Al Jazeera's anti-India narrative

Daredevil

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Shocker: Al Jazeera's ignorant anti-India narrative

Washington: It is open season on India. And everyone is hunting. Whoever had a grudge while India was the flavour of the season is now in the game, busy getting their two minutes of fame. All provocations are considered fair and guaranteed a spot of popular foreign policy websites.

Not that India hasn't given reason for disappointment – it has given it in spades lately. A broken politics, lower growth rates, mega scandals, historic blackouts and now even an internal exodus of Indians fearful of attacks by other Indians. Why would anyone miss a golden opportunity and their two minutes of fame? In the Twitter Age, it is literally two minutes.

Yesterday, I happened to watch a discussion on Al Jazeera about the flight of North Eastern Indians from various cities after the link helpfully came along on my Twitter feed. It was a mouth-wide-open experience –- not because of new insights but because of the easy ignorance of a certain "expert commentator" and his brazen misuse of television time.

I am no longer a fan but in the past I have appreciated Al Jazeera's tendency to do stories the other networks won't touch from parts of the world they won't go. While living in Jerusalem for two years, I watched Al Jazeera regularly for its perceptive coverage of the Palestinian issue. Its coverage of Israel's war on Gaza, its reports from the frontlines and stories about the general helplessness of the Palestinians was good journalism. When I moved to Washington two years ago I made sure I had Al Jazeera on cable.

Let's just say my views have evolved over time, especially in relation to its coverage of India and more so after occasionally checking its website. Al Jazeera appears to try really hard to tell a certain kind of story even when there isn't one – one of a general oppressiveness of the Indian state, of its army and paramilitary standing heavy in front of shuttered shops, of its majority population ever ready to pounce on its minorities. It has a separate page on "Kashmir: The Forgotten Conflict" where its strange assembly of commentators makes desperate attempts to connect the problem to the Palestinian issue.

For the debate on the what and why of the current crisis around North Eastern Indians, Al Jazeera had someone called Ahmed Quraishi, a Pakistani columnist with News International whose only job seemed to be to string together various disparate anti-India themes he grew up on into a meaningful condemnation of the Indian state. His grasp on facts was so thin and his chicanery so apparent, his co-panelist – former ambassador KC Singh from India – seemed shocked. The third voice – presumably "idependent" – was that of Subir Sinha, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Sinha was polite until the end, patiently explaining to Quraishi the ABC of the subject at hand.

By the end of the programme, both Singh and Sinha were either smiling or wincing at Quraishi's massive ignorance of basic facts. Finally Singh, generally menacingly self-contained, asked: "Does he even know fundamentals of India?" or something to that effect.

But Quraishi's job was not to know, his job was to mix it up, to muddy, to throw random unrelated arrows and block any understanding of an Indian point of view. He cheerfully talked loudly over Singh, ensuring nothing was intelligible. The anchor, incompetent and innocent of subcontinental history, seemed paralysed.

Does Al Jazeera have an agenda vis-à-vis India? I am beginning to think so.

The channel was birthed with an agenda. Its founding agenda was to counter the pro-Israeli narrative on the Palestinian question and it has done a remarkable job in bringing to light the daily drudgery of life in the occupied territories. It also has mini agendas within the Arab world.

In March, its Beirut correspondent Ali Hashem, resigned over coverage of Syria – he had footage of armed men crossing the river from Lebanon into Syria but the channel quashed it because it would have bolstered the claims of the Syrian regime. Al Jazeera's refusal to cover the protests in Bahrain while going all out to cover those in Libya and Egypt is well known.

The slick, Qatar-based channel is deeply enmeshed in Arab politics, which makes a mockery of its supposed professionalism. I am not surprised by its stance on the Kashmir issue but I am surprised by how much it seems directed by the narrative of the Pakistani establishment.

Even Indian reporters are not allowed a free voice it seems. I came across a blog post by its India-based reporter, Prerna Suri, about the Mumbai attacks where she referred to the terrorists merely as "attackers" and of course, there was no mention that they were trained, directed and sent by Pakistan.

In fact, Al Jazeera seems to have missed the last five years of life itself when every major terrorist incident has been found to have some Pakistan connection. When the whole world has its eyes open, Al Jazeera's are shut. Its Kashmir page seems limited to India's badness. As if there is nothing to report from the other side of the LOC. Gilgit Baltistan – no coverage of the simmering discontent there. It is air brushed away from the pages of "The Forgotten Conflict."

