BJP has 12 CMs. Half of them represent states with big stakes for the BJP. At least four of them copy everything polarising that UP CM does. For them, he’s a role model. As a political journalist I can speak the truth, hide in the fear of Twitter calumny, or lie for its adulation.
Rohit Chopra, account holder of “IndiaExplained”, told ThePrint that Twitter's action was prompted by his refusal to take down a controversial tweet on PM Narendra Modi
The Press in a liberal democracy has to be a forum for the expression of different points of view. It must not suppress, taint or adulterate news, wrote Sachin Sen in 1960.
Research paper, however, finds lowest indebtedness level among Muslims at 12.3% & highest among Hindus at 14.9%. Overall national financial inclusion level at 87.2%, indebtedness at 14.7%.
Fresh details of operation conducted by IAF, Army have come out in gazette notification giving citations of those who were awarded Vir Chakra for their bravery.
On 21 Oct, a buzz went up that the govt had released full list of gallantry award recipients along with Op Sindoor citations. I put an AI caddy on the job. It took me into a never-ending rabbit hole.
Though I dont like UP CM to be the popular face of BJP…this is the true fact and this author just putting this in black and white. cant dispute this article
“But now, some of the intellectual discourse in these fraught times is a case of shoot first, ask questions later. Just like Yogi’s police often do, no?” – Ouch! I don’t think this is about disagreeing with the views, I think this is a lashing out of a section who are looking for “someone” to push back and not finding a “savior”, hence, the more you write about how we’re moving towards the dangerous right, the more lashing out from the twitter-verse.
In my opinion, please increase the focus not on the fact that there is no evidence to suggest Yogi is not becoming a prime campaigner & growing from strength to strength but that he is pushing the liberal/central leaders of the BJP to the right in order to stay in the relevant in the eyes of the party leadership & not voters. This is a dangerous game we’re now entering (it looks like), where leadership approval is much higher than voter approval (or am I reading too much into this?) We need more discourse on why is there voter approval for these laws?… Are we looking at a complete change of the electorate? Are we looking at “silent” majority willing to go along as it does not impact them/us? Is this because the shadow umbrella of Modi’s personality ? Is this simply lack of political opposition (since intellectual opposition exists)? Is this because of BJP politicians scared to speak against Yogi and hardline politics (will Modi negatively attack)?
There is a lot of “just like that” statements of the problems, need you to deep dive; you are doing a commendable job on the agricultural reforms, this needs a similar study as we’re entering a new era of politics (any lessons from the past with Indira & JP?? I wasn’t born then! 🙂 )
the right on Dot. UP CM was brought to Hyderabad to campaign for Hyderabad Municipal corporation election fully knowing that he has little knowledge about the topography abd the problems people face. He came here to counter Owaisis and in process announced that if came to power, Hyderabad would renamed as Bhagyanagar without telling whether change would also make roads better, whether encroached pavement in Sultan Bazar area, where it has large number of followers would be removed etc. Yogi is taken around to add more fuel to the fire lit by its leaders.
This write-up means a lot to me for two reasons: One, I consider you an objective journalist who possesses a certain degree of calmness (Rahul Shrivastava on TV is another such personality). Two, we have a rare instance of a writer evaluating readers’ responses and putting forth his own reasons for believing in the content. It’s good to get an impression that you do believe that trolls exist on both sides of the political arena. Divergent views will thrive eternally but one hopes the abusive, unacceptably angry tones would be kept out of public discourse. It must not be forgotten that the ultimate bosses are the voters – critics, and prejudiced journalists can either waste their time ranting against democratically elected leaders or sensibly critique the questionable moves of the Govt. / praise the right ones, and wait for the next round of elections. Carry on, D.K. Singh – as in the case of elections, have faith that the silent majority (there and) here, isn’t as naive as some of your fellow journalists would like to believe.
Dear DK & Shekhar, the only difference is that earlier in 90’s and till 2004, the narrative was controlled by leftist fanatic intellectuals through TOI, HT, OUTLOOK, NDTV etc. The common man had no medium to articulate what he felt. The media was controlled by people like shekhar, prannoy, vinod dua, barkha etc. I know, i was a student then and had so much to say, but could only suffer in silence or at best wait for my letter to the editor to get published with heavy editions. Then it all changed with social media. Now, the ‘others’ could voice their views & opinions & the silent majority rallied behind a charismatic leader. Thats it. The hold of shekhar & prannoy over the media & the narrative was broken. That’s it.
Way to go DK.
Sermnonising – politically incorrectly.
This is exactly why India survives and moves on, albeit at a snail’s pace. If something works for the people, we must let it work and acknowledge the same.
