Thus far people have heard what media stalwarts have to say
about Narendra Modi. Now hear what Modi has to say about some of the famous
media persons’ coverage of the 2002 riots in Gujarat: To quote Modi:
(Click for Video: NDTV
Role in Adding Fuel to the Fire During 2002 Riots).
It was my endeavour that we restore peace at the
earliest possible. If you look at the data you will see that in 72 hours we had
put down the riots and brought the situation under control. But these TV
channels kept on playing up the same incidents over and over again. At the
time, Rajdeep and Barkha were in the same channel NDTV. During those inflamed
days, Barkha acted in the most irresponsible manner. Surat had not witnessed
any communal killings, barring a few small incidents of clashes. However the
bazaars were closed [as a precautionary measure]. Barkha stood amidst closed
shops screaming “This is Surat’s diamond market, but there is not a single
police man here.”
I phoned Barkha and said, “Are you providing the
address of this “unprotected” bazaar to the rioting mobs? Are you inviting them
to come and create trouble there by announcing that there is no police here so
you can run amok safely?”
In a second incident in Anjar, she played up the news
that a Hanuman mandir had been broken and vandalized. I told her, “What are you
up to? You are in Kutch which is a border district. There you are showing the
attack and destruction of a mandir. Do you realize the implications of
broadcasting such news? We haven’t yet recovered from the earthquake. Have you
actually done proper investigation into the riots? Why are you lighting fires
for us? Your news takes a few minutes to broadcast that such and such place is
unprotected or a mandir has been vandalized. But it takes for me a few hours to
move the police from one disturbed location to another since these incidents
are breaking out in the most unexpected places.”
What is worse, when I got the matter enquired into by
the local police, we found out that it was a small, insignificant structure
under a tree which had been damaged a little bit by some crazy individual. But
NDTV presented it as an attack on a Hanuman mandir. When the fires were raging
these journalists were pouring fuel on those fires.
On that day I had put a ban on TV channels because
they were actually provoking trouble. But it was only for one day.
Since Rajdeep Sardesai was among the leading reporters
covering the disturbances, I phoned him to say, “I will have to put a temporary
ban on your channel if you continue with the provocative coverage. There is a
well-established regulation that media should not name communities during
communal riots nor identify a damaged placed as a mandir or masjid. Why are you
violating that code and well set protocol about not naming communities or
identifying places, of worship? You are going against established norms.”
How Modi Reached the Point of No
Return with NDTV?
Modi told me the last straw for him
with regard to NDTV was when one of their correspondents Vijay Trivedi,
accompanied him in a helicopter for an interview. When he started asking the
same old insulting questions, Modi simply kept quiet and refused to respond any
further. Piqued at being ignored, Trivedi spread the canard that Modi nearly
threw him out of the helicopter mid-air because he had asked “tough questions”. Modi
says on that day he decided never to give legitimacy to NDTV by giving them an
interview or responding to any questions from them. Vijay Trivedi treats this
incident as a badge of honour and has boasted about it on numerous occasions--in writing.
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This translation from Hindi is not verbatim but I have tried to be as close to the meaning of the Hindi oroginal as possible. For a more detailed account of media's role during the 2002 riots read' "Modi, Muslims and Media".
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Posted on April 8, 2014
