Dear Mr.
Prime Minister:
I write to you today because like so many of my fellow citizens (‘My’ or
‘Our’? Is Barkha dutt living in India or Pakistan?)
I write to
you today because like so many of my fellow citizens, (My fellow
citizens? Is Barkha Dutt Prime Minister or President? Or in her own delusion
‘She is Queen of Banana Republic where ministers are appointed by her with the
help of Nira Radia?) I am both
angry and anguished. I am aware that a missive from someone like me -
"presstitute", "bazaaru", "sickular"
and worst of all, "anti-national"(After alienating herself from
India is it surprising that she accept she is Anti-National?’)- will be most likely junked
by your office as not worthy of your time.(Oh WOW! Now the Queen is
playing God deciding the fate of the letter even before posting.)
In any case, ever since I reported on the 2002 riots in Gujarat, I am among the
journalists you have clearly shunned and disliked - that is, of course,
entirely your prerogative. But this week, I read that you told opposition
parties that you are the PM of "all of India, not just of the BJP",
and I thought I would hold you to that promise and ask for your attention as a
citizen's entitlement. (So does this mean, till this week Barkha Dutt was
not ready to accept Narendra Modi as democratically elected prime minister of
India? Does she need personal assurance either directly or from her associates
from opposition to tell her that fact? Furthermore, Narendra Modi was set free
by Supreme Court in various cases of 2002 Gujrath Riots. Isn’t that the reason
why Barkha Dutt started disliking him instead? And wasn’t ready to ask for his
attention as a PM before this week?)
Modiji, I take you back to the years before you became Chief Minister and began
the "othering" of large sections of the English media whom you were
convinced were out to get you: when you were the approachable and friendly
General Secretary of the BJP, and I was a young reporter still learning the
ropes. If you remember those years - and I am told you never forget (or
forgive) (What is this page 3 gossip? If Barkha known Modi so well to tag him as
friendly and approachable, then why she need an unnamed source to tell her he
never forget? Or she just want to play safe instead she need to change her master
in near future?)
- You would recall that I first cut my teeth
as a journalist reporting a war from the frontline in Kargil in 1999. I was
still in my 20s, and the intimacy and immediacy of that overwhelming exposure
would make me a life-long admirer of our military. (Sadly
though it wasn't reciprocated. Due to Barkha’s onsite reporting, many soldiers
lost their lives in Kargil. That’s how Anti-Nationalist was born. The same
story repeated in Mumbai attacks)
My
emphasis, even back then, was to humanize and personalize the stories of
soldiers in the trenches and ensure they would not remain faceless, nameless
statistics. Over the years, the bonds I forged with the Fauj only grew
deeper - my reporting has often taken me back to the border, to the Line of Control
and a variety of conflict zones to where they've been deployed. Over the past
two decades, I have done hundreds of news programs devoted to the Soldier - the
discrepancies in hardship allowances between jawans and bureaucrats, the
shameful mountain of government litigation against disabled soldiers who are
dragged to court for pensions, the pending promise of One Rank One Pension, the
bottlenecks in defence procurement, and the many sacrifices of our men and
women in uniform. (In Hindi there is a saying. “Jo bund se gayi woh
haud se nahi aati”. Once you have caused death of soldiers due to irresponsible
reporting, then you cannot claim goodwill for doing your job. Tell us Barkha,
haven’t you been paid for all those stories you mentioned?)
So I write this as a sentimental and proud Indian who has often been teased by
my more left-leaning friends and colleagues for my rather maudlin and
unintellectual patriotism. (Calling oneself Anti-National and Patriot at the
same time are symptoms of split personality disorder. This is just for reader’s
knowledge not for Presstitute writer) I would submit that the binaries that spokespersons
of your government have created (aided by the hyper-nationalist drum-beating of
channels like Times Now and News X) are absolutely false. It is entirely
possible to deeply respect the military and feel ashamed of the multiple
manipulations, doctored videos, police excesses, government heavy-handedness,
brazen hooliganism and ominous environment of intimidation that the crackdown
on JNU has revealed. (It may be possible Barkha, but it is absolutely
impossible to call oneself Anti-National and then call oneself Patriot just 4
paragraphs apart. That my dear is, what we common men call lying) In fact, for your party to
use the death of ten Siachen brave hearts to validate the gross over-reach we
have seen in JNU is to, in my view, cynically exploit the honour of the
uniform. I wish there was half as much outrage when your good friend
Jayalalithaa's photograph was placed on the coffin of one of the Siachen
soldiers by her minister, who was then proudly photographed with it.(No wonder
you wish that. All you want is break of outrage all across country. You could
have wish for half of calmness when few soldiers dies at Siachen in the month
of November. But calm doesn’t make a story. Half outrage make half a story.)
