Kurukshetra, the academic session commenced with yajna over the last several decades. None had ever objected.
India does not agree with the French interpretation of secularism wherein the state is completely divorced from religion. We have always practised ‘Sarva Pantha Samabhava’ (equal treatment of all religions). Here, even the Army cantonments have temples, mosques, gurdwaras and churches. We have respected all religious practices and traditions, so long as they do not cause offence to others.
One does not wish to discuss the proven scientific merits of yajna, passionately advocated by eminent persons including Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, lest it is projected as another instance of saffronisation. But certainly, it is a harmless invocation where even idols are not worshipped.
Interestingly, the iconic idol of goddess Saraswati at the gate of the IIMC campus was installed during the Congress regime and students have been conducting Saraswati Puja annually for long — and nobody ever objected. In neighbouring Jawaharlal Nehru University, rival student groups including those affiliated to the left compete with each other to organise Durga Puja; now even the mythological Mahishasur is being worshipped, but no one objects. But when a small yajna involving a few people is conducted by a private party inside an educational campus under the present regime, then it becomes a threat to secularism itself. The threat to secularism in a nation which gave refuge to prosecuted Zoroastrians and Jews and where Hindu kings voluntary donated land to build mosques and churches in ancient times, centuries before the Constitution, has come into existence!
Interestingly, none of the minority students protested against the event. It’s high time the Indian media does some real introspection if it intends to retain its credibility in the eyes of the masses.
(The writer is a senior journalist and Director General, Indian Institute of Mass Communication)