Attacks Against Indian Culture & the Role of Media in it

I am writing this after going through all the facts about what has recently happened around us and particularly the role of media in it. I will start with the flood of allegations against Sant Sri Asaramji Bapu. If we look at the whole episode with a little common sense than the whole matter will be crystal clear in from of us. I am feeling sorry for our so called intelligent media as how can they miss on these flaws. Or on the other hand, are they intentionally not showing the other side of the coin? If yes, then who is the one holding there hands for not showing the truth?

Let us start incident by incident with the first one that was happened in Ahmedabad. Two innocent gurukul children were found dead near Sabarmati River on 16/07/2008. Now as this issue is under investigation, therefore, I will not say much about it. Though there are some common things which even a blind man can see. However, our innocent public, who can believe whatever is shown to them buy our media, could not see/understand the conspiracy done behind it.

Ahemdabad Incident
Everyone knows that 18/07/2008 was an auspicious Guru Poonam day and on this day millions of Bapu followers come to Ahmedabad Ashram every year to take the blessings from their Guru. The program for this year was the same. Now if you just go a little deep into the incident that was occurred then you will find that something is fishy in it.

Point No. 1. – The kids were found missing on 03/07/2008 and a search was made for them but no one could find them. As per some other gurukul kids they were promised by someone that in the evening they will come and take them to show “Rath Yatra” in a car.
Now the question arises is that who were they who promised them for a free ride? Why only to gurukul kids and that too in a hidden way? This shows that a plot was made and somebody came there to execute it on that day. Hence, there is a possibility that someone came on that day and took the kids away from a particular location.

Point No. 2 – Now kids were found missing on 03/07/2008, however, no clue was found and suddenly on 16/07/2008 somebody found them dead near Sabarmati River. Then on 17/07/2008 there was no reaction from people and on 18/07/2008, right on Guru Poonam when millions of followers were scheduled to come to ashram, Ahmedabad band was announced when Vaghela family (Parents of deceased children) was not even in favor of it.

This shows another chapter of the same story that was started on 03/07/2008. As per the plan, bodies of the departed souls were kept near Sabarmati River and an announcement was made. A plan was already ready, therefore, on 18/07/2008 they showed their anger and Ahmedabad band was called. The question arises is that why was nothing happened in between from 03/07/2008 till 16/07/2008? Was somebody waiting for some particular day? There is again a chance of high possibility that this was done to disrupt the Guru Poonam celebrations at Ashram.

Point No. 3 – On 18/07/2008, different groups of anti social elements were scattered all over Ahmedabad and destroyed public property and harassed people that were going towards Ashram. They were beaten up and were stopped on the way towards ashram. People who were waiting in the queue for Bapu’s darshan were also harassed and many incidents of chain snatching were happened over there. Few people who were part of this mob entered into the Ashram (wearing white kurta-pajamas, claiming to be Bapu’s follower) and destroyed the vehicles which were in the parking of Ashram. Now why would sadhaks (Bapu followers) who were present inside the Ashram destroy their own vehicles? Why would sadhaks attack on other sadhaks who are coming to ashram?

When some of these anti social elements were held by Ashram people then they admitted that they have been hired by giving Rs.200 to do these activities in the bandh. As per some other sources, none of these were from Ahmedabad. Everyone in Ahmedabad very well knows Bapu and could not do this heinous act against him. As per an unofficial statement, 2 trucks full of these people were brought from Vadodara to disrupt activities in Ahmedabad Ashram. Hence, there is a possibility that other such people were also hired and brought down to Ahmedabad in trucks from different regions just to do this act.

From all the above points what I can infer is that a well planned high level conspiracy was done against Bapu and media just showed one aspect of it and that too in a way that the image of Saint gets diminished, who is a source of inspiration for millions of people around the world. This also raises questions against the media. Are they also been funded by some agencies to show only one part of the story and that too in a negative way?

Chindwara Incident
After Ahmedabad, the next target was Chindwara. Here, on 29/07/2008 and 31/07/2008 again two innocent gurukul children were killed and found dead in the bathroom of gurukul. Thankfully, local police solved this case and found another gurukul student “Rituraj” accountable for this crime with proper evidence. Media just showed this much and raised questions against Chindwara Ashram authorities and accused them of not taking care of children. This was done when parents of both the deceased children gave a clean chit to the Ashram and even they stated that some conspiracy has been done against ashram.

