A Thought to Ponder

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Hotel Taj: Icon of whose India?

 

Gnani Sankaran- Tamil writer, Chennai.

 

Watching at least four English news channels, surfing from one another

during the last 60 hours of terror strike made me feel a terror of

another kind, the terror of assaulting one's mind and sensitivity with

cameras, sound bites and non-stop blabbers. All these channels have

been trying to manufacture my consent for a big lie called - Hotel Taj

the icon of India.

 

Whose India, Whose Icon?

 

It is a matter of great shame that these channels simply did not

bother about the other icon that faced the first attack from

terrorists - the Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station.

CST is the true icon of Mumbai. It is through this railway station

hundreds of Indians from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal

and Tamilnadu have poured into Mumbai over the years, transforming

themselves into Mumbaikars and built the Mumbai of today along with

the Marathis and Kolis

But the channels would not recognise this. Nor would they recognise

the thirty odd dead bodies strewn all over the platform of CST. No

Barkha Dutt went there to tell us who they were. But she was at Taj to

show us the damaged furniture and reception lobby braving the guards.

And the TV cameras did not go to the government run JJ hospital to

find out who those 26 unidentified bodies were. Instead they were

again invading the battered Taj to try in vain for a scoop shot of the

dead bodies of the page 3 celebrities.

In all probability, the unidentified bodies could be those of

workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrating to Mumbai, arriving by

train at CST without cell phones and pan cards to identify them. Even

after 60 hours after the CST massacre, no channel has bothered to

cover in detail what transpired there.

The channels conveniently failed to acknowledge that the Aam Aadmis of

India surviving in Mumbai were not affected by Taj, Oberoi and Trident

closing down for a couple of weeks or months. What mattered to them

was the stoppage of BEST buses and suburban trains even for one hour.

But the channels were not covering that aspect of the terror attack.

Such information at best merited a scroll line, while the cameras have

to be dedicated for real time thriller unfolding at Taj or Nariman

Bhavan.

 

 

 

The so called justification for the hype the channels built around

heritage site Taj falling down (CST is also a heritage site), is that

Hotel Taj is where the rich and the powerful of India and the globe

congregate. It is a symbol or icon of power of money and politics, not

India. It is the icon of the financiers and swindlers of India. The

Mumbai and India were built by the Aam Aadmis who passed through CST

and Taj was the oasis of peace and privacy for those who wielded power

over these mass of labouring classes. Leopold club and Taj were the

haunts of rich spoilt kids who would drive their vehicles over

sleeping Aam Aadmis on the pavement, the Mafiosi of Mumbai forever

financing the glitterati of Bollywood (and also the terrorists) ,

Political brokers and industrialists.

 

It is precisely because Taj is the icon of power and not people that

the terrorists chose to strike.

The terrorists have understood after several efforts that the Aam

Aadmi will never break down even if you bomb her markets and trains.

He/she was resilient because that is the only way he/she can even

survive.

Resilience was another word that annoyed the pundits of news

channels and their patrons this time. What resilience, enough is

enough, said Pranoy Roy's channel on the left side of the channel

spectrum. Same sentiments were echoed by Arnab Goswami representing

the right wing of the broadcast media whose time is now. Can Rajdeep

be far behind in this game of one-upmanship over TRPs ? They all

attacked resilience this time. They wanted firm action from the

government in tackling terror.

 

The same channels celebrated resilience when bombs went off in trains

and markets killing and maiming the Aam Aadmis. The resilience of the

ordinary worker suited the rich business class of Mumbai since work or

manufacture or film shooting did not stop. When it came to them, the

rich shamelessly exhibited their lack of nerves and refused to be

resilient themselves. They cry for government intervention now to

protect their private spas and swimming pools and bars and

restaurants, similar to the way in which Citibank, General Motors and

the ilk cry for government money when their coffers are emptied by

their own ideologies.

 

The terrorists have learnt that the ordinary Indian is unperturbed by

terror. For one whose daily existence itself is a terror of government

sponsored inflation and market sponsored exclusion, pain is something

he has learnt to live with. The rich of Mumbai and India Inc are

facing the pain for the first time and learning about it just as the

middle classes of India learnt about violation of human rights only

during emergency, a cool 28 years after independence.

