Sunday, February 15, 2009

Interview with Deccan Herald


19 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Dr V S Acharya said...
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Anonymous said...

Sir,
Then I ask a few questions which did not get asked/answered in the interviews.
Request you to answer these.
1) Pubs have been around for very long. So has pub culture. Why are Ram Senics let loose only in your regime? Why is it that only in your regime freedom of women is curtailed? (Answer: pubs and "culture" around it have been around for some time. Media hype around petty incidences are on the rise. Where are the victims of Mangalore pub "attack"?, if they don`t complain, where is the case?...You cant have a synthetic outrage based on re run of mere 15 seconds of video clip...that shows that the entire episode might have been "stage managed". For the 100th time, I repeat, there is not link between Ram Sena and BJP, all those involved in the attacks have been arrested- now it is the turn of the judiciary to take action. Do not blame us if they get bail from the courts!)

2) To me your government projects an image of a biased sexist over-traditional MCP which covertly supports Hindu-extremists dictating rules to only women. What do you say? (Answer: You are free to form your opinion about people/ govt. We respect freedom of choice/ expression, however do not tolerate biased media projecting us as anti development)

3) Freedom of the press is vital to a democracy. By wanting to curtail it, are you not going the taliban & china way? (Answer: Please read our statements again, we are not for media censorship, as it made out be...we are against "hit and run" reporting, where visual media broadcasts without verfiying facts, not bothered to clarify!; we are also against lobbyists manipulating media reports. In mangalore media was interested get a saleable "breaking news" rather than preventing assault on hapless victims)

4) What concrete steps has your government taken for protecting women in Bangalore? (apart from telling them to shut themselves up at home)? Please spare us any answers about media here. I want to know what steps you have taken? (Answer: Do not attribute any statement, which has not been made by us, In fact such statement was made by Delhi CM Sheela Dixit. When we provided security at Bangalore pubs/restaurants, a Page3cultured newspaper was very critical of our actions. Remember that each of us is a police sans uniform. If you are watchful, aware of your rights and responsibilities, no force in the world can control your private life/space. Eg: be aware that you can not be photographed/ videographed in a personal/private area without your consent...it amounts to invasion of privacy...We have shown on 14th Feb, how we can control, opposition backed miscreants! No need to give you technical details.)

5) On a lighter note: Since you seem to support the self-proclaimed moral brigades,
you should also be enforcing some rules on men. ...(Answer: Typical of people with fixed ideas...they assume something, start criticizing on the basis of assumptions! may be called News manufacturing!
Facts are 1: There is no support to any self proclaimed brigades. 2:All culprits have been arrested BEFORE media furore 3.All contorversial statements attributed to me in the church attack episode, pub episode, Kunjambu are the making of twisted minds.- that explains the existence of this blog!)

Unknown said...

Sir,

There are lot of young people like me who support you fully.

I can't understand why people like Sridevi try to make BJP a culprit here just because of the name "Rama" despite being denounced the linkage so many times.

Further, making this issue as a men vs women was even more pathetic. It is a societal problem... There are so many people who live in victimhood.

I want to ask these people,.. When women's groups go to villages and break liquor shops and beat up men, isn't it the same issue ? .. But, these people praise those efforts.

Anonymous said...

@Acharya ji,

Thanks for answering my queries.
Though question 5 has been edited, its ok.
Sir, Whether people like me have a fixed mindset or the right-wingers have one track minds, all of India knows now :-)

@Rajkiran Panuganti,
Whether BJP and Ram Sena are linked only time will tell. Truth cannot be hidden for long.

My concern as a citizen is that these Ram Sainik's are let looose only in the BJP regime. A matter which requires some thought.

Coming to real issues:
Today much of India remains under the poverty line because of existence of arrack shops. Drinking - domestic violence-child labour - debts - women being pushed into prostitution - all are so viciously linked. I abhor and condemn the existence of these arrack shops. The need of the hour is to target these evils.

Why target peaceful youngsters who are partying, falling in love and going about their lives peacefully.

After all it is love that underlies creation. yours and mine and Acharya ji's included.


If the youngsters are intermingling with people of different communities - even more better for India. We need a far more mixed India where every family cannot find its identity in one religion. This way no politician can use religion as a tool for separatism. This is the solution to all the communal problems.

Anonymous said...

1. Ram Sena fielded candidates opposite BJP in the last election, and lost deposit. Records are available with election commission. However, for the mediamen with "leanings" it is not a news!
2. Everytime, a person with "fixed mind" talks ill of Indian values/ culture...remember that an earlier neutral person like me turn into "right wing activist" to save our culture. Because of this very people our preganant unmarried minor girls are committing suicide.
3. Where is Renuka Chaudhary, when a teenaged girl committs suicide after getting raped by a boy from a "minority" community...is she worried of losing her vote bank? (or was it the phone call from an "elite" family in Mangalore made her send the womens council for pub enquiry?)
4. Of late it has become a fashion to tell a lie 100 times, later peddle it off as news.