Why is India great. India arguably is the only large Nation that was not created but evolved. The evolution started about 5000 years ago. In the first 3000 odd millennia the evolution was largely from within. Outsiders called the people within the subcontinent as “Hindus”. The name stuck. In the last 2000 years or so the evolution took a multifaceted direction. Kingdoms expanded to Empires and new religions, Jaininsm and Budhism, and later Sikhism were born from within. In the last 1000 years or so the Abrahamic religions Islam and Christianity took root in the sub-continent. Many took to the new religions. Those who did not remained “Hindus”. You can give the developments any type of spin or character, essentially it cannot be disputed that this is what really happened. This resulted in a Nation with many differences as exists nowhere else in the world. (My point is not about religions, so hold tight)
Essentailly, whatever happens in India is not binary (I am not referring to Modi lovers and Modi haters, Rahul lovers and Rahul haters, Mamata lovers and Mamata haters, Arnab lovers and Arnab haters and such as you can’t attach much real substance to these stances). You can’t expect perennial tranquility in a multi-party, multi lingual, multi religious, and multi cultural large country like India. We will get all types of leaders who may not appeal equally to all Indians. That is the nature of the beast and very pronounced in a heterogenous, if I may, democracy like India.
You can’t please all the people all the times; somewhere somebody will always be making a noise. There never was, is or will be a Utopia. The problem with India is we never let Governments work. It is always better to work and make mistakes rather than not do anything at all for fear of mistakes and stagnate. It is high time we transformed ourselves from a laggard democracy and let elected Governments work any which way. Governments will come and go. Whose Nation is it anyway?
At the end of the day it is “We the people” who are responsible for ourselves. Responsibility is synonymous with criticism. Ah! Yes, one more point, political correctness may look chic but will never yield desired results!
The article seemed less about Yogi and more about justifying the existence of this article to “Twitter”.
Bari Weiss, while resigning from the New York Times:
“Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor,” Weiss wrote in her resignation letter. “As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions”
On Twitter, it’s hard to distinguish journalist from activist from troll. Engaging anyone who is an active Twitter user in a nuanced debate is almost impossible. And increasingly, the same case is ejth someone who may not participate in Twitter debates but just consumes them, such is the reality distorting power of that platform.
CM Ajay Bisht has 300 MLAs in a House of 400. Given the pulverised state of the Opposition, in all likelihood, he will win a second term in 2022. One will not try to predict the size of the majority. That will also neutralise the criticism that power was handed to him on a platter in 2017. 2. My concern is a little different, and it stretches from Uttar Pradesh to the national canvas. When a Chief Executive has such a decisive mandate – not shaky, like PM PVNR – the reasonable expectation is that it will be used to improve people’s lives. Use whichever metrics you consider germane to the Indian context. Is it too much for a citizen in a largely poor country to expect the government to keep its part of the social compact. 3. I am pained by Trader Aunty from Seattle and some of her sakhis. Print ki poori team ke liye mera dil dhadakta hai.
DK Singh you proceed the way you want to and continue your model of journalism. There is rampant dishonesty among all mainstream journalists be it from the LEFT or the RIGHT -> The Rajdeeps, the Burkhas, and the Roys committed the original sin and now Arnab and the gang are only taking it forward. I hate the terms Godi media, Tukde Tukde gang or whatever. For once these LEFTISTS SHOULD STOP BLAMING THE MEDIA FOR THE FALLACIES OF THEIR LEADERS. THE LEFT DID NOT DECLINE IN WB because of the BJP nor CONGRESS WENT DOWNHILL because of Modi. The answer is OBVIOUS.
Good article!
As far as I was concerned,I have a hard time imagining Yogi as PM.
Just looking at his slimy,sleazy disgusting face makes my stomach churn.
Not to mention his endless stupid laws that serve no purpose whatsoever other than Muslim-bashing.
Hopefully people get resistance from these gimmicks from Modi and see Yogi for what he really is.
Yes Rahu; but the truth is…
Yuval Noah Harari, the bestselling author, historian, philosopher and professor, says the only truth is suffering; meaning that everything else is a perception. Stands to reason everybody does not “see” the same thing in everything. The truth is revealed only when you are pinched. Until then everything is perception. Perception is in each one of us and not in which we behold.
Hmmm.. what does this tell you about self declared intellectuals who proudly claim to be Modi critics. Apparently their attention span is beyond limited!! hahahaha… this truly is funny. I would go further and say, not only is their attention span limited but their minds are tightly closed as well. They’re boxed up in an ideology which often times is borrowed. They get carried away and live in la-la land. And to top it off, they call Modi fans Bhakts. How funny. Yes, some Modi fans are blinded by the glitter that his persona and the party presents but there is so much to be said about Modi haters. They seem to be a large group of fairly dumb people themselves.
