Arun Shourie on how the Indian media lies

Here is a brilliant article from Arun Shourie, I found on the hindu vivek kendra website on showing how the Indian media fabricates lies and twists the truth to fit their nefarious designs. Willing collaborators are the Indian communists who hate anything indigeneous.

Title: Fabrications On The Way To The Funeral
Author: Arun Shourie
Publication: India Connect website
Date: June 27, 1998.

"Rational vs. National," screams the headline of the new pall-bearer of secularism, the magazine Outlook. "Fresh evidence available with Outlook," the story announces, "reveals that not only has the ICHR [the Indian Council of Historical Research] been packed with 'sympathizers' but a new statement of objectives or resolution [sic.] has been added, changing certain keywords from the original Memorandum of Association of1972, legitimised by an Act of Parliament. While the original Memorandum of Association states that ICHR's aims would be to give 'rational' direction to historical research and foster 'an objective and scientific writing ofhistory', the new resolution, which will be included in the Gazette of India, states that ICHR now seeks to give a 'national' direction to an 'objective and national presentation of history'. So, 'rational' has been changed to 'national', and 'scientific' too has been changed to 'national'...."

"Tampering with history," proclaims the old pall-bearer, The Hindu. "Apprehensions of this kind [that the fabled 'Sangh parivar' is out to rewrite history] have been substantiated by a related decision. The resolution by the Ministry of Human Resource Development -- nodal Ministry under which the ICHR comes -- that details the new nominations carries with it an amendment to the Memorandum of Association by which the ICHR was setup; while the institution was set up 'to foster objective and scientific writing of history such as will inculcate an informed appreciation of the country's national and cultural heritage,' the new Government's mandate is that the ICHRwill give a 'national direction' to an objective and national presentation and interpretation of history'. This amendment is certainly not just a matter of semantics. Instead, one can clearly see in this an intention on the part of the BJP-led Government to rewrite history...."

The next issue of the CPI(M) mouthpiece, Peoples Democracy, reproduces this editorial ! And carries with it an article by one of the ring-leaders, K. N. Panicker."Saffronization of historical research," proclaims the heading. Panicker repeats the charge of the word "rational" having been replaced by "national". He adds another : the Memorandum of Association of the ICHR mentions five objectives, he says, but the Resolution put out by theSaffron-brigade mentions only two.

Thus, the charge rests on three bits of "evidence" :that the Memorandum of Association of the ICHR has been changed; second, that a word -- "rational" -- in the Resolution announcing the new members of the ICHR hasbeen surreptitiously replaced by another word -- "national"; third, that while the original Memorandum of Association specifies five objectives for the ICHR, the new Resolution cuts out three of these.

Having been educated by The Hindu that the "nodal ministry" for the matter is the Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, I ring up the Secretary of that Ministry. Has the Memorandum of Association of the ICHR been changed?, I ask. No, he says. It has not been changed, he says.

And then about the Resolution announcing the new members. The allegation, you will recall, is that the aim which in the Memorandum of Association is, "to give a national direction to an objective and RATIONAL presentation and interpretation of history....," has been altered in the Resolution to read, "to give a national direction to an objective and NATIONAL presentation and interpretation of history...."

I have before me the statement of the Ministry ofHuman Resources Development [No. F 30-28/86-U3] dated 6th October, 1987, that is of eleven years ago. It gives the text of the Resolution of the Government of India announcing the new members -- announcing, among otherthings, that Irfan Habib is being appointed as Chairman with retrospective effect from 9 September, 1986. Thecorresponding expression in it is, "to give a national direction to an objective and NATIONAL presentation and interpretation of history...."

I have before me the statement of the Ministry of Human Resources Development [No. F. 30-13/89-U3] dated15th May, 1991. It gives the text of the Resolution of the Government of India announcing the new members --announcing, among other things, that Irfan Habib is being re-appointed as Chairman with retrospective effect from 12 March, 1990. The corresponding expression in it is, "to give a national direction to an objective and NATIONAL presentation and interpretation of history...."

To test my hypothesis yet again, I look for and obtainthe immediately preceding statement of the Ministry. It bears the number F. 30-3/94-U.3, and is dated 8th September, 1994. Like the others, it furnishes the text of the Resolution of the Government of India announcing the new members -- announcing, among other things, thatRavinder Kumar, another "historian" of the same hue, is being appointed as Chairman with retrospective effect from 8 September, 1990. The corresponding expression in it is,"to give a national direction to an objective and NATIONAL presentation and interpretation of history...."

That is how far I am able to get on my own. I request the Secretary of the Ministry : can he please request someone to look up the Resolutions of the earlier years, and see whether they contain anything different ? Can he help me trace when this "alteration" got made ?

Till the time of my dispatching this article, the Secretary has been able to trace Resolutions going back upto 1978 -- that is, twenty years. Each of them carries the very same words !

The research of the Secretary and his colleagues establishes that -- to reproduce the word the Secretary uses-- the whole mystery has arisen from a "typographical error" : some typist banging away on his typewriter sometwenty-odd years ago typed "rational" as "national". As each typist, when asked to type out the subsequent Resolution, copied the preceding one, that word continued to be typed as "national" year after year. The leftists inferred no conspiracy. But, lo and behold, now that a BJP Government is in power, inferring conspiracies -- to use their favourite phrase -- is a historical necessity. It is objective history ! It is progressive methodology ! Perhaps they will put on their Sherlock Holmes caps again, and establish that the Governments of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, of Rajiv Gandhi, of V. P. Singh, of Narasimha Rao have all been in league with the RSS, and therefore parties to this grave conspiracy !

I then ring up Mr. Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook. "But the reporter says she has the text and everything," he says. I narrate what I have found. He promises to check and get back to me. When we talk again he says he has sent me the text of the Resolution. But that is the current one. My point was that the "change" which Outlook had built its story on has existed in all Resolutions for at least twenty years. He says he will get back to me.That is where matters stand.

The exact same thing holds for that fabrication of K.N. Panicker : about five objectives having become two. In every single one of the Resolutions -- including the 1994 Resolution under which this man was himself nominated tothe ICHR, a Resolution he can find printed at page 342 ofThe Gazette of India, October 22, 1994 -- the exact samesentences are used : only those objectives are mentioned as are mentioned in the Resolution issued this year ! And another thing : if an RSS publication publishes even an interview with me, that is further proof of my being communal; but so tough are the hymen of these progressives that, even when they contribute signed articles to publications of the Communist Party, their virginity remains in tact !