Now come to the other part of the story. These respectful investigative media persons did not even try to do a background check of Rituraj. Nobody tried to enquire whether or not there is a criminal case pending against his father? Whether or not there is a criminal history of his uncle? What is their financial background? How come within a month this family managed to get a brand new Qualis when the financial condition of the family is not too good? How come their lifestyle improved? Where did they suddenly get so much money from? Why after the death of Ramkrishan on 29/07/2008 this guy told Ramkrishan’s uncle to also take his child out of the gurukul otherwise the same thing can happen to his child? Just to add up, this guy was admitted to gurukul, just few days back on 10/07/2008. As a result, just like Ahmedabad Chindwara bandh was also called and mob attacked ashram people and destroyed ashram property.
Again the question arises, was this also a well planned incident? Who are financially assisting these people to do these acts? Our media, again showed only one side of the coin and did not even try to find out the truth behind it. Are they also likely to be involved? Is there a big nexus that is working against Bapu and Hindu Saints?

Physical assault
In a row of incidents that were happening, all of a sudden from nowhere a lady came into picture and started accusing Bapu for physical assault. The interview of this lady was shown live on one of the News channel. Now would you call it an irresponsible behavior of media or an intentional attempt of them to show this without even researching about the facts? The lady claimed that the incident was happened with her at Rewari in 2001. Just to let you know that Bapu is a famous personality and wherever he does satsang the whole world knows about it. It gets published on Ashram’s monthly magazine “Rishi Prasad” and along with that the dates of satsang are shown on several satellite TV channels. Hence, every day of Bapu or every famous person for that matter, gets registered. If they would have researched the truth about the dates she has claimed then they could have easily found out that Bapu was not in Rewari in the year 2001. Secondly, why after so many years this lady suddenly came into picture and started accusing Bapu? If this thing was happened to her then where was she during these many years? Why didn’t she report this to police?

Now the question that arises over here is, was this thing made up? Was the lady hired by someone? Was the news channel intentionally showed the live interview without any research? Was it planned to highlight this kind of thing after the Ahmedabad and Chindwara incidents to diminish the image of Saint?

Other Issues
There are many other incidents that happened side by side like blaming Bapu’s son Narayan Sai, Ashram’s land issue, raid at godhra pharmacy, questions against neem tel when it has already got approval from the government stating that no poisonous substance has been detected in it.

Indian Saints or Indian Culture?
Now, the big question is why all these things are happening against Bapu? Here, I would like to mention that this has happened almost with every popular Saint in India. Remember the allegations against Sathya Sai Baba, then against Shankracharya Jayant Saraswati, and most recently Swami Ramdev? Hence, it is not a particular Saint that is on the target but it is our rich Indian Culture which on its own is growing rapidly and the whole world very well the potential of it. However, some people do not like if we are growing with that pace. They know that Dharma is the only thing that is uniting all Indians and the major reason behind our growth.

The answer of this is again an assumption, however, has a very high possibility of being true. Also, it is a very broad picture that comes into our mind and need a genuine consideration with a clear and focused mind. Everyone knows that Bapu is a well known saint in India and has millions of followers all over the world. One fact is that as they are followers of Bapu, therefore, they are united, practice religion and make sure that Indian culture never die. You would agree that every saint who has some followers are definitely united and practice religion. Many of these people are also responsible for the growth of India and because of them India is set to become a super power. Even Bapu’s dream is also to see India at a position of “Vishwa Guru” by 2011. The possibilities of involvement of these people in any criminal activities or bad deeds are close to zero. The reason behind is there inclination towards spirituality. Clearly, these things are not at all liked by the anti social elements.

We know that world is facing grave danger today. With sharp fall in social, cultural and human values, mutual distrust and jealousy are increasing in the society, taking human beings far away from good values. Instead of providing security, cases of women being raped and murdered in the order of the day are becoming very common. In such a depressive scenario, spiritualism is the only way left to get rid of this situation. The teachings of saints and seers who have studied the human nature and intricacies of the life are useful and relevant. Our scriptures explain in detail such ideals, which are based on our culture, religion and philosophy. Hence, our Saints show people the right way of life and increase the capabilities of individuals. This is strengthening our culture, however, anti social elements want to destroy the roots of Indian culture completely.

