vasudev@decvax.UUCP (Vasudev Bhandarkar) (11/01/84)
Once again the News media have distorted news, tried to sensationalize it and presented it with an "angle". Case in point: The ABC News coverage of the assassination of Indira Gandhi. On the one hand they said that two of her Sikh bodyguards shot at her. On the other hand they had pictures of rejoicing Sikhs. They went on to say that millions of Sikhs in the world were rejoicing over the assassination while millions of Hindus in India were mourning the death. BBC on the other hand reports that one Sikh rushed at her with an automatic gun killing two of her bodyguards, injuring another and later killing himself with the same gun. The fact is that a small minority of Sikhs in New York and London were rejoicing the event while everyone else was mourning the assassination. The bias presented by the news media seems to imply that the Hindus seem to be waging an ongoing battle with the Sikhs and that Sikhs have terrorist tendencies. The fact is that there is always a small minority of fanatics in every community that tarnishes the reputation of the community as a whole. A minority of Sikhs used the Golden temple as an arms stronghold. Incidentally, it was a Sikh military officer that planned the army takeover of the Golden Temple. We feel that presenting news with an angle, making it "juicier", and applying a bias to it, not only mis-informs the public but also foments further violence and ill-feeling between the parties on either side of the bias. Really, the news media should be more responsible about what they are presenting and how they present it. Ram Rao Vasudev Bhandarkar decvax!ram decvax!vasudev
jbtubman@water.UUCP (Jim Tubman) (11/03/84)
Vasudev Bhandarkar's posting on news coverage of the Gandhi assassination
and his charges of media distortion caught my attention. Mr. Bhandarkar
apparently feels that the coverage of Sikhs celebrating the assassination
does not represent the attitudes of most Sikhs towards this event, and that
those who are celebrating are just a "small minority of fanatics". I
haven't seen the American TV coverage of the North American Sikhs but the
Canadian TV coverage seems to point in two directions. Some of the Sikh
leaders have denounced the assassination; others, while stopping short of
openly praising it, have said that she brought it upon herself. Certainly
there were celebrations by Sikhs in Canada as well as in the US and UK.
(I think that when people immigrate to another country they should leave
the feuds of their homeland behind them, but that's another issue.)
From my limited knowledge about India (gleaned from the Indian friends), I
understand that the Sikhs as a group have done very well, and hold many high
and important positions. What are issues that are motivating the radical
Sikhs?
Does anyone out in netland have a realistic idea of what percentage of the
Sikhs in India support the separatists? The coverage I have seen claims it
is only a small number, but an Indian friend of mine who visited there two
years ago said that, in his estimation, 40 to 60 percent of the Sikhs were
of the more radical variety. (He has nothing against the Sikhs himself, so
I am trusting his estimate. We are both worried about his parents, who are
visiting in India now and are staying 50 kilometres from Amritsar, where the
Golden Temple is.) Is the attitude of Sikhs in other countries
substantially different from those still in India?
Let's hope that things there calm down soon.
Jim Tubman
University of Waterloo
{ihnp4,utcsrgv,
allegra,clyde,
decvax,linus}!watmath!water!jbtubmanmangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (11/06/84)
The Washington Post, in a fit of honest reporting, indicated that by and large the Sikh community did not support the assasination, and devoted a lot of coverage to the persecution of Sikhs across India, including a fascinating article on Sunday concerning the Hindus who helped Sikhs to escape from mobs, or hide, or whatever. On the other hand, they did tend to suggest that India was degenerating into total anarchy, which seems from my admittedly limited point of view to be somewhat of an exaggeration. Charley Wingate umcp-cs!mangoe