In the end it is about who controls the narrative and Al Jazeera is helping one side gain traction.
 

Daredevil

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Here is the Al-jazeera programme she is referring to

 
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LurkerBaba

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They're allowing tinpots like Ahmed Quraishi to report.

He's a regular contributor to nation.pk and PakNationalists.com, so you can gauge his sanity level.
 

Daredevil

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They're allowing tinpots like Ahmed Quraishi to report.

He's a regular contributor to nation.pk and PakNationalists.com, so you can gauge his sanity level.
In the end, Ahmed Quraishi was rightly rebuked by KC Singh.
 

hit&run

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I don't know how this good author with rational brain was first impressed with Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera was never a pro India channel; never has been perceived by Indians the same.

We Indians have been only collecting rare positive crumbs about our nation from this channel or we watch it just to quench some markers how they disseminate our affairs to their part of the world. Otherwise it is a Wahhabi mouth piece with a brand of their own Arab supremacist ideology like their white supremacist counterparts of BBC et al; mocking India at whim. Their pro-Muslim (one sided), pro-Kashmir insurgency, poverty porn, anti Hindu rants are well known.

Their criticism of Pakistan is their serious concern reflecting pain they feel about an Islamic country, with logical suggestions they try to invent for them and opinions they craft for them because they are the victims of many odds but never a complicit terrorist nation.

For India Al Jazeera is a one stop sweet shop full of negativity and ridicule.

Having said that I would say Al Jazeera is an outsider they will do what they are suppose to do. But the question is how many good news we have enjoyed in last few week from India ? Zero.

The irony is there is no such thing like our media having a global reach to present our POV.

Our Media is either busy compromising their loyalties to parties in power being a part of their power politics, are their touts, blackmailers, deal brokers, going against one section of society or other for some strange unknown personal allergies and intellectually bankrupt that they neither have the body language nor the self confidence to represent our POV to the world outside India.

They are best in doing flattery, trolling, self tipping others how to pontificate India for sake of sounding idiotically neutral.

The only person I found so far with some guts to fight back cunning propaganda in Arnab Goswami of Times Now but there are so many over educated d1ck head Indians bad mouthing about him thus making him vulnerable.
 
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rock127

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Shocker: Al Jazeera's ignorant anti-India narrative

Washington: It is open season on India. And everyone is hunting. Whoever had a grudge while India was the flavour of the season is now in the game, busy getting their two minutes of fame. All provocations are considered fair and guaranteed a spot of popular foreign policy websites.

Not that India hasn't given reason for disappointment – it has given it in spades lately. A broken politics, lower growth rates, mega scandals, historic blackouts and now even an internal exodus of Indians fearful of attacks by other Indians. Why would anyone miss a golden opportunity and their two minutes of fame? In the Twitter Age, it is literally two minutes.

Yesterday, I happened to watch a discussion on Al Jazeera about the flight of North Eastern Indians from various cities after the link helpfully came along on my Twitter feed. It was a mouth-wide-open experience –- not because of new insights but because of the easy ignorance of a certain "expert commentator" and his brazen misuse of television time.

I am no longer a fan but in the past I have appreciated Al Jazeera's tendency to do stories the other networks won't touch from parts of the world they won't go. While living in Jerusalem for two years, I watched Al Jazeera regularly for its perceptive coverage of the Palestinian issue. Its coverage of Israel's war on Gaza, its reports from the frontlines and stories about the general helplessness of the Palestinians was good journalism. When I moved to Washington two years ago I made sure I had Al Jazeera on cable.

Let's just say my views have evolved over time, especially in relation to its coverage of India and more so after occasionally checking its website. Al Jazeera appears to try really hard to tell a certain kind of story even when there isn't one – one of a general oppressiveness of the Indian state, of its army and paramilitary standing heavy in front of shuttered shops, of its majority population ever ready to pounce on its minorities. It has a separate page on "Kashmir: The Forgotten Conflict" where its strange assembly of commentators makes desperate attempts to connect the problem to the Palestinian issue.

For the debate on the what and why of the current crisis around North Eastern Indians, Al Jazeera had someone called Ahmed Quraishi, a Pakistani columnist with News International whose only job seemed to be to string together various disparate anti-India themes he grew up on into a meaningful condemnation of the Indian state. His grasp on facts was so thin and his chicanery so apparent, his co-panelist – former ambassador KC Singh from India – seemed shocked. The third voice – presumably "idependent" – was that of Subir Sinha, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Sinha was polite until the end, patiently explaining to Quraishi the ABC of the subject at hand.

