Refer: Hindustan Times, Mumbai edition, Saturday 26 August 2006, Front page, positioned at the Top of the page, indicating it as today's headlines
Size 2 cm tall 23.5 cm long (indicative of the emphasis given to the topic)
Header: Holland faces India heat
Sub-header: Envoy expresses regret after being read the riot act over Amsterdam detentions
Those 12 detainees at Amsterdam - a different perspective
The news item begins with: "THE TREATMENT meted out to 12 Indians detained and later released after a pilot alert on Northwest Airlines flight in Amsterdam last Wednesday turned into a diplomatic row between India and the Netherlands".
The question that comes to my mind is this:
Such significance has been attached to this particular issue by the Central Government and the prominent media
Why?
Is it because all those 12 people were Muslims?
What would have been the attitude of the Central Government and the prominent media if the 12 were Hindus?
To seek an answer to this question, I looked at their recent conduct in the following instance:
Not long before, probably it was the last month, when it happened in Malaysia
A significant Hindu temple was destroyed by Malaysian authorities
The destruction was carried out in full public view when a significant Devi Pooja was in progress inside the temple
The devotees present requested the authorities to let the Pooja be concluded
The least the authorities could have done is to have agreed to
that request
But they did not
They destroyed the temple without letting the Pooja be completed
What did Central Government of our country do?
How much coverage the prominent media in our country gave to this news?
You know the answers
Both ignored it as if nothing had happened that ever mattered
Remembering this very recent episode a few other questions surfaced my mind:
As long as the Central Government and the prominent media are concerned
Where their loyalty lies?
We hear that our country has some 80% Hindus
Does the Central Government care for Hindu sentiments?
The answer appears to be a big NO, NOT AT ALL
I also hear that our country has some 14-15% Muslims
Does the Central Government care for the Muslim sentiments?
The answer appears to be a big YES, YES, YES
And, what about the prominent media?
Who buys their newspapers?
Isn't it 80% Hindus?
Where does their pay packet come from?
Isn't it from the revenue that newspapers generate from their Hindu customers?
Then why do they purposefully ignore Hindu interests?
And why are they always in the forefront trying to protect Muslim sentiments?
At least one good example of that can be found almost every day in our newspapers
Should it mean that a bigger pay packet, the hidden one, reaches their pocket coming from rich Muslim countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, etc?
Is this the reason their loyalty lies with the Muslims, not with the Hindus?