Saturday, May 06, 2006

'friends of tibet' suggests boycott of 'The Hindu'

may 6th

this is especially for you, iamdemocracy.

for a change, you can actually *do* something -- actively supporting
this campaign -- rather than just whining about others not doing things.

i expect you to report back to this blog how many people you have
convinced to sign the petition, and how many of them are going to
boycott the paper.

i am still awaiting with bated breath your report on the number of
people you have convinced in february, march, april and may about how
badly hindus are treated in india. to refresh everyone's memory,
iamdemocracy had asserted that the problems of hindus were too widely
known to bear repeating. my suggestion to him was that he go out and
convince 10 people every week about the truth of apartheid against
hindus, and each of them would in turn convince 10 others, and so on.
pretty soon we'd have a minor revolution on our hands, as simple, pure
information reaches hundreds of people.

but i haven't seen any evidence of this yet.

makes me wonder, iamdemocracy, gasp, is it that you are just yet another
'little emperor' who expects others to do your bidding while you
pontificate at them?

----------------------

From: Friends of Tibet <support@friendsoftibet.org>

'Save The Hindu' Campaign

The Hindu, one of the most credible and trusted newspapers in
the country has many things to its credit. Chief among them is
the appointment of an Ombudsman or a Readers' Editor in a
newspaper for the first time in the history of Indian
journalism. This 127-year-old newspaper with 3.8 million
readers has a different story to tell ever since N Ram, who
describes himself as "An Indian who has no sympathy for the
Dalai Lama's separatist and backward looking agenda", took
charge as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper on July 1,
2003.

Friends of Tibet has learned that the editorial board of The
Hindu led by N Ram has instructed their centres not to carry
any 'Tibet', 'Dalai Lama' and 'Falun Gong' stories criticising
the policies of the Chinese government. Instead of depending
on reliable news agencies like PTI, UNI, IANS, Reuters, AP and
AFP, The Hindu has found a Beijing-based news-agency to fetch
stories - The Xinhua - world's biggest propaganda agency
belonging to the Chinese Communist Party. Probably The Hindu
is the only newspaper in the country to reproduce Xinhua
reports. Today The Hindu has virtually become a mouthpiece of
the Chinese Communist Party.

Perhaps unique in the world because of its role, size, and
reach, Xinhua reports directly to the Chinese Communist
Party's Propaganda Department and employs more than 10,000
people. The head of the Xinhua has the rank of a minister.
Successor to the agency, Red China that was founded by Mao
Zedong, Xinhua adopted its current name in January 1937. Since
October 1949, this state-run news-agency has been completely
subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party and remains the
voice of the sole party.

A card-holding member of the Communist Party in India who had
been to China and occupied-Tibet at least fifteen times in
junkets mostly arranged by the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, N
Ram is also the mastermind behind 'India-China Association of
Journalists', an embassy-sponsored organisation specialising
in arranging pleasure trips for Indian journalists. This new
strategy of Beijing has already won the hearts of some of our
best journalists. Ironically it is only when the Tamil Nadu
Police entered The Hindu office premises in Chennai, N Ram who
calls the killing of a million Tibetans by China's occupying
forces 'a myth', got enlightened about freedom.

We believe that it is immoral from the side of an Editor to drag
some of the eminent journalists to do ethically-wrong
reporting for The Hindu and Frontline and also to use a
democratic forum - freedom of the press - to advance the cause
of an autocratic regime.

'Save The Hindu' Campaign is an attempt to save the newspaper
and also to expose Xinhua - Chinese government's propaganda
agency to its readers. Let us use the opportunity to write to
the newly-appointed Readers' Editor about our concerns on The
Hindu policies on various issues including Tibet.

For a case study and to sign a petition online, go to:
www.friendsoftibet.org/save/

(The Petition will to be submitted to the newly-appointed
Readers' Editor of The Hindu.)
...........................
Friends of Tibet, PO Box: 16674,
Bombay 400050, India.
Tel: +91.22.26409612 / Mobile: +91.9388465953 / +91.9418079832
Email: support@friendsoftibet.org
Web: www.friendsoftibet.org
..........................
Friends of Tibet is a global movement to keep alive the issue
of Tibet through direct action. Our activities are aimed at
ending China's occupation of Tibet and the suffering of the
Tibetan people. Friends of Tibet supports the continued
struggle of the Tibetan people for independence.
.........................

3 comments:

iamfordemocracy said...

I am honoured by the few lines Rajeev writes about me, still, he misses the point. The question is not of me, or any other individual for that matter, doing anything individually. As I have written here often, a person will try to do a few things to defend his group/religion, and will accept the reality and move on if the group isn't good enough to sustain itself.

The role of an organization/party is far more important. I suggest to Rajeev that if Sankaracharya is helpless, if Tirupati organization is helpless, and if BJP and BJP supporters are limited to just writing about secular media, I am afraid that the writing is on the wall for the Hindus.

And yes, in response to this, don't yell at me. I am nobody. My reach, my boldness, my influence, my riches, all of them are limited. I am much much more helpless than a Shankaracharya or a BJP.

iamfordemocracy said...

sk, if you think you aren't a coward, go and fight with islamic fundamentalists, or BJP stalwarts who are running away with your votes and aren't doing anything for you. Your bravery is limited to vitriolic comments at the best, and you aren't even aware how much of a coward you are.

yoda the nizhal said...

convince 10 people every week about .."the truth of apartheid against hindus".. ??!!

yeah, good luck man, trying to convince 10 others. since the "truth" is such a travesty of reality. I guess thats why you are running away from trying ..