 

And human rights were another favourite issue for the channels to whip

at times of terrorism.

Arnab Goswami in an animated voice wondered where were those champions

of human rights now, not to be seen applauding the brave and selfless

police officers who gave up their life in fighting terrorism. Well,

the counter question would be where were you when such officers were

violating the human rights of Aam Aadmis. Has there ever been any 24

hour non stop coverage of violence against dalits and adivasis of this

country?

This definitely was not the time to manufacture consent for the extra

legal and third degree methods of interrogation of police and army but

Arnabs don't miss a single opportunity to serve their class masters,

this time the jingoistic patriotism came in handy to whitewash the

entire uniformed services.

 

The sacrifice of the commandos or the police officers who went down

dying at the hands of ruthless terrorists is no doubt heart rending

but in vain in a situation which needed not just bran but also brain.

Israel has a point when it says the operations were misplanned

resulting in the death of its nationals here.

 

Kakares and Salaskars would not be dead if they did not commit the

mistake of travelling by the same vehicle. It is a basic lesson in

management that the top brass should never travel together in crisis.

The terrorists, if only they had watched the channels, would have

laughed their hearts out when the Chief of the Marine commandos, an

elite force, masking his face so unprofessionally in a see-through

cloth, told the media that the commandos had no idea about the

structure of the Hotel Taj which they were trying to liberate. But the

terrorists knew the place thoroughly, he acknowledged.

 

Is it so difficult to obtain a ground plan of Hotel Taj and discuss

operation strategy thoroughly for at least one hour before entering?

This is something even an event manager would first ask for, if he had

to fix 25 audio systems and 50 CCtvs for a cultural event in a hotel.

Would not Ratan Tata have provided a plan of his ancestral hotel to

the commandos within one hour considering the mighty apparatus at his

and government's disposal? Are satellite pictures only available for

terrorists and not the government agencies? In an operation known to

consume time, one more hour for preparation would have only improved

the efficiency of execution.

 

Sacrifices become doubly tragic in unprofessional circumstances. But

the Aam Aadmis always believe that terror-shooters do better planning

than terrorists. And the gullible media in a jingoistic mood would not

raise any question about any of these issues. They after all have

their favourite whipping boy – the politician the eternal entertainer

for the non-voting rich classes of India.

 

Arnabs and Rajdeeps would wax eloquent on Nanmohan Singh and Advani

visiting Mumbai separately and not together showing solidarity even at

this hour of national crisis. What a farce? Why can't these channels

pool together all their camera crew and reporters at this time of

national calamity and share the sound and visual bites which could

mean a wider and deeper coverage of events with such a huge

human resource to command? Why should Arnab and Rajdeep and Barkha

keep harping every five minutes that this piece of information was

exclusive to their channel, at the time of such a national crisis? Is

this the time to promote the channel? If that is valid, the politician

promoting his own political constituency is equally valid. And the

duty of the politician is to do politics, his politics. It is for the

people to evaluate that politics.

 

 

 

 

And terrorism is not above politics. It is politics by other means. To

come to grips with it and to eventually eliminate it, the practice of

politics by proper means needs constant fine tuning and improvement.

Decrying all politics and politicians, only helps terrorists and

dictators who are the two sides of the same coin. And the rich and

powerful always prefer terrorists and dictators to do business with.

Those caught in this crossfire are always the Aam Aadmis whose deaths

are not even mourned - the taxi driver who lost the entire family at

CST firing, the numerous waiters and stewards who lost their lives

working in Taj for a monthly salary that would be one time bill for

their masters.

 

 

Postscript: In a fit of anger and depression, I sent a message to all

the channels, 30 hours through the coverage. After all they have been

constantly asking the viewers to message them for anything and

everything. My message read: I send this with lots of pain. All

channels, including yours, must apologise for not covering the victims

of CST massacre, the real mumbaikars and aam aadmis of India. Your

obsession with five star elite is disgusting. Learn from the print

media please. No channel bothered. Only srinivasan Jain replied: you

are right. We are trying to redress balance today. Well, nothing

happened till the time of writing this 66 hours after the terror

attack.

 

--

Louise Banerjei

Louise Banerjei Productions

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pace Communications(INDIA) Pvt.Ltd.

 

 

Done