NDTV upgrades Digvijay

Star News call Hindu Devotees performing ritual Animals!

Star news in its coverage Devotees performing ‘urulu seve' at the Kukke Subramanya temple in Dakshina Kannada district has crossed every limit of decent reporting.

The report starts with Star News explaining the “strage ritual”. A literal translation is as under

In the name of belief people are rolling over half eaten food. This disgusting game is happening in famous Kukke Subramanya temple

Media Watch donot understand whats so disgusting about this ritual! Afterall its just a ritual based on belief of people.

Then  Star News attempts to explain the the ritual itself

{BANG loud music} Brahmins ate at Mandir… {BANG loud music} People are rolling over half eaten food… This disgusting game in the name of ritual is happening for years at Kukke Subramanya temple in Dakshina Kannada. Thousands of people flock to this temple located in Dakshina Kannada to rollover half eaten food of Brahmins… its is believed that doing this would cure peoples ailments… 

What was left untold is that this depends upon the belief that some brahmins believed to be vested with healing powers. And people from all castes, including Brahmins, perform the ritual the ritual of rolling over! please notice brahmins who have just performed rolling ritual in screengrab under

Now comes the most disgusting part of the coverage. It seems that as part of the ritual people eat food without utensils.

Let us now show you  another example of blind faith. During this ritual some people instead of eating in plates but eat from floor. Look at the people mired in superstition is eating food from floor like like animals…This ritual is based on belief that doing so will help them to fulfill wished.

Calling Hindu devotees “animals” for taking part in innocent ritual however weird it may look is NOT acceptable. Media Watch calls upon readers to register their protest with Star News.

Then the start news reporters goes on to ridicule the explanation given by the temple priest on background of this ritual 

This fellow explain the ritual of rolling over halfeaten food as faith…

People who come to join this ritual are predominantly Backward caste!

These pictures are proof that inspite of all; claims of progress by our society are still bond by bad rituals .. people who are rolling on half eaten food are breaking the Indian dream of reaching moon

The reporter again continues with his lies that the ritual is predominantly done by backward caste when the above screen grab above clearly indicates otherwise. and lastly, If one were to believe this reporter it seems this ritual stands in between India going to moon. 

It is decision of Media on what they should be covering but maintaining a minimum decency and respect in the language they use while dealing with faith of people is minimum we would expect from the media. Also, I wonder if Starnews has every covered Bakri Id festival when lakhs of animals are slaughtered on rituals based on belief!

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Starnews coverage

Blast from Past: Star News' BJP phobia

A news published in Rediff gives a interesting insight to Media games even in early days

Rediff Reports

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Star News is determined to push its anti-BJP agenda at any cost.

The Vajpayee government, though fully aware of the negative slant of the channel, is unable to counter it effectively since Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan is not above doing business withR athikant Basu, the channel's boss in India.

Last Saturday, Star in its prime time bulletin implied that the BJP might be involved in the murder of Indian Express correspondent Shivani. The bulletin said 'Shivani, a member of the investigative cell of the Indian Express,, had done a lot of stories against the CBI and the BJP.'

The truth is that in her all-too-brief career she hardly did a story against the BJP. So livid was Mahajan at seeing Star News that he immediately called Basu. Caught on the wrong foot, Basu in turn ordered the Prannoy Roy-owned news- making company to delete the offensive sentence. In all subsequent bulletins that night the BJP was not dragged into what was a case of murder.

So if one were to believe Rediff, the antiBJP tilt is in the DNA of NDTV

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Now Economic Times blames Sangh Parivar for rise of IM

This entry to Media Hall of SHAME pertains to todays Economic Times article Indian Mujahideen, a poison fruit of saffron politics, jehadi mindset which lays blame of rise of IM squarely on Sangh Parivar!

The article claims

The other factor is the saffron brotherhood's sustained role in fostering anger among Muslims by its longstanding anti-minority philosophy, which led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the Gujarat riots 10 years later.

So the author seems to be indicating that Gujarat riots were result of ‘longstanding Anti-Minority’ stand of Sangh Parivar. While the fact remains that Gujarat riot was a emotional reaction of a section of general popular shocked by Godhra train  carnage! Also, 2002 was not first time a riot took place in gujarat. In September 1969, Gujarat plunged into one of the severest riots after Partition. Official figure counted 660 dead and 1,100 injured. The magnitude of riots could be gauged by the figure that 6000 families lost their houses, properties and belongings. The Sampradayikta Virodhi Committee's report "Gujarat's riot X-rayed" mentioned the figure of dead people as 3000

Also 2002 is not first time a riot took place in India. here is a list of all the riots which took place in last 175 years

Arguably, if the RSS and its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had not been so persistent in their venomous anti-minority propaganda, the only form of terrorism which India would have had to face was the one sponsored by Pakistan. In that event, the Lashkar-e-Taiba would have been the main terrorist outfit endangering India.

It is shocking to see Economic times effort to delink IM and Lashkar-e-Taiba , a position very similar to pakistans stand. It is even more shocking considering the fact that the GOI & investigative agencies have clearly said that Local members of IM has been trained by militants based in Pakistan, including the Lashkar-e-Taibat and he main players of Indian Mujahideen are based in Pakistan running the game from there.

The same rejection of religious sectarianism in favour of development helped Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar rout his rivals in the recent elections in the state and emerge as a front-runner for leadership of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) because of his secular credentials.

Now this is one claim which can be be kicked out of window straight away. It is surprising to see Economic times calling NDA BJP led in Bihar while the fact is in Bihar NDA is JD (U ) led while BJP has always been the junior partner. Having said that the performance of the BJP in the Bihar Assembly elections was no less than dramatic with phenomenal strike rate - winning 91 out of the 102 seats it had contested. If tis is considered rejection of BJP then we are not sure what the acceptance is!!

Then Economic times go on to quote several paragraphs which allegedly appeared in The Organiser, mouthpiece of RSS

To quote from an article in the RSS journal Organiser, "the temple-favouring verdict ... will never be acceptable to the Jilanis, Ansaris, Bukharis, Shahabuddins, who along with Babar's descendants will sooner or later reveal their true colours".

To quote from Organiser again: "We shall engage ourselves in the godly mission of freeing the entire country...the entire Ramjanmabhoomi, the entire Mother India from the clutches of every shade of traitor"

A websearch of Organiser Website reveals that no such passages ever were published in organiser and the above is just a figment of Economic Times Imagination! Screenshots attached below

The misuse of religion for political purposes has been the bane of Indian politics. It led to the partition of 1947 because the Muslim League's poor performance in the 1937 elections convinced it that it could make no headway without concocting the slogan of "Islam in danger" in a Hindu India. Similarly, the BJP's reduction to a party with only two Lok Sabha seats in 1984 made it turn to the RSS-VHP line of "freeing" Mother India from the Jilanis, Ansaris and their co-religionists. The militancy of the IM and SIMI has been the result.

To finish the article Economic Times try to link the partition of India and BJP electoral reverses!! Economic times seems to be forgetting that BJP itself was formed in 1980 s a result of the split in the Janata Party on the issue of some of its members' membership of the RSS!

After reading this article Media Watch is convinced that Dijvijay Singh talking about Karkares death, Rahul Gandhi equating RSS with SIMI and cases against RSS activists and leaders is a not events in random. These are well thought events in an overall strategy to pander to Muslims' fears.

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