Modi ji, I would also like to take you back to a man whose name you love
invoking - Atal Bihari Vajpayee. I remember the tingling excitement of hope and
optimism that ran through my veins as I stood among the crowds in Srinagar in
2003 and heard him discard the rigidities of legalism and offer
"Insaniyat" as the framework for reconciliation in the Kashmir
Valley. Sadly, in its handling of the JNU controversy, the government has
subverted the Vajpayee legacy in one fell swoop - I assume with your approval.(On taking
people back to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, I would like to take Barkha back when she
might be in her teen. After making alliance with Shiv Sena in 1987, Atal Bihari
Vajpayee Said “Hindu ab mar nahi khayega”)
Where Vajpayee promised that Humanism would override the literal application of
the law as he stretched out a hand even to pro-Azaadi separatists, this week we
have seen a singular absence of generosity or empathy from the team you lead. (What
empathy has to do with taking a suspect into police custody? We all seen what
happened to Kanhaiya outside court. At least he is safe and alive in police
custody. If police has shown insaniyat he would be another martyr after Rohit.) The Home Minister went so far
as to link students to the dreaded Lashkar terrorist Hafiz Saeed, based on a
police endorsement of a fake Twitter account. Not just have we not seen any
evidence of terror links, but it now appears that the video used to slap a
sedition charge on Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNU student leader, has been doctored, with
the audio spliced onto images from a different day.
In a country that took pride in giving even Ajmal Kasab, a 26/11 perpetrator, a
fair trial, a young man whose worst crime (and that's if you stretch it) is
that he could not stop a handful of other students from raising some admittedly
disturbing slogans - has been slapped and pushed around in court in the
presence of a police that failed or perhaps refused to protect him. The HRD
Minister Smriti Irani speaks of how the anti-India slogans were an insult to
"Mother India". But aren't Mothers benign, forgiving,
broad-minded and all embracing? Stern, yes, when a child needs it, but surely
never heartless. (For your own knowledge, watch a climax of film
called Mother India. A classic, popular at the same time profit making film
gave exactly how forgiving, broad-minded and all-embracing a mother should be.
If you are not into films ever heard a story of a thief biting ear of his
mother because she was too forgiving?)
Yet, heartlessness and hypocrisy combined with sneering aggression is what's
been on display this entire week. (I am confused? You meant
JNU’s Anti national protest or something else?) As goons in black robes rampaged through the Delhi
court house where Kanhaiya Kumar is being tried, they assaulted journalists not
just on day one, but then once again, a little over 24 hours later, emboldened
by the knowledge that no cop was going to come after them and in open contempt
of a Supreme Court directive. Euphoric from the taste of blood, they
congratulated each other on social media for being the "shers" who
did "what the government and military could not do". The Chief Goon,
Vikram Chauhan, photographed with a slew of BJP leaders - everyone from Rajnath
Singh to LK Advani - has been garlanded on the court premises; candles have
been lit in "solidarity" for him. The alacrity with which the police
arrested Kanhaiya Kumar is in cruel contrast to the inaction against these
lumpen lawyers who enjoy political patronage. (It’s remarkable that Barkha
really tried to make it about Kanhaiya who is enjoying media patronage, against
some lawyer who is enjoying political patronage because Barkha Dutt has
photographs? Do you know who else called sher in last few weeks? Afzal Guru. No
mentioned of him in this entire letter)
There are police raids across the country to find the sloganeering students who
have gone underground; friends who knew them are being identified from Facebook
and summoned by the police from towns outside the capital; there are reports of
hostels being searched, and landlords ousting JNU students to avoid
"trouble". But the rowdies in robes are free, though surely the
brazen violence and anti-constitutionalism by men meant to represent the law is
a graver danger to democracy than mere words (Barkha went so far to coin
the new term Law is mightier than sword, replacing Words with law. Because words are mere words. It’s not words, its emotions behind the action that counts) - no matter how awful and
offensive - could ever be.