By the end of the programme, both Singh and Sinha were either smiling or wincing at Quraishi's massive ignorance of basic facts. Finally Singh, generally menacingly self-contained, asked: "Does he even know fundamentals of India?" or something to that effect.

But Quraishi's job was not to know, his job was to mix it up, to muddy, to throw random unrelated arrows and block any understanding of an Indian point of view. He cheerfully talked loudly over Singh, ensuring nothing was intelligible. The anchor, incompetent and innocent of subcontinental history, seemed paralysed.

Does Al Jazeera have an agenda vis-à-vis India? I am beginning to think so.

The channel was birthed with an agenda. Its founding agenda was to counter the pro-Israeli narrative on the Palestinian question and it has done a remarkable job in bringing to light the daily drudgery of life in the occupied territories. It also has mini agendas within the Arab world.

In March, its Beirut correspondent Ali Hashem, resigned over coverage of Syria – he had footage of armed men crossing the river from Lebanon into Syria but the channel quashed it because it would have bolstered the claims of the Syrian regime. Al Jazeera's refusal to cover the protests in Bahrain while going all out to cover those in Libya and Egypt is well known.

The slick, Qatar-based channel is deeply enmeshed in Arab politics, which makes a mockery of its supposed professionalism. I am not surprised by its stance on the Kashmir issue but I am surprised by how much it seems directed by the narrative of the Pakistani establishment.

Even Indian reporters are not allowed a free voice it seems. I came across a blog post by its India-based reporter, Prerna Suri, about the Mumbai attacks where she referred to the terrorists merely as "attackers" and of course, there was no mention that they were trained, directed and sent by Pakistan.

In fact, Al Jazeera seems to have missed the last five years of life itself when every major terrorist incident has been found to have some Pakistan connection. When the whole world has its eyes open, Al Jazeera's are shut. Its Kashmir page seems limited to India's badness. As if there is nothing to report from the other side of the LOC. Gilgit Baltistan – no coverage of the simmering discontent there. It is air brushed away from the pages of "The Forgotten Conflict."

In the end it is about who controls the narrative and Al Jazeera is helping one side gain traction.
I check Al-Zazeera a bit.

It's has indeed agenda of his own and the name itself signifies which media type it is, it's just hire white people(often white women) as news readers so as to counter any Western agenda and present news from Muslim POV.

So no wonder if it protects the Islamic thekedaar like Pakistan.
 

Agnostic Muslim

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They're allowing tinpots like Ahmed Quraishi to report.

He's a regular contributor to nation.pk and PakNationalists.com, so you can gauge his sanity level.
Well, one could argue that the Western and Indian media in general is full of 'tin pot commentators spouting ill informed nonsense about Pakistan' as well.

I used to think NPR was objective, but over the years, especially on foreign policy discussions, I began to realize that the programming was basically almost always of 'experts' that essentially had identical views of US foreign policy (typically in favor of whatever the US government wanted). Most of the so called 'foreign policy analysts' on major US news sites like Washington Post, NYT etc. fall in the same category, and it isn't hard to figure out why.

Most of these 'analysts' owe their careers and 'credibility' to their US Government 'sources' without which they would have nothing to offer since most of them have no links to credible sources outside the US. The commentators that even remotely come close to offering a balanced picture are ones that foreign governments or entities have to invite to hear the other point of view (David Ignatius for example, who was allowed access to senior ISI and PA leadership), and even then the 'patriotism' trumps objective reporting and most of them end up towing the US Establishment line.

Any real debate on foreign policy is typically limited to issues that are already polarizing domestically, such as US support for Israel or the opposition to the Iraq war.
 
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hit&run

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When Indian channel CNNIBN on its prime debate episode of 'Face the Nation' moderated by Sagarika Gosh can obnoxiously says and runs the misleading headline that the Assam Riots are between Hindus and Indian Muslims not native Bodos who are Christians in good numbers and illegal Bangladeshis, can shows only refugee camps of illegal Bangladeshi with exaggerating numbers without even mentioning how many native Bodos are displaced and living in camps then what can be expected from Al Jazeera.
 
