Sadhavi Khosla | SabrangIndia News Related to Human Rights Thu, 04 May 2017 10:55:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 https://sabrangindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Favicon_0.png Sadhavi Khosla | SabrangIndia 32 32 An open letter to ‘nationalist’ Arnab Goswami! The nation wants to know! https://sabrangindia.in/open-letter-nationalist-arnab-goswami-nation-wants-know/ Thu, 04 May 2017 10:55:22 +0000 http://localhost/sabrangv4/2017/05/04/open-letter-nationalist-arnab-goswami-nation-wants-know/ A few days back, while I was travelling to my office, a tweet from your yet-to-be launched news channel Republic took me by surprise. It was a tweet addressed to the Congress vice president, Rahul Gandhi. And, I have to admit that I lost my train of thought for a moment and got baffled thinking, […]

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A few days back, while I was travelling to my office, a tweet from your yet-to-be launched news channel Republic took me by surprise. It was a tweet addressed to the Congress vice president, Rahul Gandhi.

letter arnab goswami

And, I have to admit that I lost my train of thought for a moment and got baffled thinking, who is the Prime Minister of the country – is it Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi?

I know, I am being an almost absolute imbecile here, but wait! The reason why your tweet threw me into confusion was that you are a journalist, or at least you claim to be one.

 

Assuming that you are a journalist, then journalism to me is the fourth pillar of democracy. It is the duty of a journalist to act as a watchdog of the government. It is the duty of a journalist to keep a tab on the ruling government’s work and question it for matters of national importance and on issues affecting public at large.

Regrettably, looking at the tweets that your upcoming channel has been sharing of late, it would be right to state that you, Mr. Arnab, have become the lapdog of the government and the watchdog of the opposition. It is quite sad that a journalist of such a high stature like you, is in a serious need to revisit the core meaning of journalism.

Mr. Arnab, you need to broaden your mindset and promote healthy journalism in the country, but you are preoccupied with trolling the opposition. Whatever failures the UPA government had, the public voted out the Congress government three years back.

Today, it is the BJP government which is running the nation, and you are still hounding Rahul Gandhi with your tweets.

Why, Mr. Goswami, why? The nation wants to know!

Why are you so obsessed with him?

Or, is it that you have joined the bandwagon of trolls, and have become a right-wing troll who badgers the opposition on any and everything?

I have to confess that tweets like these from your end, whether addressed to Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal, knock me down with a feather! It is ridiculous though, that you haven’t even spared Arvind Kejriwal!
I mean, come on, the man is the Chief Minister of Delhi, which is not even a full state.

I hope you remember that!
And, while you recall that, I would like to help you realise that it is not Delhi or Arvind Kejriwal, who deserve your attention. The country is facing enough unrest for a journalist like you to intervene and question the current government about.

Say no more, you are just sailing under false colors!
Mr. Arnab, I want to know if you have ever heard about the beautiful state of Kashmir, which is in ruins at present. Do you know about this state? I thought you would because a large chunk of your TV debates in your ‘past life’ was often devoted to issues related to the Valley.

But let’s once again assume that you are indeed not aware of this state. Then, it makes sense why.

May be, you’ve been too worried about strengthening relationships with the RSS and BJP that you have forgotten to keep abreast with the hard news that is actually of significance to the country.

To help you know about the state a bit – it is burning. Just six-and-a-bit percent voters recently turned to vote in Srinagar Lok Sabha bypolls (Srinagar, by the way, is the state capital). The situation in the state is much worse than what it was in the 1990s.

Every single day, so many people lose their lives, and we are on the verge of losing it.

So, shouldn’t you be asking questions to Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, and Mehbooba Mufti?

On 1 May, a Pakistani Special Forces team sneaked about 250 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch sector and beheaded two Indian security personnel.

I am sure you are aware of this. But, I didn’t see any of your tweets addressed to the PM about the country’s failing security.

When are you going to ask the Prime Minister? Being a journalist, why aren’t you bothered about the security of the nation now? What happened to your sense of patriotism that you wore up your sleeves during your association with Times Now. And if my memory serves well, not so long ago, you were seen enlightening your audience on why journalists in India needed to be nationalists.

Our security forces are losing their lives and you seem to be in a very stable state of mind, unlike the other citizens of the country.

What’s with the ignorance, sir?

The nation wants to know!

Why are you so keen to confront Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal, while clearly shrugging off the need to put the present government in the dock? Is it because they are the only two opposition faces who are likely to counter Mr. Modi in the 2019 election?

 

Are you driving some sort of political campaign for Mr. Modi’s victory in the next election?

Why are you always willing to square up with the opposition and try to drive them round the bend? Is it because you want to earn a few lulz and help the PM get new supporters by sniffing at the opposition with one-sided diatribe?