Yet, after all this, it was students of JNU who marched peacefully in their
thousands carrying the tricolour and roses, using the gentleness of Gandhigiri
to respond to the Goondagardi of the thugs in court. (Have they
marched using the gentleness of Gandhigiri to respond to Anti-National slogans
that has been shouted at Nation from inside of their campus? No!)
Through all this, they may have wondered - as we do - what our Prime Minister
thinks. Do you approve of the decision to send police onto a student campus? (Have they
ever wonder who let the Anti-National inside the student campus in the first
place?) Might it
not have been wiser and more mature to let the university administration tackle
the issue, as the Jadavpur Vice-Chancellor has done? (See, what Barkha
want to suggest here is that an alleged crime like sedition should be handle
not by Police but by academic who are ill-equipped for this) Now that it's clear that the
"Azaadi" Kanhaiya Kumar spoke of was not from India, but from Hunger,
Inequality, Communalism and Caste Bias, will the government apologize to him? (For What?
Conducting an investigation based on evidences provided? Have Barkha Dutt
apologised to Modi even after he was set free by Supreme Court in Gujrath Riot
Case?) And in any
case, do you really think the Indian State is so fragile that it would come
undone by a clutch of "Hum Kya Chahate - Azaadi" cries? (Ever heard
a term prevention is better than cure?) Because if that's the new thinking, we may have to
arrest an entire generation of Kashmiri youth instead of politically engaging
with them.
Do you not, Mr. Prime Minister, agree that if you can visit Lahore to greet
Nawaz Sharif on his birthday despite the spectre of terrorism (and I thought it
was spectacularly bold of you), if you can negotiate with Naga secessionists
and proudly announce a peace accord (the details of which are still awaited),
if you can ally with the PDP whose leader Mehbooba Mufti believes not just that
Afzal Guru should not have been executed, but has, as part of her father's
"healing touch", often visited the families of dead militants because
she does not think their children should be punished - if you can take these
decisions and never have your patriotism questioned, do you not think it's a
crazy over-reaction of the government to arrest a young man for slogans that it
now turns out weren't even his own? (There is only one video of
Kanhaiya which turns out to be false. Police still state that they have enough
evidence. Court has granted Police custody for Kanhaiya as I write this on 26th
Feb 2016. Do you think court is granting police custody on basis of false
video?)Is battling
young students - first at the Pune Film Institute (They were
not young by any standard. These student took 7 years to complete 4 year’s
course. These students must be in their early 30s or late 20s), then in
Hyderabad, (What happened in Hyderabad was suicide of Terrorist Yakub Menon’s
sympathizer. Fellow student didn’t allowed doctors to examine the body till
morning. Ensuring death of Rohit) and now at JNU - really the war you want to lead
your troops into? (Whether it is innocent students of JNU or
Anti-National of JNU battle must be fought when threat is to the nation.)