I agree with the facts you presented in this article and also its interpretation which is also very obvious. But, with regards to your opinion on media being called GODI media, I have to disagree. Journalists in India have lost their objectivity completely and many lack subject matter expertise also. I have several times commented on it here.
You are using opinion pieces from data scientists on COVID 19 who have never been trained clinically and never seen a single patient. You know the result of how much their studies went off the mark. You really believe doctors like Anthony Fauci follow those data scientists? In addition, your data scientists do not live in India, are not aware of its governance capability, our culture and are staking their reputation by commenting on India basically because their reputation is worth nothing in India and they lose nothing when they do not have a stake in having a reputation in India. If they succeed, they gain & if they fail, they do not lose anything.
Finally, remember the Bangalore riots in August,2020? All the media covered that the muslims were instigated by a comment on the Prophet but none mentioned that that comment on the Prophet was in retaliation to an Instagram post nearly one week before on Goddess Durga & Modi together. No one retaliated with violence to the Durga post but when retaliated in kind, look at how the muslims behaved and still they are being framed as victims by the media. All the persons arrested are those who made the comment on the Prophet but till now I do not know who made the post on Durga + Modi.
I have learnt about this not from Indian media but some genuine secular activists on youtube and he is a Pakistani ex-muslim living in Australia.
That is why, Indian media is called Godi media, presstitutes & pseudosecular because they are facts and there are several instances where the facts show it and there can only be one conclusion on the matter.
So, please spare me all this and teach your own junior journalists in THE PRINT to be objective and start writing genuine objective journalistic pieces and stop calling them PERSONAL OPINIONS if they do have the guts and conviction.
If you want, I can help out in vetting the articles for you.
Very well said Dr. Mahesh – “teach your own junior journalists in THE PRINT to be objective and start writing genuine objective journalistic pieces and stop calling them PERSONAL OPINIONS if they do have the guts and conviction.” When Shekhar Gupta was Editor Indian Express, the ratio of articles espousing Cause A vs articles supporting Cause B was 50:50. Here it is 70% of space for those “personal opinions” you refer to, and 30% for objective pieces. The same percentage holds true, more or less, for IE after SG left. Wonder what’s changed.
The problem here is people look at this article as a praise or support for Yogi …which might not be the case…. It actually just highlights how Yogi has been good for BJP and its way of politics and how other BJP CMs have followed him . It doesn’t intend to glorify Yogi Adityanath.
Though I dont like UP CM to be the popular face of BJP…this is the true fact and this author just putting this in black and white. cant dispute this article
“But now, some of the intellectual discourse in these fraught times is a case of shoot first, ask questions later. Just like Yogi’s police often do, no?” – Ouch! I don’t think this is about disagreeing with the views, I think this is a lashing out of a section who are looking for “someone” to push back and not finding a “savior”, hence, the more you write about how we’re moving towards the dangerous right, the more lashing out from the twitter-verse.
In my opinion, please increase the focus not on the fact that there is no evidence to suggest Yogi is not becoming a prime campaigner & growing from strength to strength but that he is pushing the liberal/central leaders of the BJP to the right in order to stay in the relevant in the eyes of the party leadership & not voters. This is a dangerous game we’re now entering (it looks like), where leadership approval is much higher than voter approval (or am I reading too much into this?) We need more discourse on why is there voter approval for these laws?… Are we looking at a complete change of the electorate? Are we looking at “silent” majority willing to go along as it does not impact them/us? Is this because the shadow umbrella of Modi’s personality ? Is this simply lack of political opposition (since intellectual opposition exists)? Is this because of BJP politicians scared to speak against Yogi and hardline politics (will Modi negatively attack)?
There is a lot of “just like that” statements of the problems, need you to deep dive; you are doing a commendable job on the agricultural reforms, this needs a similar study as we’re entering a new era of politics (any lessons from the past with Indira & JP?? I wasn’t born then! 🙂 )
the right on Dot. UP CM was brought to Hyderabad to campaign for Hyderabad Municipal corporation election fully knowing that he has little knowledge about the topography abd the problems people face. He came here to counter Owaisis and in process announced that if came to power, Hyderabad would renamed as Bhagyanagar without telling whether change would also make roads better, whether encroached pavement in Sultan Bazar area, where it has large number of followers would be removed etc. Yogi is taken around to add more fuel to the fire lit by its leaders.