Why, Mr. Goswami, please inform the nation?

The nation wants to know!

When will you sense that credibility gap?
You left Times Now in November, 2016. But, I am sure that you still know that in the past five months, a lot has happened in the country.

Mr. Modi sold demonetisation to the country with the claim that it will fight black money. But did it? How much black money actually got recovered, when billions of people were stranded with little to no cash after 8 November, 2016? Why have the government and the RBI been so reluctant in making data public to substantiate their claims?

Did you try to find that out?

And, are you going to?

In March, this year, 12 CRPF personnel got killed in Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh. Within just forty days, another Naxal attack took the lives of as many as 25 CRPF jawans in Sukma district.

Shouldn’t you be questioning Mr. Modi about these attacks?

What’s even worse is that with Mr. Manohar Parrikar’s return to Goa, India doesn’t even have a full time Defence Minister.

Did you ever think of finding an answer as to when will our nation’s security be taken seriously?

Arun Jaitley, the Union Finance Minister who has been unable to manage the economy of the country well, has been given the additional charge of the defence ministry, and you said nothing.
Why?

I am sure if the UPA government would have done such a blunder of failing to give the nation’s security the attention that it deserves, and had it handed over the additional charge of the defence ministry to another Union minister, you would have created chaos, at least inside the studio by now.

So, why now?

Why this bigotry, Mr. Goswami? The nation wants to know!

In the garb of cow vigilantism, the entire country is in a state of unrest today. So, who will you ask questions regarding this? Are you going to discuss this with Rahul Gandhi or with Arvind Kejriwal on your next meeting with them?

In fact, who is your go-to man out of these two, when it comes to talking about the nation’s security?

Tell us, please. The nation wants to know!

The economy is going down. People are losing their jobs. There is little or no hope left in making India as grand as Mr. Modi once made us believe it will be. But, you aren’t asking questions to him, or to Mr. Arun Jaitley, for that matter.

Why?

Did you ever try to contact the BJP government to find out how it won the elections in Goa and Manipur, while it stood second to the Congress in these states? Was it through money power, or through muscle power? Why don’t you try to find that out, Mr. Arnab?

Why this nonchalance in sending a few tweets to Mr. Manohar Parrikar and Nongthombam Biren Singh? You do it the best. So, why don’t you direct them to the BJP party’s members?

Why?

The nation still wants to know!

Not your ‘your kind’ of journalism
Mr. Arnab, aren’t you aware that there is a complete breakdown of institutions under the rule of the mighty BJP. From election commissions, to educational institutions, it’s a complete chaos everywhere. And, that’s not all! Allegations of EVM tampering are on an all-time high.

The nation wants to know the truth, why don’t you help it?

There is an air of suspicion, which you should definitely clear, as a responsible journalist of the nation, that you claim yourself to be.

But, the question is – would you?

The moment right-wing radicals hear anti-Modi voices, they label them as anti-nationals. These radicals are openly demanding Hindu Rashtra. We are heading towards a nation which will slowly be termed as ‘Hindu Pakistan’. But you seem to be fine with that.

Why, Mr. Goswami?

You said that you wanted to save Indian journalism from the influence of Lutyens’ Delhi. Apparently, you are a little miffed with journalists who belong to Lutyens’ Delhi and their journalism. But, then, what brand are you trying to create by forcing people into submission?

If journalism to you means jingoism, then at least ask the nation whether it wants this warmongering mindset or not? And, you should definitely do that! The nation wants to tell you that!

The nation also wants to tell you that till the time Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal become the Prime Minister of the country, you really need to direct all your questions to Narendra Modi.

It’s time for you to listen. And, you must listen.

Waiting for an unbiased Arnab. Hope to “see you soon”!

From Sadhavi Khosla,
A Citizen of India

This article was first published on Janta Ka Reporter
 

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First Person: ‘I voted for Modi for change but not for hatred’ https://sabrangindia.in/first-person-i-voted-modi-change-not-hatred/ Wed, 11 Jan 2017 06:14:11 +0000 http://localhost/sabrangv4/2017/01/11/first-person-i-voted-modi-change-not-hatred/ The author describes the price she has had to pay after her revelations in a recent book, 'I am a troll', about the BJP's social media tactics. Image credit:  via Facebook For someone who comes from a lineage of freedom fighters, only two things matter – patriotism and Gandhian ideologies. For me, it is my […]

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The author describes the price she has had to pay after her revelations in a recent book, 'I am a troll', about the BJP's social media tactics.