Do you agree that "cooking beef" and "worshipping demons"
should be part of a
police report (Shouldn’t be or should be? Ok let’s agree to agree with Barkha for one and
only time. It should be) to explain the "anti-nationalism" of young men, doubly
ironic because the police reports to a Minister who is from the beef-eating
state of Arunachal Pradesh? (Characterisation of entire state as beef eating is
not only derogatory but also shows narrow mindedness of a writer.) Did your heart not break,
just a little bit, when you saw Kanhaiya Kumar being dragged and pulled, his
eyes worn by physical fear? And what was your thought when you opened the
morning newspapers to see a legislator of your party pounce on an opposition
activist who lay flat on the road with hands folded in fright, an image that
made national and international headlines for both the asymmetry and abuse of
power it conveyed? (While writing on death of soldiers of Siachen
Barkha wrote few para above “In fact, for your party to use the death of ten
Siachen brave hearts to validate the gross over-reach we have seen in JNU is
to, in my view, cynically exploit the honour of the uniform.’ And now she is
using the fear in the eyes of Kanhaiya Kumar. Who is cynically exploiting fear
as seen in eyes of Kanhaiya Kumar? And who has seen it? Barkha? In the entire
letter Barkha tries to exploit police action against Kanhaiya)
we do not know the answer to any of these questions because you have just not
spoken. (Or maybe you have just asked? Don’t you have patience to write the letter
and wait for the answers? Or you have already made your mind that even if Modi
answer you will shut your ears) you have become curiously Manmohan-esque in your
silences after mocking your predecessor for them. With one crucial difference -
he hardly ever spoke on anything, whereas you are voluble on a host of issues,
except the festering crises that are often self-creations of the government. (Modi has
spoken on every issue including Rohit Vemulas’s death. But here Barkha
employees “Naro va kunjrova” tactic and refuses to listen. She has concluded that
Modi has not answered the questions even before finishing the letter in which she
ask those questions. Bravo Barkha, Bravo) With respect,(after all this, you can
smell-taste-touch sarcasm of her writing) Mr. Prime Minister, given that you are a masterful
orator and won the 2014 election at least partly on the back of effective
communication, these silences are bewildering.
When you do break them, it's almost always far too late to contain the damage.
Think Dadri. More recently, think how a young man called Rohith Vemula was
driven to suicide in Hyderabad (By whom? That is the question. Have he ever
mentioned Modi or BJP or central government in his suicide note? Aren’t Rohit
keeping silence on the matter which drove him to his death? And you find Modi’s
silence unacceptable?) By the
time you did express your grief, party spokespersons had defiled the debate
with conspiracy theories about whether he was a Dalit or not. Then, like now,
they had forced their construct of nationalism onto the debate with whispers
about how slogans were raised by Vemula against the execution of Yakub Memon. (How a
person whispers in ear of Television and mic that pickup almost all the sounds.
They are openly stating the facts with photograph. But because you didn’t not
show them on your news channel you label them as whispers. They are not
whispers they are hard hitting facts)
Modiji, naturally, none of us like a slogan that calls for India's ruin. (No one care
about your personal likes and dislikes. The important point here is are we
going to seat and do nothing like Bhishma and Drona did in court of Dhutrashtra
or We are going to act now and prevent another Mahabharata from happening?
Remember ISIS is trying to break India. They might be delighted not only to see
people like Rohit and Umar Khalid but also likes of Barkha Dutt)
But thought cannot be policed, and nationalism cannot be regimented; it's for
every Indian to define it for herself. (No one here barring the
thoughts. The whole drama unfolded because of action. Gathering crowded in the
street of National Capital city and chanting to break the country on the name
of Allah is something that can be and must be policed and regimented.) I still get goose-bumps every
single time I hear our anthem, I leap to my feet to stand and sing it out loud
in my foghorn voice. But I would never support punishing or intimidating those
who sit through it in a movie hall, as we saw happen in Maharashtra recently. (The
question is will you push those who said Bharat tere tukade honge inshaallah
insha allah? Or will you push those who said Bharat ki barbadi tak jang rahegi
jang rahegi? Let alone pushing you are not even airing those chant like they
never happened)
We are all getting on in age, but let's for a moment think back to our years in
university. Being young and being rebellious is all about non-conformism and
anti-establishmentarianism, It's about questioning everything - marriage, love,
sexuality, caste, religion – (See the extent Barkha has generalise the
rebellious feeling of young – “everything”) and yes, for some, even the Nation-State.(Well that
is no surprise. You have already declared yourself an Anti-National) As long as this sloganeering
is not accompanied by an incitement to violence, surely we need not use the
sledgehammer of sedition against young people. (Here Barkha want to play role
of Judge-Parliament and Police. She will decide what should be the law, how to interpret
it and what action to be taken. There is no such provision of “slogans must be
accompanied by incitement to violence” But she is the Queen and Banana Republic
and want to make her own laws.)
