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Media Watch Media can help create unity, harmony A few days before Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR) was killed in a helicopter crash, The Hitavada (September 1) carried a Press Trust of India report from Hyderabad, the significance of which is best left to readers’ judgement. The report quoted Telugu Desam Party president Chandrababu Naidu as saying that the Rajasekhar government had "blatantly encouraged propagation of other religions atop Tirumala". Naidu is reported to have said: "A man who has no faith in the Lord has been appointed as chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) affairs. What could be more sacrilegious than the government’s order that reduced the number of hills form seven to five, when Venkateswara was revered as ‘Lord of the Seven Hills’?" The TDP president, according to PTI, said the YSR government has "deeply hurt the religious sentiments of crores of Hindu devotees who thronged the hill shrine every year". Naidu, according to the report,"cursed YS Rajasekhar Reddy saying the latter would face the wrath of Lord Venkateswara (Lord Balaji), as he remained indifferent to the sacrilegious acts being committed in Tirumala". Naidu is further quoted to have warned thus: "Lord Venkateswara is very powerful. Anyone who swindles the Lord’s funds or tries to deceive him by any means has not prospered. This is a proven historic fact. Such people will pay a heavy price in the long run...." The helicopter crashed three days later. Incidentally, The Indian Express (September 5) was the only paper which revealed in an exclusive story that Reddy’s helicopter pilot, Group Captain Sunil Kumar Bhatia was "in a disturbed state of mind" because he had been "allegedly humiliated after he tried to expose ‘certain corrupt’ activities of the Andhra Pradesh Aviation Corporation (APAC)". It is now more than two weeks since the exposure was made but nothing more is heard of it. According to the Express, "top sources" had disclosed to it "that Bhatia had personally handed over two representations to a serious IAS officer on the alleged corruption in APAC". Shouldn’t there be a follow-up of the story? Rajasekhar Reddy, however, has got high rating from our secular press. In an editorial (September 10) Mainstream wrote: "The universal outpouring of grief and sympathy cutting across political parties and subjective differences only highlight YSR’s unique stature not only in the state, but the country as a whole. It would thus be practicality impossible to fill the void caused by the sudden, unexpected and tragic demise of such an outstanding personality who reached the zenith of his popularity only a few months ago this year. A national loss indeed." On an earlier occasion, this column had reported a story of Muslim priests not only protecting, but serving a 900-year-old Shiva temple in Kashmir out of respect for the sentiments of Kashmiri Pundits who had been forced to leave their homes by the jehadis. While leaving, the Pundits had given charge of the Shiva temple to a Muslim friend Abdul Bhat who has apparently been taking care of the temple since 2004 with extraordinary devotion, to the extent of preparing prasad and giving it to any devotee visiting it on a daily basis. To this lovely story can be added another that appeared in Deccan Herald (July 20), which said that "a temple dedicated to Hindu God Shiva in a village in Uttar Pradesh counts many Muslims among its devotees". The story said that "not only do they take part in some rituals but also donate for community feasts during every festival". The Pataleshwar Temple is in Bhambhruaa village of Rampur district, some 270 km from Lucknow. Muslims constitute almost 95 per cent of the 3,500 village population. The land for the temple was originally donated by Raza Ali Khan, the Rampur ruler in pre-Independence days and Muslims actively participated in the building of the temple along with their Hindu fellow citizens. A village resident, Habeeb Ahmed, 60, told the media: "We feel proud and privileged to have a temple that spreads the message of communal harmony and brotherhood." Muslims take part in the aarti and also accept consecrated prasad. Every morning, Muslim join Hindus in cleaning the temple. Muslims voluntarily contribute to bhandara funds. What a lovely story! Now comes another story in DNA (September 14). It seems two mosques, shops and several homes of Muslims were damaged during communal riots in Rashivde-Buduk village in Radhanagar taluk in Maharashtra. Of around 200 Muslim families in the village, apparently thirty decided to leave, for safer places. As news of their planned departure spread, several Hindu groups got into the act to give a helping hand to those who had lost their homes. The Hindus held a special meeting to raise money to help build destroyed homes and the Muslims, in turn, promised to ensure the release of four young men involved in the riots. Much too often the media publishes only negative stories as if there is a permanent divide-a sort of Berlin Wall-between Hindus and Muslims or even between Hindus and Christians that is unbreakable. Most of the time our secular media people take great pleasure in damning Hindus as the villains, which gives them some vicious pleasure. Some years ago, there were a series of attacks against churches and blame was automatically laid against Hindus. Later it turned out that the attacks were the work of Islamic terrorists probably in the pay of Pakistan’s ISI, who felt that the best way to give Hindus a bad name was to attack churches. This column would be happy to publish stories of goodwill between Hindus and all other communities, if only to show that we are not all barbarians. Then there is a comment made by a famous Islamic scholar, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan who made the point that wearing burqa "is not part of Islam", and "nobody can enforce a dress code in the name of Islam", which he said is "categorically un-Islamic". As the Maulana saw it, "Burqa is part of culture, the culture that the people of the subcontinent have been following since ages." The interview appeared in The Indian Express (August 21). One did not see the story in any other newspaper. The media can do so much to establish good relations between all communities but in this regard, one is sorry to say, it has largely failed. For our media bad news is good news.

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