This write-up means a lot to me for two reasons: One, I consider you an objective journalist who possesses a certain degree of calmness (Rahul Shrivastava on TV is another such personality). Two, we have a rare instance of a writer evaluating readers’ responses and putting forth his own reasons for believing in the content. It’s good to get an impression that you do believe that trolls exist on both sides of the political arena. Divergent views will thrive eternally but one hopes the abusive, unacceptably angry tones would be kept out of public discourse. It must not be forgotten that the ultimate bosses are the voters – critics, and prejudiced journalists can either waste their time ranting against democratically elected leaders or sensibly critique the questionable moves of the Govt. / praise the right ones, and wait for the next round of elections. Carry on, D.K. Singh – as in the case of elections, have faith that the silent majority (there and) here, isn’t as naive as some of your fellow journalists would like to believe.
Standing up to the bullies. Keep it up DK
Dear DK & Shekhar, the only difference is that earlier in 90’s and till 2004, the narrative was controlled by leftist fanatic intellectuals through TOI, HT, OUTLOOK, NDTV etc. The common man had no medium to articulate what he felt. The media was controlled by people like shekhar, prannoy, vinod dua, barkha etc. I know, i was a student then and had so much to say, but could only suffer in silence or at best wait for my letter to the editor to get published with heavy editions. Then it all changed with social media. Now, the ‘others’ could voice their views & opinions & the silent majority rallied behind a charismatic leader. Thats it. The hold of shekhar & prannoy over the media & the narrative was broken. That’s it.
Add ‘2 Paisa ka Press’ (from liberal media darling Mohua Moitra) to ‘Godi media’ and ‘fake news factory’.
In my earlier comment, the last but one line should read “Responsibility is not synonymous with criticism. “
Way to go DK.
Sermnonising – politically incorrectly.
This is exactly why India survives and moves on, albeit at a snail’s pace. If something works for the people, we must let it work and acknowledge the same.
Why is India great. India arguably is the only large Nation that was not created but evolved. The evolution started about 5000 years ago. In the first 3000 odd millennia the evolution was largely from within. Outsiders called the people within the subcontinent as “Hindus”. The name stuck. In the last 2000 years or so the evolution took a multifaceted direction. Kingdoms expanded to Empires and new religions, Jaininsm and Budhism, and later Sikhism were born from within. In the last 1000 years or so the Abrahamic religions Islam and Christianity took root in the sub-continent. Many took to the new religions. Those who did not remained “Hindus”. You can give the developments any type of spin or character, essentially it cannot be disputed that this is what really happened. This resulted in a Nation with many differences as exists nowhere else in the world. (My point is not about religions, so hold tight)
Essentailly, whatever happens in India is not binary (I am not referring to Modi lovers and Modi haters, Rahul lovers and Rahul haters, Mamata lovers and Mamata haters, Arnab lovers and Arnab haters and such as you can’t attach much real substance to these stances). You can’t expect perennial tranquility in a multi-party, multi lingual, multi religious, and multi cultural large country like India. We will get all types of leaders who may not appeal equally to all Indians. That is the nature of the beast and very pronounced in a heterogenous, if I may, democracy like India.
You can’t please all the people all the times; somewhere somebody will always be making a noise. There never was, is or will be a Utopia. The problem with India is we never let Governments work. It is always better to work and make mistakes rather than not do anything at all for fear of mistakes and stagnate. It is high time we transformed ourselves from a laggard democracy and let elected Governments work any which way. Governments will come and go. Whose Nation is it anyway?
At the end of the day it is “We the people” who are responsible for ourselves. Responsibility is synonymous with criticism. Ah! Yes, one more point, political correctness may look chic but will never yield desired results!
The article seemed less about Yogi and more about justifying the existence of this article to “Twitter”.
Bari Weiss, while resigning from the New York Times:
“Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor,” Weiss wrote in her resignation letter. “As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions”
On Twitter, it’s hard to distinguish journalist from activist from troll. Engaging anyone who is an active Twitter user in a nuanced debate is almost impossible. And increasingly, the same case is ejth someone who may not participate in Twitter debates but just consumes them, such is the reality distorting power of that platform.
Stay away from Twitter!!
CM Ajay Bisht has 300 MLAs in a House of 400. Given the pulverised state of the Opposition, in all likelihood, he will win a second term in 2022. One will not try to predict the size of the majority. That will also neutralise the criticism that power was handed to him on a platter in 2017. 2. My concern is a little different, and it stretches from Uttar Pradesh to the national canvas. When a Chief Executive has such a decisive mandate – not shaky, like PM PVNR – the reasonable expectation is that it will be used to improve people’s lives. Use whichever metrics you consider germane to the Indian context. Is it too much for a citizen in a largely poor country to expect the government to keep its part of the social compact. 3. I am pained by Trader Aunty from Seattle and some of her sakhis. Print ki poori team ke liye mera dil dhadakta hai.