Anonymous said...

@Kabir,
Minor women getting pregnant is as old as history and as old as say - the devadasi system. [ By the way, the devadasi system is also a part of our "HINDU culture". It was a system created for exploitation of women.]

Be rest assured your "culture" is not running away anywhere. If today you see pink chaddi campaigns and pub bharos just a form of peaceful protest. It's far more gandhian than what the Ram Sainicks did.

Rape - has no religion!!! It is a crime against a woman - a tool used by warring men for centuries. Why add green and saffron colours to it? You will only make it worse and probably triggers off more rapes.

Why do you assume that only women have to preserve "Hindu culture"? If you are so concerned, get a sex change, understand what it is to be a women and then you can go preserving it.

I-am-me said...

Sir.

Where are the victims of Mangalore pub "attack"? That's a question we as citizens have to ask you - the home minister.

They existed a week back. Where are they now? These young girls are too scared to talk now?

Is this the level of terror created by the state? Lets not blame media alone here.

"synthetic outrage"!! what a term. So the state is making victims disappear and calling the outrage as synthetic now? my god!!

Unknown said...

@Sridevi,

I'm replying because you played a victim card (based on gender,religion or anything). Btw, let me confess that I'm a staunch BJP supporter and a great admirer of Dr. Acharya and Advani.

One by One:--

a. Link between BJP and Rama Sene: Yes, Time will tell... Until then, stop these allegations.

Let the media ppl who were filming and the girls who were there file an FIR and then complain.. Tell me, why aren't media people who were present there filing an FIR ?? -- Why dont u send pink chaddis to those media ppl for happily recording those events without helping the girls there ??
Note that those media people were all present ready to film like a stage-managed drama. Can't they inform police when they had information ???

b. For us, every issue is "real" issue including pubs. For me, arrack shops and pubs are same.. Both should have restrictions which are already there in law.

If you want to intermingle, intermingle.., where is BJP objecting ??? .. Dont make Rama Sene's agenda BJP's. BJP has better problems to deal with than this pub issue!

c. Calling Pub Bharo as Gandhian is an insult to Gandhi. Refrain from using Gandhi for this.

d. Why do you want to play victim card ? Dont you think the law and society is actually totally partial to Women.

Few examples:
1. Dowry is wrong (rightly so!) but every girl looks at guy's salary and wealth before marriage. Is that okay ?

2. In case of divorce, mother gets the custody of children by default Where is equality ? Infact, for me, article 498 is constitution-sponsored terrorism.

3. Now, women want reservations . Do you support that ??

4. Rape is a crime and Seducing is also a crime and you know it.


A sincere note:

Nowadays, there is a trend among girls(and boys) towards "item" girl. Whether you make yourself an "item" is completely your choice and is up to you. But, once you make yourself "item".. you become commodity in the market and like any other commodity, that "item" will be traded..which will not be in anyone's control. It is up to you.

Sridevi, I assume that you are heavily influenced by "sensational" Media. A request is to try to read news outside "sensational" media channels. Media channels nowadays are like blogs -- totally opinionated and pro-sensationalization. All that they care is money.

Didnt you personally feel that during Arushi case ??

If you want to have further conversation on why "religion" is important as political issue, I can reply to that. I may have sounded rude at some point in my post but I did not intend to hurt you.


Finally, don't you appreciate the fact that a Home Minister is "directly" answering you despite his busy schedule ?? ...
Did you ever even see an interview of Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan Singh ?

Do you see any people of any party "directly" answering you ?

I request you to raise this questions about religion in politics etc. on www.lkadvani.in .. Participate in forum there... It is quite active.
You can give convincing arguments to change our minds. Whatever,... we can always debate...

BJP builds strong institutions. Aren't you seeing the way Congress is destroying Election Commission, CBI, and the most disgusting Vote-For-Note scandal in parliament ?

There are separate forums for each category and we can discuss nation building process there.

Unknown said...

@Sridevi,

The most important point that I missed:

You accussed Dr. Acharya of "curbing freedom of press".

Do you know that Dr. Acharya, Advani etc. went to jail for 18 months during Emergency to restore the freedom of press.

Do you know that it was Mr. Advani who as Information & Broadcasting minister in 1977 made press independent ?

Do you know that it was NDA which allowed FDI into media channels and hence you saw this mushrooming of the media channels ?

I can give you youtube link where Election commission tell people that journalists are demanding about Rs. 25 lac during election time to report in the favor of the candidates.

You are accussing the people who fought their life for freedom of press. But, freedom without responsibility is called anarchy.
Please look up information about Ombudsman.

