2003-09-13

The Hindu In Its 125th Year Of Existence

Not as good as it was.

I began reading The Hindu after it broke the story about the Bofors scandal. I really enjoyed reading the paper for several years until Mr. N. Ram became its editor. Today, I prefer to call it “India’s Leading Anti-National Newspaper.”

C. Raja Mohan, the paper’s strategic affairs editor, seems to be more like an employee of the United States Information Service (USIS) than that of The Hindu. Everything that he wrote were and continue to be more like handouts from the USIS. American officials wanting to put their propaganda into Indian media must have found him very useful since other Indian publications pick up news stories from The Hindu. If on one day he had interviewed an American official, then for the next several days he would continue to yap about the topic.

When the US was promoting the CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) and when the public opinion was overwhelmingly against it, Mr. Mohan would simply gush about the benefits of joining that losers’ club. Fortunately, India did not sign it. India’s stand has been vindicated now that the US is trying to resume testing.

When Robin Raphael, a rather insignificant American diplomat, made a comment that Kashmir was a “disputed” territory, Mr. Mohan inflated it on the front page of the newspaper. When the national media picked it up, it created a big controversy. The US then began to lecture India about “human rights” and “aspirations” of the “Kashmiri people.” The Americans stopped their nonsense after several foreign tourists were taken hostage and were later killed by the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM decided to call themselves Al Faran for that particular incident). Robin Raphael was later seen in action in Afghanistan where she tried to bring international recognition and support for the Taliban regime.

When an American company Unocal was trying to lay a pipeline across Afghanistan, Mr. Mohan wanted the Indian government to provide assurances to the Taliban government. When the same company was trying to impress upon the Bangladesh government about the advantages of exporting gas to India, Mr. Mohan wanted the Indian government to push for the project. Even recently, when the US was asking for Indian troops for Iraq, Mr. Mohan promoted the idea as “a new chapter” in the history of Indian diplomacy. The editor of The Hindu also supported the idea, but in a later editorial he pretended he was totally against it.

It is not just with Mr. Mohan, other stringers for the US get their articles published in the op-ed page of the newspaper. Some of the prominent ones are Kuldip Nayyar and Gail Omvedt. In each of the latter’s articles, Ms. Omwedt puts out some strange and loosely-woven theories denouncing Indian heritage only to find them shredded to pieces by indignant but well-informed readers. Mohammed Yunus has accused Kuldip Nayyar of being a US defense asset. His actions do not belie this. Even though he criticises the authorities and political parties for their mistakes, there should be no doubts as to where his loyalties lie. When the USIS organises candle-light vigils at the Wagah post, you can expect Mr. Nayyar in charge of the ceremonies on this side of the border.

When J. Jayalalitha (AIADMK) was in power, the paper made some just criticism of her government’s policies and her party activities. Jayalalitha hounded the newspaper and The Hindu completely lost it cool and its objectivity. They then openly aligned with the M. Karunanidhi (DMK) and his allies. Since the DMK had a special relationship with the forest bandit Veerappan, the editor of The Hindu even signed a clemency petition for the bandit despite the fact that Veerappan had killed over 1000 elephants for their tusks and had also murdered or maimed hundreds of men and women including many police officers.