Therefore, if one diminishes an image of a Saint then definitely it will have an impact on his followers and there belief in that Saint gets shattered. In turn, they will get divided and may follow a wrong direction. These people get vulnerable and can get easily molded. Hence, the anti social elements will become successful in destroying our culture. Because Bapu has millions of followers, therefore, if they succeed in their attempt then they can divide millions of people. Hence, by attacking popular saints one can easily divide the unity between there followers and in turn can break India and Indian culture. They want to take Dharma out of this country and want to weaken this country. Wise, sensible and intellectual people know that this country cannot survive without Dharma. Dharma is the only thing that is uniting us and guiding us in many ways and showing us different ways to become successful. Now the people/group/agency that wants to break the integrity of India and wants India not to flourish and follow the western way, has a soft target in front of them to do so and that is to attack Indian Saints. They know that because of them most Indians are united and are following religion and doing good things in life and being a part of India’s success. But they can’t see India and Indian culture growing and want us to lack behind in everything. They want us to consume coke, pepsi and these kinds of things so that it weakens our health and in turn we can’t grow physically and mentally. That is the reason when Swami Ramdev openly condemned the use of soft drinks then he was attacked as per the plan. Major reason was because after the popularity of Swami Ramdev, the sales of these companies were dropped very heavily. Just for your knowledge, the quantities of contents that are included in these soft drinks in India are much different from what it is in US.

Hence, it is a very broad issue and it needs to be investigated religiously and one should go into the depth of it. The attack is not only against our Saints but also against our culture which is the strongest in the world.

Role of media
The role of media is also very suspicious in these matters, which again raises many doubts in our mind. If you recollect, when the allegations against Shankracharya were made then it was the breaking news for almost all the channels and they focused on this issue for about a week. They completely tried to diminish the image of Shankracharya claiming that he has an affair with a women and charges of sexual assault. At that time people said that he cannot even get a bail and will get life sentence. However, when court case was filed against him and he came out of the court with a clean chit then no one showed anything about it. No one then put this news as breaking news. The only question is. Why?

Same happened when nothing was found in Swami Ramdev’s medicines. The issue was hyped as if he has done some murder and again it was breaking news. However, later when nothing was found then news channels also showed nothing on it. In the same way, media never showcased the good things that are being done by Bapu’s various ashrams in all over India. Free clothes, food, money that get distributed by Ashram on regular basis to poor people living in tribes all over India has never telecasted by media. The 100% result of the gurukuls has never been reported by media. They just know how to diminish the image of our Saints and that too without any evidences and without knowing the facts.

Media or Trial courts
Media has nowadays become so irresponsible that they are showing whatever they want to. As per the law, media has to show the version of the person against whom they are showing/writing in their respective channels/newspapers. However, they hardly do this. They even take the version of that person just to comply with the law, however, will show that in such a way that it does not impact their made up story. It seems that media is now our country’s new judicial arm. Without knowing the facts they start their trial on the person and make him/her an accused of a crime. Hence, create a wrong picture of that person in our mind.

Even our supreme court Chief Justice Mr. K.G. Balakrishnan has himself mentioned in one of his programs that “media trial” of pending cases is a wrong practice. The tendency of newspapers and news channels to carry unverified reports posed a danger to a free and fair constitutional judicial process. The manner in which “the modern media and telecommunications” intruded into a person’s life and caused embarrassing and damaging publicity, if left unchecked, would become “alarming.” The media trial, conveying public opinion in favour of one side or the other, particularly in criminal matters, had become increasingly frequent in recent times. Even before the court trial began, the accused was being shown as guilty.
This questioned the very premise on which the judicial system was based — the right of every party involved in a court proceeding to have his case adjudicated in a free, fair and unbiased manner.

Justice Balakrishnan said the media were a sentinel of democratic freedom. It was the responsibility of every person associated with the media to act responsibly with a sense of duty towards society and the nation. In fact, journalists were “vigilant watchdogs of civil liberties.” The right of the media to report court proceedings emanated from the right of the citizen to know. The media also had the duty to report fairly, objectively and accurately. He said the media should be wary of allowing itself to become a vehicle for exerting “mass pressure” as opposed to a “mere expression of mass opinion.”

Food for thought
What I strongly believe is that nothing will come out in all the made up cases against Bapu in the end. Media is hyping this issue to increase their channels TRP and may be for some other reason and once the issue gets resolved they will hardly show anything. Their only motive is to show what they want to show and diminish the image of Saints. Are they doing it under somebody else’s guidance? Is there a nexus of these people? These questions are for us to think about and let us pray that an unbiased investigation gets done in this case and the real picture comes out in front of us. I hope that this whole episode will turn in a blessing for all of us and results in a more powerful and strong Indian culture. At the end, we should also not forget Newton’s law that to every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.