DK Singh you proceed the way you want to and continue your model of journalism. There is rampant dishonesty among all mainstream journalists be it from the LEFT or the RIGHT -> The Rajdeeps, the Burkhas, and the Roys committed the original sin and now Arnab and the gang are only taking it forward. I hate the terms Godi media, Tukde Tukde gang or whatever. For once these LEFTISTS SHOULD STOP BLAMING THE MEDIA FOR THE FALLACIES OF THEIR LEADERS. THE LEFT DID NOT DECLINE IN WB because of the BJP nor CONGRESS WENT DOWNHILL because of Modi. The answer is OBVIOUS.
Good article!
As far as I was concerned,I have a hard time imagining Yogi as PM.
Just looking at his slimy,sleazy disgusting face makes my stomach churn.
Not to mention his endless stupid laws that serve no purpose whatsoever other than Muslim-bashing.
Hopefully people get resistance from these gimmicks from Modi and see Yogi for what he really is.
Yes Rahu; but the truth is…
Yuval Noah Harari, the bestselling author, historian, philosopher and professor, says the only truth is suffering; meaning that everything else is a perception. Stands to reason everybody does not “see” the same thing in everything. The truth is revealed only when you are pinched. Until then everything is perception. Perception is in each one of us and not in which we behold.
Hmmm.. what does this tell you about self declared intellectuals who proudly claim to be Modi critics. Apparently their attention span is beyond limited!! hahahaha… this truly is funny. I would go further and say, not only is their attention span limited but their minds are tightly closed as well. They’re boxed up in an ideology which often times is borrowed. They get carried away and live in la-la land. And to top it off, they call Modi fans Bhakts. How funny. Yes, some Modi fans are blinded by the glitter that his persona and the party presents but there is so much to be said about Modi haters. They seem to be a large group of fairly dumb people themselves.
I agree with the facts you presented in this article and also its interpretation which is also very obvious. But, with regards to your opinion on media being called GODI media, I have to disagree. Journalists in India have lost their objectivity completely and many lack subject matter expertise also. I have several times commented on it here.
You are using opinion pieces from data scientists on COVID 19 who have never been trained clinically and never seen a single patient. You know the result of how much their studies went off the mark. You really believe doctors like Anthony Fauci follow those data scientists? In addition, your data scientists do not live in India, are not aware of its governance capability, our culture and are staking their reputation by commenting on India basically because their reputation is worth nothing in India and they lose nothing when they do not have a stake in having a reputation in India. If they succeed, they gain & if they fail, they do not lose anything.
Finally, remember the Bangalore riots in August,2020? All the media covered that the muslims were instigated by a comment on the Prophet but none mentioned that that comment on the Prophet was in retaliation to an Instagram post nearly one week before on Goddess Durga & Modi together. No one retaliated with violence to the Durga post but when retaliated in kind, look at how the muslims behaved and still they are being framed as victims by the media. All the persons arrested are those who made the comment on the Prophet but till now I do not know who made the post on Durga + Modi.
I have learnt about this not from Indian media but some genuine secular activists on youtube and he is a Pakistani ex-muslim living in Australia.
That is why, Indian media is called Godi media, presstitutes & pseudosecular because they are facts and there are several instances where the facts show it and there can only be one conclusion on the matter.
So, please spare me all this and teach your own junior journalists in THE PRINT to be objective and start writing genuine objective journalistic pieces and stop calling them PERSONAL OPINIONS if they do have the guts and conviction.
If you want, I can help out in vetting the articles for you.
Very well said Dr. Mahesh – “teach your own junior journalists in THE PRINT to be objective and start writing genuine objective journalistic pieces and stop calling them PERSONAL OPINIONS if they do have the guts and conviction.” When Shekhar Gupta was Editor Indian Express, the ratio of articles espousing Cause A vs articles supporting Cause B was 50:50. Here it is 70% of space for those “personal opinions” you refer to, and 30% for objective pieces. The same percentage holds true, more or less, for IE after SG left. Wonder what’s changed.
The problem here is people look at this article as a praise or support for Yogi …which might not be the case…. It actually just highlights how Yogi has been good for BJP and its way of politics and how other BJP CMs have followed him . It doesn’t intend to glorify Yogi Adityanath.
In the world where people have attention span of a zillionth of a second, taking about nuances is too much to ask.