Sadhvi Khosla
Image credit:  via Facebook

For someone who comes from a lineage of freedom fighters, only two things matter – patriotism and Gandhian ideologies. For me, it is my state, Punjab, too. My love for Punjab has given me the strength to fight a battle against drugs and the drug-favouring political environment in the state. And my love for my country has made me stand up against the malicious campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the self-proclaimed trolling yodhas of its social media cell.For nearly three years now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been following me on Twitter. Today, I am a nobody and my association with the BJP is being questioned. Peeved by my truthful revelation in Swati Chaturvedi’s book I am a troll, my name is being deprecated by the anonymous faces of the BJP’s social army. They are proving me right – the voice of truth will be silenced if it is against the prime minister and his government. My decision to come out openly and state the facts is not based on my brief association with the Congress but is a sincere effort to stop gospel from becoming truth.

In today’s age of instant news, WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook, people believe the typed word more than the underlying truth that gets layered under negative campaigning. By the time truth leaves the substrata, the harm has been done.

In 2013, I was as disgruntled as any other upright citizen of India with the way our great nation was being shaped by previous governments. I exercised my right to vote for the first time in 2014 and cast my ballot in favour of Modi, because I believed in him and his vision of a better India. This belief motivated me to join the BJP’s Mission 272+ team of volunteers. Little did I know that the mission’s “innovative campaigning ways” also involved trolling, defaming and construing truth to cloud the fair judgement of people.

In November 2015, when Aamir Khan expressed his sentiments on the state of affairs in the country, the BJP’s IT cell, headed by Arvind Gupta, organised a social media campaign to pressure e-commerce firm Snapdeal to drop the actor as its brand ambassador. We (volunteers at the BJP social cell) were ordered to troll the actor and smear his name on various platforms and instigate people to boycott his movies. My ideologies and conscience did not permit me to be a part of the BJP’s bigotry brigade. Disenchanted, I left. In January 2016, Snapdeal gave in to the pressure and severed its ties with Khan.

We don’t realise the greater repercussion of such acts. An actor, who for years lived in our homes and ruled our hearts, suddenly became a “Muslim”! Social media has become a dangerous tool to spread hatred, which sometimes can lead to communal disharmony. Even religion did not divide us the way politics has.
 

Tagged anti-national

For nearly two years, I passionately supported the prime minister on Twitter, actively campaigned for the BJP and helped its leaders such as Smriti Irani and Kirron Kher in their agendas. When the time was apposite, I even criticised the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance for its lack of leadership and diluted policies. During the same time, my passion for Punjab led me to expose the horrifying drug menace in the state and I made a documentary about the same. To bring the alarming facts to the prime minister’s notice, I sent message after message via Twitter. In his electoral mandate, Modi had promised a fight against drugs. But he ignored my calls for help.

His neglect made me turn to the Congress. Rahul Gandhi heard my plea whereas Narendra Modi, whom I vehemently supported, ignored it. Thanks to the BJP’s trolling army, social media is rife with my pictures with the Congress vice-president. My disclosure of a secretly guarded game is being shown as part of my political agenda. Rahul Gandhi released my documentary in Amritsar on March 18, 2016. And that is my only connection with the Congress.

The 2014 elections have changed the face of Indian politics. The media-savvy prime minister is reaching out to the masses through the internet. He is communicating with the people through Twitter and Facebook. He is being followed by millions but is following a select few, many of whom are known for being abusive trolls. From time to time, these abusive trolls have been invited to meet and greet the prime minister. If the BJP claims that it has never encouraged trolling, why hasn’t the prime minister spoken against the malpractice, especially when it is originating from its own warehouse.

Instead of using the social media platform for constructive development, the BJP is using its ground army to disparage those who hold opposing views. Positive criticism is healthy for the development of any individual, institute or society, but to criticise in a derogatory manner and malign the character is uncalled for. People and their characters are denigrated in the name of supporting the prime minister. It only exposes the tenebrous picture of votebank politics. Hired volunteers are given directives to calumniate the image of opponents, journalists, politicians and just about anybody else. Anyone with a different viewpoint is termed anti-Modi and anti-national. Women and minorities are targeted in the filthiest possible way. The names of Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, are smeared with muck and journalists like Barkha Dutt are issued death and rape threats.

But public support has poured in from all walks of life. The story has travelled to the farthest corners of India and people are questioning the misuse of social media by the ruling party to suppress opposing views. Both the author Swati Chaturvedi and I are at the receiving end and the BJP’s social media army and supporters have been attacking us with slanderous and sexual remarks, threats and intimidation. All this, because their darkest secret has been exposed. The truth hurts.

I have followed my inner voice and my thought that it is my duty to my beautiful nation to let its people know how social media is being used to carry out malicious campaigns against opponents/public figures with opposing views.

It is sad that hate spreads more rapidly than love.

I voted for Modi for change but not for hatred.

I have said what I had to. I did what I believed in. This is my voice of truth.

The writer is a social activist and political analyst.

Courtesy: Scroll.in
 

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