A section of the
population of Maharashtra especially Mumbai on November 17 went emotional at
the natural death of Bal Thackeray as if Thackeray was a great national hero
who had done great deeds for the progress of the country and welfare of her
masses. For that matter the way of political leaders’ expression of sorrow was
the same. But there were some souls who had been looking at this all with great
wonder; one of them is Chairman Press Council of India Justice (Retd.) Markande
Katju. He was not able to bear all this; at last he expressed his heartfelt
feelings in a written form the same day. He asked why he could not pay tribute
to Thackeray, and then wrote, the gist of what is: Bal Thackeray emerged as a
leader of Maharashtra on the politics of hate and narrow-mindedness. By
presenting his bhumiputra (sons of the soil) theory for Maharashtrians, he
worked much against the greater interests of the nation. He made his debut in
politics with attacks on North Indians in Bombay (now Mumbai), then spread
hatred against Biharis and U.P.ites, made attacks on Muslims as well – this
entire gamut of his activities was against the constitution of the country and
its unity and harmony. (November 19, The Hindu)
Why these accolades?
There would be hardly
any right-thinking person in the entire country, even in Maharashtra and even
from among the Marathi-speaking persons, who would oppose this analysis of
Justice Katju. It is a fact that Bala saheb emerged as the leader of a section
of Marathi speakers by spreading hatred and disgust against non-Marathis. But
the question is how such a person could win these accolades, this countrywide
fame and this political stature. The answer is “media” – he did get popularity
among simple Marathis but it is the national and international media that
treated him with accolades. Why? Because, it is the very nature, very habit and
very basis of media. It treats with great fervor those who call others names.
The entire post-Independence truth bears witness to this truth. During the Ram
Mandir movement Ashok Singhal, Uma Bharti, Sadhvi Rithambara and Pravin Togadia
could become “popular” due only to this. Three years ago, Varun Gandhi attained
the height of fame in media within no times by abusing Muslims in public
addresses in U.P. This is also the real cause of “popularity” of Modi in
Gujarat.
One more question
Now there is one more
question: why do media get success in its campaigns? The answer to this
question is that this is the collective mentality of the public. And perhaps
Justice Katju understands best this mentality of Indians more than anyone else.
Making an extraordinary comment on this subject in the Indian Express (April 4
this year) he declared 90% Indians as foolish and presented 10 examples of
their weaknesses. The media in fact take benefit from these weaknesses of the
masses and provide them with what they want. The masses like the campaigns for
sensationalism, blames and counter blames, abusing others and hatred and
disgust. Therefore the real culprit is media, not Bal Thackeray. It was the
media that made Thackeray a hero. And the media too is culprit No. 2. The
culprit No. 1 is Indian public. So Justice Markande Katju will have to pay
attention to training of the public mentality. He should not take the Thackeray
issue as some secluded one; he should rather take it in the backdrop of entire
moral decay, and then make attempts to reform it. Perhaps he is not in this
position; but as the chief of Press Council he can do at least some reform of
culprit No. 2.