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hit&run

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Ahmed Quraishi is a typical lunatic troll we see regularly on Pakistani defence forums.

Adding late: My salute to S. K.C. Singh.
 
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LurkerBaba

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Well, one could argue that the Western and Indian media in general is full of 'tin pot commentators spouting ill informed nonsense about Pakistan' as well.
.....
.
Ahmed Quraishi is simply a more articulate version of Zaid Hamid.

=======

A Grand Conspiracy Theory From Pakistan - NYTimes.com


But one of the most interesting conspiracy theories posted recently on Pakistan Daily is the grand, unified theory in a signed essay by a Pakistani blogger and journalist named Ahmed Quraishi, headlined "Barack Obama Is Lying About Pakistan." In his essay Mr. Quraishi, who has worked as a television journalist for PTV, Pakistan's state broadcaster, outlines a supposed plot against Pakistan by the American government and media.

According to Mr. Quraishi, the entire battle against militants in Pakistan is nothing less than a huge "American psy-ops" campaign to distract from the failures of the United States in Afghanistan. Mr. Quraishi writes:

In less than two years, the United States has successfully managed to drop from news headlines its failure to pacify Afghanistan. The focus of the Anglo-American media – American and British – has been locked on Pakistan. In order to justify this shift, multiple insurgencies and endless supply of money and weapons has trickled from U.S.-occupied Afghanistan into Pakistan to sustain a number of warlords inside Pakistan whom the American media calls 'Taliban' but they are actually nothing but hired mercenaries with sophisticated weapons who mostly did not even exist as recently as the year 2005.
Mr. Quraishi's reading of events hinges on the idea that a statement by President Obama, during the news conference on his 100th day in office, that he was concerned that Pakistan's "civilian government right now is very fragile," was a veiled call for a military coup and "essentially amounts to a declaration of war against another country." Mr. Quraishi also claims that "academic programs are being launched in the U.S. that advocate the breakup of Pakistan and the creation of smaller entities."

How you might ask, has Mr. Obama been able to get away with this huge psy-ops campaign against Pakistan? That's where we come in. In Mr. Quraishi's view, alarming reports on the progress of Taliban militants in Pakistan are all part of the plot, in which, he says, "the U.S. media and officials are single-handedly tarnishing Pakistan's image worldwide to justify a military intervention." According to Mr. Quraishi:
The most spectacular, anti-Pakistan media campaign ever against our country has been launched by the U.S. media and continues unabated, with the purpose of softening the international opinion for a possible military action against Pakistan. And there is no question that this campaign has some backing from official U.S. quarters as was the case in the propaganda that preceded the invasion of Iraq.

Your Lede blogger can only say that if there is a plot like this someone forgot to send us the memo. That said, we have seen signs that some readers of this blog seem to agree with Mr. Quraishi that the fix is in. Here, for instance, is a recent comment from a reader named Chithra KarunaKaran, explaining the purpose of my work, and that of my colleagues Dexter Filkins and Alan Cowell:

It is disturbing but predictable that Mackey, Filkins and Cowell would file articles and blog posts that hide the US hand in the vast internal displacement of Pakistanis within their own homeland. Despite their claims of objectivity, their job is in accordance with the diktat of the Obama administration and Congress.
Clear evidence that the Pakistani public is not buying the Western media's explanation of recent events is also offered by the results of a recent poll conducted in Pakistan of 3,500 adult men and women by the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit group based in Washington that is affiliated with the Republican Party and promotes democracy abroad. Despite strong indications that the attacks in Mumbai last November were the work of a militant group based in Pakistan, Pakistanis surveyed overwhelmingly said that they did not believe the media reports:



Asked, by the same pollsters, to say who they believed was behind the attacks in Mumbai, the largest number of Pakistanis pointed the finger at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's intelligence service. Just one per cent of the sample said that terrorists were responsible, while 20 times that many Pakistanis blamed America:

 

Ray

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Al Jal Jeera adding spice to life?
 

panduranghari

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They're allowing tinpots like Ahmed Quraishi to report.

He's a regular contributor to nation.pk and PakNationalists.com, so you can gauge his sanity level.
The question has to arise why? Why does this happen in this age? Is it because we are idiots? Or are we selfish. LB you must have seen the post of Arayvrat Joshi on RMYG. We indians are selfish lot. We are passive. We are not active enough to take the bull by its horns and start putting up a grand narrative of how we need to be perceived by the sinister lot in the west of us all the way to washington. We have a terrible blind spot in terms of affirmative action against nonsense and tirade vis-a-vis the need of the maintain good relations with GCC. How will the world respect us, if we do not respect ourselves?
 