You wouldn't need me to remind you of the famous case Balwant Singh Vs State of
Punjab - the Supreme Court overturned the charge of sedition and acquitted
those who had shouted, "Khalistan Zindabad, Raj Karega Khalsa" a few
hours after Indira Gandhi's assassination. If the highest court of the land can
show that maturity in a much more volatile and sensitive case than the JNU
controversy, why can't the government? (First Khalistan Zindabad is
different from Bharat tere Tukade honge Inshaallah Inshaallah, Or Bharat Ki
Barbadi tak jung rahegi jung rahegi. The earlier is clearly about breaking
India into fragments and latter is about destruction of India. The qualitative
difference to simply put is Khalistan Zindabad is positive slogan. Can same be
said about the slogans chanted at JNU?) Do we even need a sedition law that was given to
us by the British in the 1860s? (Britain incidentally scrapped it in 2010.) (Are we supposed
to follow Britain? Britain which is called UK has only 4 states namely,
England, Wells, Scotland and Northern Ireland and some Islands around the
globe. Out of which Scotland had a referendum on their independence last year. Comparing
that teeny-tiny country with a Nation as vast and complex as India Barkha has
shown her intellectual shallowness. Why she is not quoting any American example
her? America the same country to whom many of the intellectuals wrote not to award
Visa to Modi has very strict sedition. Few years earlier there were group of
people who were hosting southern flag from civil war era. And that’s for the
last time we heard from them. America as a country is not even half as complex
as India. And even they feel need of sedition laws to protect them from within)
Whatever the BJP calculations were on converting the JNU crackdown into
political advantage have clearly dissipated. Given legal precedence, Kanhaiya
Kumar is sooner or later likely to be acquitted by a higher court, and will
walk out a hero. (Or will be made hero with the help of some media
patronage. Just like they made Ishrat a heroine for few decades) Given the writing on the
wall, wouldn't you, Mr. Prime Minister, think it's wiser, kinder and yes,
politically smarter - apart from it also being the only correct thing to do -
to drop the charges against him, order the police and the Home Ministry to
concede its mistake and apologize, (The said matter still under
investigation. Court has allowed the Police custody on 26th Feb 2016
which I have mentioned earlier. Now dropping charges even before investigation
is completed will be unjust to people of this nation. And apologising? How
about you and your channel starts by apologising to People of India about
making a heroine out of Terrorist Ishrat?) drop the criminal charges against the other
students, (This, it’s all boil down to this. By chanting Kanhaiya 108 times what
Barkha ultimately wants is Umar Kahlid and his all other accomplice should be
set free to spread their venom among our society. She can’t see what is wrong
in that because she has in her own word at her university age “questioned
Nation-State” and now an Anti-National. So for her this is not a crime at all.
She can’t understand what all the fuss about it. And hand back the case to the JNU administration to
handle it as a disciplinary issue from here on? (Being intellectually shallow
is one thing, but being wrong is another. There is no question of Jurisdiction.
This is not a case which is taken away from JNU like CBI take case away from
Local police. The JNU can still investigate and maximum they can do is prevent
student appearing for Exam or cancel their admission. Police investigation is
under criminal law not under any Educational rule book. The fate of police
cases must be decided only in court of law. What Barkha is asking here is
direct intervention from a politician into a serious matter such a sedition. This
must not be allowed under any circumstances.)
Gurudev Tagore, who gave us our stirring national anthem, also wrote,
"Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity.
I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow
patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live" (It is so
easy to quote or rather misquote great thinker or philosophers. Barkha is free
to practice what Gurudev has said. But keep in mind his humanity was all inclusive
humanity. Not just concentrated on minorities.)
Modi ji, India belongs to its young. (Keeping her Anti-National
mind set Barkha deliver a final blow to herself by simply squashing everyone
not young. India belong to everyone, not only youngs and certainly not only to
congress.) The tricolour is in their hands. (After
preaching us from the Rabindranath’s quote on humanity just 2 lines ago, Barkha
suddenly turn towards Nationalism. Where does humanity goes now?) And so is our future.