REMAIN TRUE TO THE ETHICS OF JOURNALISM

Kajal Chaterjee

Journalism gets heralded as a noble profession where the reporters journalists are expected to be absolutely neutral by transcending all possible barriers of demographic equation and political affiliation. Without any form of bias prejudice favoritism, they are expected to report the actual reality and ask probing questions to the power. 

 

But with each passing day, many journalists (of course not all) are feeling no qualms in discarding their neutrality to the oblivion and shamelessly flying the flag of their masters or favourite ones. 

 

So it is bizarre to note how many reputed journalists also are engaged in a mission to defend the indefensible so as to sweep all the ills failures scandals of preferred leaders and regime under the carpet of "blatant falsehood" and rampant inhumanity! Yes, only most insensitive ones among the journalist tribe can dare to exhort people to forget the greatest disaster of Indian railway history (in Odisha annihilating about 300 precious lives) and instead hail the Union Railway minister and Modi government for restoring the railway route "so fast"! However these very "journalists" are the first to demand immediate resignation of Mamata Banerjee and imposition of President's Rule in West Bengal if 5 to 20 persons die in any flyover collapse! What a mockery of the noble profession of journalism! 

 

 According to them, Indian history as written by professional historians are "unreadable"! Is it because Akbar has been projected as "Great" who has also been credited with win over Rana Pratap in Haldighati! Or there has been no mention of Rama taking birth in Ayodhya (right at the spot where Babri Masjid had stood for centuries), perhaps millions of years ago! Perhaps that piece of history is "readable" which portrays Rama Krishna Arjun Sita as flesh and blood figures with Kurukshetra war happening in so and so BC! Perhaps "BC" is also an "objectionable term" as it refers to "alien" Christ! Perhaps "BR" and "AR" needs to be printed in "readable history" with the civilization of the world to be notified in terms of "Before Rama" and "After Rama"! "Readable histories" are surely those which depict Rama and Kuber as "inventor" of missiles and aeroplane respectively with Ganesh and Karna being specimen of "plastic surgery" and "test tube baby" respectively in the "land of milk and honey" named Bharat - - - of/for/by only the Hindus with ancestors of these self-proclaimed "Aryans" being of "indigenous" vintage ! And that "golden goose" named Bharat had been reduced to destruction by the "alien enemies" practicing Islam and Christianity! In "Good Days" of "New India", surely only these writings in the name of history will qualify as "readable" by such biased journalists! 

 

They lament that had Vallabhbhai Patel or Dr. Rajendra Prasad been the Prime minister of India, history could have taken different turn because the duo were "rooted in Hindu tradition"! What Patel or Prasad would have done had they attained the topmost post are not known, but it is clear that these journalists have indeed got the shock of their life as the "sickular" Jawaharlal Nehru had referred to dams and industries as "temples of modern India" and created the basic infrastructure of the country along with employment generation instead of gifting public assets to selected industrialist friends on a platter and concentrating on religious muscle-flexing instead of creating job opportunities for the future generation! 

 

 Any journalist holds full right to criticise Mamata Banerjee or TMC, but it needs to be based on logics facts and figures! But she gets criticised on ridiculous grounds! For example, it is alleged that she "carries on business exclusively in Bengali"! 

 

Firstly, Mamata Banerjee has almost stopped interacting in Bengali even upon the soil of West Bengal, perhaps to transmit her voice in New Delhi and/or pampering the Hindi-speakers who dominate today's urban West Bengal both in numerical as well as economic might! Secondly, even if she had spoken exclusively in Bengali in West Bengal, surely it is not a "sin" specially when the Central leadership of BJP dare to speak exclusively in the language of Bihar-Uttar Pradesh by making a mockery of the federal spirit of multi lingual diverse India! 

 

 According to them, less said about Banerjee's command over Hindi and proficiency in that language the better! Does there exist any legal compulsion in India that one should not only have to learn the language of Bihar-Uttar pradesh, but also with full command and proficiency over it! Only non-Hindi speakers of slave mindset and Hindi - speakers of imperialist mindset can express audacity enough to make such outrageous dictatorial racist demands! If Banerjee is expected to speak flawless Hindi, then those Bhakt journalists must also demand that Narendra Modi Amit Shah Anurag Thakur Nirmala Sitharaman Kiren Rijiju and  the whole BJP leadership learn Bengali first and speak with 100% accuracy just as a true-blue proud Bengali! 

 

Yes, Pakistan was definitely projected as "homeland for Muslims" by the Jinnahs including it's erstwhile Eastern sector ; but that doesn't mean that India automatically became a country of "solely Hindus" where presence of Muslims wouldn't be tolerated and this fortunately became possible only due to the secular leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru Mahatma Gandhi BR Ambedkar Patel Abul Kalam Azad and fellow travellers which also resulted in coming up with Indian Constitution which has guaranteed equal citizenship of all Indians irrespective of religious credential . So suggestion of "parallel rejection of all Bengali Muslims from West Bengal /India" is nauseating to say the least! 

 

The prejudiced journalists regularly blame Left and TMC government of West Bengal for encouraging alleged infiltration of Muslim Bangladeshis so as to create "vote bank"! Would they kindly clarify which organisation of which government is in charge of manning the Indo-Bangladesh international border! That of State government run by Kolkata or Central government run by New Delhi! And if "citizenship laws" like NRC/CAA is so "Hindu-friendly", will they kindly enlighten us why innumerable Bengali Hindus(many of them of full-fledged Indian vintage since generations) are lodged in Assam jails for decades in worst of conditions! Why many Bengali Hindus of West Bengal and Assam had to take their own lives or suffered fatal heart attacks between late 2019 to early 2020 when "papers"were demanded to" satisfy" the Central agencies! The concern for "fellow Hindus" is "legendary" indeed! And just due to unnecessary harassment of Indian citizens and fellow human beings in the name of religion, the citizenship laws were vehemently protested by all humanitarians of this country. The promoters of the merchants of hatred who knows nothing better than religious /linguistic parochialism and fomenting undiluted hatred towards Bengalis /Muslims /Pakistanis /Bangladeshis would simply fail to appreciate the liberalism of those Indians who judge people as human beings only by transcending all narrow borders of religion language or nationality. 

 

 Last but not the least. If past is indeed required to be explored, as the said journalists suggest while supporting the myth of "West Bengal Formation Day";  why not dig up the past(which continues in present also) of "golden India" and tabulate the bloody historical incidents of unfathomable atrocities which "proud" "liberal" Indian Hindus unleashed upon fellow Indian Hindus in terms of caste untouchability and social exclusion! 

 

 And if at all "West Bengal Formation Day" is required to be commemorated, why not do it as as a day of introspection! After all India Punjab or Bengal got divided with deluge of horror just because of the ultimate triumph of communal parties and leaders irrespective of religious denomination. So by drawing lessons from such gory history, all must take a vow to eradicate the root and seeds of communalism from the soil of India in a permanent basis. Would the preferred party of such biased journalists, which is fully based upon religious identity and feel no qualms in flexing religious muscle with deluge of cuss words and hatred reserved for particular communities, agree to indulge in such introspection and take a vow of undiluted secularism on their much projected "State Foundation Day of West Bengal"!