Finally, what did you feel about media during Arushi case ?

Anonymous said...

Where are the victims of Pub attack? Possibilities:
1. they must have indulged in something wrong, so gone into hiding
2. they might be stage actors, hired to "film"the event...their job well done, well paid, gone off to bollywood/sandalwood...
3. too ashamed by all the media hype/ repeat telecast of Rs 30,000 worth of 15 second video clip/byte, they have gone into hibernation!
4. Will resurface again, for a price!

Mediapepper said...

iam not a opposer to media, but after seeing the way visual media are portraying mangalore, i strongly feel for having ombudsman

Anonymous said...

Rajkiran Panuganti/ Sridevi

People will always throw stones in your path...
Now it depends on what you make from it...
Wall or Bridge...
Decide
Remember that you are the architect of your life!

Anonymous said...

Policing in India is a thankless job. The Home Minister and the police gets blamed for each and every thing. When they are proactive and take steps they get blamed of high handedness.All the so called Rights group become very active (take the recent case of a bombay don or naxal attacks). When they do their job according to the law or unfortunately they could not arrive on the scene immediately, they are blamed for everything from inefficieny to being involved in that. Just take the mangalore pub incident. The police arrested 10 culprits within 30 min of the incident. Within 24 hours they had arrested 27 people. Still every news paper/channel and parties started accusing the Home Minister and the police of inaction? What does "Action" mean? I assume for them "arresting and keeping indefinitely" accounts to some action. if the court grants bail, how can we blame the police/HM for that? We have to check the law which is used!. Also remember, the central govt recently ammended CrPc to prevent arrest of people by the police if the crime is punishable with less than 7 years of jail time.

Everybody blames the CM and HM for supporting the pub attacks. But being already under pressure do we really think that the govt would want another issue on its hand that will invariably bring bad publicity? That makes no political sense and both CM and HM are experienced enough to understand this simple logic. If nothing else they will try their best to prevent one more episode that just brings headache.

While everybody jumps to conclusion and starts critisizing at the drop of a hat, nobody talks about the job the police do day and night to protect us. How many of us have ever thanked a police man for doing service for us while we enjoy our life? Has anybody thanked them for maintaining the traffic for us, standing in a busy smoke filled road on a humid sunny day while we move around in our AC cars? How many of us have thanked them for maintaining vigil in a stadium while we enjoy a cricket match? Think of every act they do that most of us will not even imagine to do.
I am not telling that everything is OK and we turn a blind eye. There are black sheeps. But pick one place where such a thing is not there? I cannot pick one. Then why paint the police dept as one inefficient Dept and blame them for all the ills in the society?

Lastly, we have seen so many articles critisizing the Home Minister as very inefficient and weak? I am still not sure about the reason for such an assessment. For some of us, a minister is very strict and capable only when he bashes his officers in the public and suspends them as we have seen so many of the politicians do. But we have to understand that this is only for the public consumption. The reality is the same minister/politician should rely on the same officers to implement their programs. Nothing moves without their cooperation. Now if you demoralize them in public, what kind of cooperation can one expect? I would not have the enthusiasm to do work for someone who chides me/ my colleagues for no fault of us. And as we know, just doing job is not good enough for progress.

Now lets compare that with our current HM. Have we ever heard him complain against his officers? He has backed his force to the core even when he faced tremendous pressure from the media and the public. He knows that blaming officers just to please others does no good to anybody. Not the morale of the force albiet it may potray him as strict! But that does not mean that he is condoning inefficieny. He has promptly suspended officers and fixed responsibility when they were inefficient. But not in public. There are avenues for doing that.

And we all have started seeing the results. Today, ask any official and they are happy that they have a minister who can understand and supposts them. Also, see the number of cases that are solved in last few months including the blore blast case! See the reforms that are being put in place. The new State Police Act (now open for public review) is one such step.

So my suggestion is, for a change lets not get swayed by the views of some and start supporting our police force. Only then we can see a real change and I want to begin right now.

My heartfelt "Thank You" to all the policemen and officers and the Home Minister for ensuring a peaceful Valentine's Day celebration across our state as well as for all the work you do day and night to keep us safe.

freespirit said...

I would like to express my thanks , and to commend, Dr.Acharya and the Police for ensuring a peaceful Valentine's Day. Please keep it up.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Acharya Avare:

O.K., this was quite a good post, and a good discussion. I am happy that you have actually responded personally to several questions.

And to be frank, I am pleased with the way you (the govt.) handled the "valentines day". To be honest, I had my doubts, but you have proved me wrong, and I am happy about that.

