Comments on Friday December 27, 2019 PBS NewsHour broadcast

To: viewermail@newshour.org
Cc: alyssa@alyssaayres.com
Bcc: thebahuofbengal@gmail.com, presswingeoi@gmail.com, info@hafsite.org

Dear PBS NewsHour, I am writing with respect to the segment on What ongoing Indian protests say about the country’s secular identity, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-ongoing-indian-protests-say-about-the-countrys-secular-identity, on your Friday, September 27, 2019 broadcast. I have copied Alyssa Ayres, whom Lisa Desjardins interviewed for this segment, on this email.

Alyssa Ayres

My comments:

• I'm embittered that the media pays so much attention to the status of Muslims in India but cares not one whit about the plight of religious minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Tell your listeners about discrimination and abuse that religious minorities face in the Islamic countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Religious minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh are not migrants, but refugees. Tell your listeners about the precipitous drop in the number/percentage of non-Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh. These are the reasons that the Citizenship Amendment Act is needed. 

• While Ms. Ayres focused on anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests, which she called “inspiring,” she said nothing about large PRO-Citizenship Amendment Act rallies in major cities of India. Nor did she say anything about wide support for the CAA among the Indian public. 

• Concerning the “secular identity” of India, please note that "secular" was not in the preamble of the original Constitution of India. According to Wikipedia, “secularity” is the state of being separate from religion, or of not being exclusively allied with or against any particular religion: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularity. Many Hindus chafe at the clauses in the Constitution of India that omit protection of Hindu institutions from state seizure. This is not secularism. 

• A video of two hijab-clad university students who were protecting a man from police went viral. Here's Ladeeda Sakhaloon, one of the two so-called "sheroes," said about secularism: 

Clearly, Ms. Sakhaloon is a protester who is not agitating for so-called secularism.

Do better. Report news that supports the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Yours sincerely, xxxx
Phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bouma-of-Bengal-161615384026398/ 
Twitter: @TheBahuOfBengal

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To learn more, consult:

Charter of Hindu Demands – Introduction, https://hinducharter.org/introduction/, which discusses inequities in the Constitution of India

Human Rights Report | Hindu American Foundation (HAF), https://www.hafsite.org/resources/human-rights-report, which covers human rights conditions for Hindus around the world, including Pakistan and Bangladesh. HAF has been publishing these reports since 2005.

Ganges

I was channel surfing (who says that the gene for channel surfing is on the Y chromosome?) and discovered a 3-part documentary called Ganges being shown on the Travel Channel. This documentary was produced by the BBC.

Rivers of India

One recurring theme was the co-existence of humans and animals, whether it was thieving macaques in Rishikesh or ducks being herded. The most interesting part featured fishermen using tethered otters to chase fish  [VIDEO] (not that I support tethering creatures that were meant to swim free). The otters were kept hungry in order to chase fish. Once the fishermen made their haul, they lifted up the wooden framed net to make sure that the otters didn't get in. However, the otters were treated to the leftovers.

Otter fishing on the Ganges

India never looked so picturesque. While the ecological problems were discussed, we were not presented with images of pollution and misery. Instead, we were treated to images of the Gangetic dolphin swimming in the waters of the Ganges.

Gangetic dolphin

While I have not listened to NPR's radio documentary The Ganges: A Journey into India (broadcast in April 2008), it is evident from the text descriptions that NPR had a need (or an agenda?) to portray India as a problem country.

The Beeb's TV documentary Ganges may be purchased at Amazon.com.

Readers might be interested in the three-CD set Ganga: Music of the Ganges, which features folk music from Gurmukh to the Bay of Bengal, available now through Amazon.com.

NOTE: The Bahu of Bengal is an Amazon.com affiliate and receives a small commission for sales on Amazon.com via this blog.

drisyadrisya: Neighbours envy, Owners pride!

From the drisyadrisya दृश्यादृश्य blog, this article Neighbours envy, Owners pride! is about Narendra Modi's recent election victory in Gujarat. The author identifies two factors that led to Modi's victory: the Congress Party's playing the Hindutva card and the efforts of the ELM (English language media) to defame Modi.

The author notes:

As a Malayalee, having seen the devil and deep sea alternately ruin such a beautiful state, I have to admit.... I envy Gujaratis, I envy Modi. I have seen most youth complain about their state's government - and rightly so many times. But a majority of my Gujarati friends, seem so proud of their government. They put youtube videos showcasing Gujarats rapid development on their orkut..... I am sure, some of them, if not most, also hope that what Sardar Patel was denied will be made up by Modi - if not immediately, some day, may be after Advani !

I can sympathize with the author's point of view. As the author has seen his native Kerala ruined by the Communists, my husband has seen how the Communists have ruined his home state of West Bengal.

Even Modi's foes acknowledge that he's been successful at attracting foreign investment: the Wall Street Journal claims that Gujarat has received 25% of foreign investment in India. People from Gujarat describe Modi as a good administrator (albeit dogmatic) and a clean politician, rather an anomaly in India. Could it be these qualities that make Gujarat a good bet for investment?

On reporting on Godhra and its aftermath

Found in IBN blogs:

The Curse of Being a Hindu in Modern IndiaIn this article, Saurabh Saksena ponders why the media focused only on Muslim victims of the Gujarat riots and not on the victims of the train fire in Godhra.

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After reading a cover story by Rajiv Chandrasekharan (formerly the  National Editor of The Washington Post),  in The Indian American, I hastily sent a letter to the editor about an article that Chandrasekharan wrote about Godhra, in he essentially blamed the victims of the Godhra train fire for their fate. In my letter, I quoted at length commentary by the lat Varsha Bhosle and Rajesh Srinavasan (with attribution, of course) on Charndrasekaran's article.

Imagine how startled I was to see an edited (mangled) version of my letter published in the next issue of The Indian American. Then imagine how overwhelmed I felt when a rejoinder by Chandrasekharan was published in the following issue, in which he told the editor that letters such as mine should not be published. He alternatively praised and blamed Indian media for the coverage of Godhra and its aftermath. He congratulated himself on interviewing many parties, including perpetrators, observers, and officials after the events. He said that Bhosle's and Srinavasan's commentary was written soon after the event, when passions ran high, when in fact, the commentaries were further removed in time, as they were reactions to his reporting.

I mean, how petty!  Rajiv Chandrasekharan was a reporter with the Washington Post.  The 2010 movie Green Zone starring Matt Damon was based on his 2006 book Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone.

Who was I?  Just someone who wrote a letter to the editor.