Dear Barkha Dutt,

A compliment from Arnab Goswani is an insult to you. Fine! What about the compliment from Hafiz Saeed? I have seen you reacting to people’s (you’ve labeled them all #Trolls and #Bhakts) reaction on Hafiz Saeed’s appreciation but I don’t know what your first reaction was. You certainly didn’t write a blog entry calling him names the way you did for Arnab Goswani.

On one side you’re extremely vocal about certain things, people and institutions while you causally ignore to even acknowledge the very thing on the other hand. Is that fair? Nope, it’s not!

You see that’s the problem. That’s the area I want to take you to.

Before actually taking you down point by point, I’d want to bring a fact to your notice. Did you realize Arnab didn’t take any name whatsoever? On the contrary, Hafiz did. I guess that’s enough to raise eyebrows against the orientation of your allergies and allegiances.

Now let’s me take you through some parts of your own blog – point by point.

You said, “he (Arnab) lumped all of us who have reported the recent unrest in Kashmir (from the ground, not from behind the lazy comfort of a Mumbai studio table like him) as apologists for the recently killed militant Burhan Wani, without explaining the basis of his statement. The following 3 screenshots can explain it all.

What were you thinking while adding “THE SON OF A SCHOOLMASTER” to your tweet? What was your logic? I know he was the son of a schoolmaster – a father who didn’t even bother to reason with his son as he was moving on the path of Allah! Don’t tell me you didn’t know it? Rajdeep Sardesai took it to another level by comparing him to Bhagat Singh. What a shallow man this guy is!

Then you went on to say “telling the truth in all its textures – the duty of a journalist – includes reporting all sides of a story, not glossing over the bits that are too awkward and uncomfortable to confront. That would be cowardice, not reportage. he positioned us as being at some sort of war with the Army – both false and disingenuous”.

Well, tell me Barkha, did you cover all aspects of the Burhan Wani story?

• Did you know military tried to get him surrender? Do you know what did his father said on the question of surrendering? Well, here it is….
• Did you talk to Burhan’s father after his death? Or did you try to read what all he told Hindustan Times? Of course, you didn’t because his father talked about Burhan going to Allah and said “Our Isam says that God, Quran and the Prophet are bigger than anything, even bigger and more important than our sons”. But how could you show that? You just couldn’t!
  

  

  
• Why the Pakistani flag in which Burhan’s body was wrapped didn’t bother you? Why didn’t you talk about that?
• Why didn’t you question the separatist leaders who didn’t waste a single minute to declare Burhan a martyr?
• Did you highlight the fact that in the aftermaths of Burhan’s killing scores of Kashmiri Pandit government employees had to leave the valley? If I am not mistaken, it wasn’t a communal issue? Why didn’t you explore this story?

Multi-dimensional reportage – bulls**t!

I know you are among the journalists who have chronicled the new phase of militancy in the valley. Ideally your role should have been that of a mirror. You should be reflecting the status quo of the valley as it is. Unfortunately that has never been the case with you and the other elite journalists of your class. Can you talk about the average family size of the valley? I am asking because the size of the family can help you understand the quality of education, health services and overall life can be determined. Can you talk about the increasing number of Wahabi Islam influenced mosques in valley? Can you talk about the slogans these “misguided youth” yell while protesting? Can you justify the presence of ISIS flags during protests? Why?

Are these questions discomforting? Or are you afraid of the fatwas? Or will it impact the business of the channel you work for? After all, this too is a business, you have a boss sitting on your shoulder who tells you what limitations are! Right?

What is being gagged?

In the beef ban case stories were fabricated, scores of loathing was done in the name of freedom to eat whatever a person wants to. However, not a single media house bothered to tell that the term ‘beef’ is a generic term for both buffalo and cow’s meat and it’s the cow’s meat that has been banned (I am against the ban, FYI).

The entire journo brigade jumped in to take sides with Kanhaiya Kumar case. Did they even bother to check the authenticity of the tape? The tape which was initially called ‘doctored’ came out to be actual and authentic one. Needless to say, some media houses took the entire episode to a whole new level. Ravish Kumar did an entire episode on Arnab Goswami’s approach. Kanhaiya, on the other hand, rose to become the star of the dying sect of the left wingers.

Truth is being gagged! Facts are being gagged! And that is exactly what people like me, Arnab Goswami, Shiv Aroor and scores of people on social media are taking a stand against. Call it a rise in subversion of journalism or rise of Trolls! We are going to stay and we’re going to fight!

We have had enough of this bigotry. We don’t want it any further.

It’s just the beginning

Yes, madam! This is just the beginning of it. It’s the power of social media and the awareness of a common Indian combined together. We are wise and we don’t need your bigoted, one-sided crap you like to call news. It’s time to call spade a spade. I guess, Arnab just did that!