Energon

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I didn't have the time to go through the entire clip so I can't comment upon the details of the exchange.

I don't have a problem with opinions voiced in the favor of or against any one party so as long as the arguments are cogent. I myself remain convinced that the fault here primarily lies with India regardless of anyone else's involvement in inflaming the tensions. It is also a fact of life that journalists and analysts (self proclaimed or otherwise) have their own agendas, and even the best ones are fallible. Furthermore with the metastasis of ratings inspired populism on 24hr news networks, the new style of "journalism" is to dabble in hyperbole and conspiracy theories to sensationalize news stories.

The problem however arises when you throw avowed dingbats into the mix. In spite of the severely widened/ degraded definitions of journalism or the political left/right, imbeciles like Ahmed Quraishi, Glen Beck and Keith Olbermann still don't make the cut because clearly their work is centered around ludicrous sensationalism and conspiracy theories which may or may not involve anything related to the news. And networks who try and fit these clowns into actual discussions do themselves a disservice. What's sad is that Quaraishi may actually have valid points in this discussion, but by the virtue of the work he represents, I can't possibly take this discussion seriously.
 

agentperry

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see. this year 70 journalist lost their life in pakistan and mostly assassinated by either terrorists(taliban) or terrorists(isi+pakistan army)
so i think qureshi did smart thing saving his life by bragging nonsense in front of disinterested audience of usa and middle east( why do they care about non muslim migration in a country which is not muslim enough for them)
 

chase

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Have you seen the connection?

Everything that is anti-israel is also anti-india
 

chase

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The question has to arise why? Why does this happen in this age? Is it because we are idiots? Or are we selfish. LB you must have seen the post of Arayvrat Joshi on RMYG. We indians are selfish lot. We are passive. We are not active enough to take the bull by its horns and start putting up a grand narrative of how we need to be perceived by the sinister lot in the west of us all the way to washington. We have a terrible blind spot in terms of affirmative action against nonsense and tirade vis-a-vis the need of the maintain good relations with GCC. How will the world respect us, if we do not respect ourselves?
The Indian society has totally lost its self-esteem.I don't blame them for all of it.It is thousands of years of continuous repression which has made like this.Another thing is that we also are hypocrites.WE consider ourselves the most austere when we are the most selfish,we consider ourselves the most religious when all our prayers are filled with materialistic desires.
Indian society also is immersed in 'hero worship'.Look how gurus or leaders become father figure whose doctrines we follow unquestionably.We never self-reflect.

For ex:
Mahatma Gandhi is unquestionably hailed as the god like figure and whatever comes from him is never suspected.But a critical analysis of gandhi will tell you that his method of handling the hindu-muslim issue brought devastation.

Indians are so much conditioned to 'respect other people religion' that they never sharply analyze the threats from other religions and their agenda.Just minor bogus narratives of brotherhood is enough to fool the naive indians.
This attitude has totally left us defenseless to any ideological enemy attack.

This micro trait is reflected in the macro trait of India's foreign policy & society.
 

blank_quest

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Indians are so much conditioned to 'respect other people religion' that they never sharply analyze the threats from other religions and their agenda.Just minor bogus narratives of brotherhood is enough to fool the naive indians.
This attitude has totally left us defenseless to any ideological enemy attack.
We are so because we don't have any political front or agenda! I don't find BJP to be a pro-hindu party because Hindu's have no any Political Agenda..

Major reason for Hindu's to be said as coward is because of "non-violence". If you can't even kill a bird or eat non-veg- because we are taught so since childhood- how can you get "mentally" ready to be aggressive without "imminent threat of life"?.:frusty:
 
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KS

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Indians are so much conditioned to 'respect other people religion' that they never sharply analyze the threats from other religions and their agenda.Just minor bogus narratives of brotherhood is enough to fool the naive indians.
This attitude has totally left us defenseless to any ideological enemy attack.
+ 1. .
 

panduranghari

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This micro trait is reflected in the macro trait of India's foreign policy & society.
Sir,
How do we address this problem?

First step is to acknowledge there is a problem. So starting from accepting the problem exists, what is the plan of action?
 

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