Letter to the "The Hindu"

“No honest journalist should be willing to describe himself or herseif as 'embedded.' To say, 'I'm an embedded journalist' is to say, 'I'm a government Propagandist.”

-          Naom Chowsky

 I have heard way back in 2005 that the daily “The Hindu” had become propaganda machine for mahinda rajapakse. As this newspaper was respected to be highly acclaimed even in remote corner of the country I too was reluctant to accept the fact in 2009.I still remember one of my journalist friend quoting way back in 2007 “The Hindu is the best newspaper in India, it is highly useful especially for civil service aspirants as it contain lot of authentic stories covering very briefly”. With this inputs, I believed that the “The Hindu” writes in neutral aspect. 

The story namely “Visiting the Vavuniya IDP camps: an uplifting experience” appeared in the newspaper in July 2009

http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/04/stories/2009070457542000.htm

This news story was written by Mr.N.RAM editor of “The Hindu” himself. This story was found to be refreshing for readers of “The Hindu” like me. Almost all political parties in tamilnadu and some tamil organization at that time had simply put this report in dust bin, urging it contained full of packed lies and imaginations. Some leaders even condemned RAM for this story. But still there was paranoid in my heart about these IDP camps. Generally concentration or refugee camp is considered to be tactic adopted by British way back in 1900 to thwart the sentiments of people towards the militants and their attacks. We have heard “Nazi concentration camps” during holocaust period. Lot of dungeons inside these camps which acts a torture centers to terrorize the population. Italians adopted the same tactic way back in 1930’s to kill the Libayan population’s attachment towards freedom struggle led by its Lion “Omar Mukhtar”. With all this  in my mind, I accepted with half heart that dark is always followed by a dawn.

For past few weeks, when I was digging all about this srilankan civil war, I found some story contrary to above.Amnesty international released a report concerning with these IDP camps way back in Aug 2009. Report hinted one of remarks from Ban-Ki-Moon(U.N Secretary general) that “I have travelled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scene I have seen."It further quoted “Two months after the end of the fighting, the Sri Lankan authorities are still not addressing properly the needs of the newly displaced. The camps are overcrowded and unsanitary. In addition, these are effectively detention camps. They are run by the military and the camp residents are prevented from leaving them; they are denied basic legal safeguards. The government's claim that it needs to hold people to carry out screening is not a justifiable reason to detain civilians including entire families, the elderly and children, for an indefinite period. Displaced people have even been prevented from talking to aid workers. With no independent monitors able to freely visit the camps, many people are unprotected and at risk from enforced disappearances, abductions, arbitrary arrest and sexual violence.”

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/unlock-camps-sri-lanka-20090807

This report is totally different from what the story written by Mr.Ram, a month back? Apart from the Tamil politicians, the dust bin itself would have rejected this story containing full of lies.

Some of the other facts about  Mr.N.RAM I found were  “ He was awarded with “Srilanka Rathna award”, Highest national honor conferred by Sri Lanka on  non – nationals in 2005. Mr.N.RAM had a important role as mediator in the srilankan ethnic conflict dating back to late 80’s.He involved in many back-door conversions in trying to resolve this conflict. Experts argue that he had major role in signing of the Indo - Lanka accord by JR Jayewardene and Rajiv Gandhi.”.

I was a big fan of his writings in “Frontline”, “The Hindu”, but everything got shattered when after seeing the false information lying in the stories like above and below

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/01/sri-lanka-prabhakaran-tamil-tigers

At one instance of the story, he was praising the Rajapakse like below “justice has not been done to Mahinda Rajapaksa's government for its astonishing feat of rescuing by military means close to 275,000 civilians who were, in the view of the whole world, confined by the Tigers for use as a human shield.”

Why he maintained criminal silence in the above story without mentioning the war crimes committed by the SL army like Heavy artillery shelling on innocent civilians in Hospitals, food queues in Mullivaikal, which were later revealed by Channel 4?

When Afzal guru was hanged in Feb 9 2013, your newspaper was writing columns and columns of stories questioning his involvement in the 2001 parliament attack conspiracy. 

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/unanswered-questions-are-the-remains-of-the-day/article4397789.ece

After seeing some interviews of Nandita hasker, Arundhati roy and other HR activists intellectuals, I found proud for your fighting spirit for justice. But in your backyard (TN), you had betrayed many of us without understanding our sentiments. Below are the two examples I found in recent week

On last Sunday, I bought 2 newspapers. one namely “Thinathanthi” which always thought to be containing news of movie posters, news related to crime, killing, robbery, rape, some news related to politics. Second being “The Hindu”, esteemed newspaper touted to be read by intellectuals . FrontPage headlines of these 2 newspapers appear to be different but related to same issue. Tamil daily shows that “Student protests raises throughout the state”. “The Hindu” says that “Buddhist monk was attacked in Thanjavur”. With a violent incident like Buddhist attack, Is “The Hindu” trying to depict non-violent protests by students inside the state as big conundrum for stake of peace?

 Today “Mindless Solidarity” is another assault upon us False sentence that “problem appearing in the Indian Ocean waters is between Indian and Srilankan tamils” had simply poured lot of salt into our big wounds. Your opinion fails to acknowledge the role of SL navy role in it.

Almost everybody in TN is fighting for the justice for the 1 lakh of our brethren allegedly killed by SL forces. SL army shelled innocent people in hospitals, food queues without mercy. Its war crime and genocide.In the end, We urge “The Hindu”, to be beacon of justice, not shadow containing full of darkness.