I am one who votes, and judges, based on development, and not any other criteria. I am happy with infrastructural initiatives that are being taken by the Govt., and with initiatives taken by the Vajpayee govt. (e.g. Golden Quadrilateral). I will therefore, vote for the BJP in this coming election. But please accept a suggestion from me, and take this as a constructive suggestion: There is a widely held perception among people that the BJP is hand in glove with rogue groups (see Sridevi's comments above). It is in your (BJP) interests to see that the perception goes away, by ensuring that the people PERCEIVE and SEE that the BJP is tough on rogue vigilante groups. The impressions made by the media are strong, and it is in your best interests to use the media to your advantage by putting across forceful viewpoints.

And one final word: it is unfortunate that the victims have not filed a complaint. But some people on this page are suggesting that the victims were 'actors for a price'. That is nonsense. There are incidents all over the country where couples perceived to be 'forward' are being targeted by vigilante groups who are nothing more than goondas. Well, the victims will be too SCARED for their life and well-being to take it forward, because they are up against rowies and goondas. People commentig here must stop insinuating that the people who were targeted were 'loose women' or 'paid actors'.

Murali said...

Dear AcharyaJi,

It is wonderful to see the other side of the story.

I have become a great fan of yours reading your interviews and noticing your tough actions against the miscreants.

Please continue expressing your views.

As usual take tough action against all those who are creating trouble in the state trying tarnish its image.

We are with you.

Unknown said...

Dear Dr. Acharya,

While the entire world was busy targetting BJP govt for the pub attack,did the real issue was forgotten?

1.AMNESIA is not the first pub in mangalore,infact its the newest or youngest PUB!!! so why was only AMNESIA targetted???

2. Being a manglorean ,i didnt even know a pub called AMNESIA existed,now the entire world knows about the pub,so is the shock value used as PUBLICITY????

3. Who was sent by RAMASENE,was there any settling of business rivalry btwn the PUB OWNERS?

And media,I was sitting in MANGALORE yesterday and i was watching NDTV reporter in mangalore reporting,there is fear in the mind of WOMEN and they are scared to move freely in MANGALORE...gosh!!!!!BLATANT lies..LIFE IS NORMAL IN MANGALORE NOW!!!!!The vicitims can be reassured of justice only whent the goons and vandals are punished!!!I hope u would ensure that!!!!
Answers needs to come after investigations

Anonymous said...

Why the Media appears to be biassed and anti-BJP and definetely not senstive to anything that is Hindu or Saffron. Let us see the ownership of different media agencies. (This is widely circulated on the web and not my creation, can be verified easily the below facts)

NDTV: A very popular TV news media is funded by Gospels of Charity in Spain that supports Communism. Recently it has developed a soft corner towards Pakistan because Pakistan President has allowed only this channel to be aired in Pakistan . Indian CEO Prannoy Roy is co-brother of Prakash Karat, General Secretary of Communist party of India . His wife and Brinda Karat are sisters.

India Today which used to be the only national weekly which supported BJP is now bought by NDTV!! Since then the tone has changed drastically and turned into Hindu bashing.

CNN-IBN: This is 100 percent funded by Southern Baptist Church with its branches in all over the world with HQ in US. The Church annually allocates $800 million for promotion of its channel. Its Indian head is Rajdeep Sardesai and his wife Sagarika Ghosh.

Times group list:
Times Of India, Mid-Day, Nav-Bharth Times, Stardust , Femina, Vijaya Times, Vijaya Karnataka, Times now (24- hour news channel) and many more. Times Group is owned by Bennet & Coleman. ‘World Christian Council’ does 80 per cent of the Funding, and an Englishman and an Italian equally share balance 20 percent. The Italian Robertio Mindo is a close relative of Sonia Gandhi.

Star TV: It is run by an Australian, who is supported by St. Peters Pontificial Church Melbourne.

Hindustan Times: Owned by Birla Group, but hands have changed since Shobana Bhartiya took over. Presently it is working in Collaboration with Times Group.

The Hindu:
English daily, started over 125 years has been recently taken over by Joshua Society, Berne , Switzerland . N.Ram’s wife is a Swiss national.

Indian Express: Divided into two groups.

The Indian Express and new Indian Express (southern edition) ACTS Christian Ministries have major stake in the Indian Express and latter is still with the Indian counterpart.

Eeenadu: Still to date controlled by an Indian named Ramoji Rao. Ramoji Rao is connected with film industry and owns a huge studio in Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Jyothi: The Muslim party of Hyderabad known as MIM along with a Congress Minister has purchased this Telugu daily very recently.

The Statesman: It is controlled by Communist Party of India.
Kairali TV: It is controlled by Communist party of India (Marxist)

Mathrubhoomi: Leaders of Muslim League and Communist leaders have major investment.

Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle: Is owned by a Saudi Arabian Company with its chief Editor M.J. Akbar.

The ownership explains the control of media in India by foreigners. The result is obvious.