Dear Shekhar Bhaiyya

Dear Shekhar Bhaiyya This open letter was long in the coming. I hear you had recently relinquished your CEO responsibilities. Now that you are no longer running the business I am assuming you have lot more free time to turn towards your Editorial Responsibilities. Thus it was funny to read yet another lazy editorial in the Indian Express today on someone you dearly refer to as “Narendra bhai“. I say “yet another lazy editorial” for this blog called out your editorial desk on this precise topic 3 years back on the 23rd of March 2010.  It is bizarre this split personality of your newspaper. You call someone “bhai” and then go on to editorialize fiction on him, for this has happened more than once, I am sure you recall this episode from May of 2010. Here is the problem with your lazy editorial today that speaks of “Modi’s silence on 2002“. March 2002 speaking in the Gujarat Assembly Narendra Modi 

called for soul-searching on whether the events of 2002 would enhance the prestige of any decent society. In that speech in Assembly Narendra Modi had described the riots as a stigma on humanity that do not help anyone to hold his head high.

April 2002 speaking to India Today

My Government performed its duty to the best of its ability. Even your magazine says that the Gujarat Police saved the lives of 2,500 Muslims at Sanjeli on March 1. They also saved thousands of Muslims in the first three days and brought the situation under control in 72 hours. