How Dainik Bhaskar's report on Sudarshan's comment put BJP, RSS in embarrassing situation

The controversy over ex-RSS chief KS Sudarshan's comment would not have erupted at all had Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar also 'under-played' this news like most other newspapers in Madhya Pradesh did.

Almost all the journalists representing the major newspapers and channels were present at Sudarshan's press conference but they were convinced that no other paper would publish it. The reason is that none of the media group owners want their advertisement revenue cut in the state.

Journalists on BJP beat who get sympathetic to party as they are covering it for second term didn't want to upset Sangh leaders and BJP government. But Dainik Bhaskar played the spoilsport for all of them and went ahead with a huge full page news.

The story covered all the allegations which former RSS sarsanghchalak Sudarshan made including Sonia being a CIA agent and her alleged role in the killings of Indira Gandhi and her husband Rajiv Gandhi. Other reporters thought no one would publish and it had been 'managed'.

Some papers published the news but diluted it, thinking that it was an old man's eccentric comments and could be ignored. But when Bhaskar published the news and its national edition also carried it, the controversy reached parliament.

Angry protests were held in the country and the Congress got BJP on the backfoot. There was no way that such charges and vulgar allegations could be defended. It was a dream breaking story for any newspaper or channel reporter but pro-state government owners and journos who tried to block it, got a shock as Bhaskar played it up. But they had missed it and there was no other option but to follow the story now on the next day.

In MP, Raj Express and Jagran carried small item news while Nai Dunia and Patrika neglected it. TV channels also compromised on their journalistic principles and ignored the important news which has seriously dented RSS' image.

For long Dainik Bhaskar was considered a pro-BJP and to some extent a pro-establishment newspaper also but it seems the owners now want to bring a radical change and take it to national centrestage as leading Hindi newspaper.

Jagran and Bhaskar had indeed been pro-Hindutva papers and their leanings towards RSS and BJP were open. But the young generation seems to change the way the newspaper has been run. It is now being modelled on the lines of modern newspapers where news should take precedence.

Though Bhaskar has interests in many sectors and news gets compromised, they are planning to get aggressive to beat other papers outside MP, Rajasthan belt also. If they don't do it, they can't win over Bihar, Jharkhand and be ready for the big fight in Delhi-UP.

Dirty journalism: Dainik Bhaskar brands Kashmiris as 'terrorist'

Journalism is considered a noble profession but the media loses respect of society when it thrives on sensation to create reports that cause panic in the society.

Dainik Bhaskar, a mass circulated daily, began with publishing a series of stories by reporter Siddharth Machhiwal on large number of Kashmiri students studying in Bhopal. But the series soon acquired communal overtones and was clevery worded to sound alarm about all Kashmiri students.

For a community that finds it tough to get a rented home, it could be disastrous. First, the story pointed at the manner in which police take money for verification of students. This was a proper story and it is true everywhere as even passport seekers would tell that often policemen ask for bribe for verification.

But soon the story turned into a communal propaganda. It demonised Kashmiris on the premise that students who are admitted in Bhopal's Hamidia College and other educational institutions could be 'involved in throwing stones' in the recent Kashmir violence.

It further went on to suggest that under the garb of Kashmiri students, terrorists could also sneak in. Further, rather than putting onus on corruption, it branded Kashmiri youths with assumptions like 'a youth who got a bullet injury could be a student of college'.

Without any names or quotes, the report suggests that 'stone-pelters' are terrorists and that one of the stone-pelter was studying in Bhopal's Hamidia College. But whom? By getting ABVP to support its agenda, the report further lost its credibility. ABVP activists or NSUI activists are also involved in bandhs and protests all over India, so how come a protestor becomes a terrorist? In fact, we don't know yet if there was a youth involved in stone pelting either. But all Kashmiri students in Bhopal are now branded as terrorists!

Read the cleverly worded but vague sentences from the report:
1....aashanka hai ki Kashmiri mein jaari hinsaa mein Hamidia college ke sandigdh chhatron ki bhumika ho sakti hai..
2....ek praadhyakapak ne naam na bataane ki shart par bataaya ki voh chhatr Hamidia ka hi hai

When the need is to integrate the Kashmiri youths and take pride in the fact that Madhya Pradesh is lending a helping hand to Kashmiri youths and letting them study, the story veered off with falsehoods and unsubstantiated charges to take a fasicstic tone. By equating Kashmiri students with terrorism, the newspaper lost its credibility once again.

It is unfortunate that while Agarwals intends to take their newspaper to the national level and have been working hard to get it a progressive and credible face of Hindi media, its editorial seems to have lost something that is vital for any media group--Credibility.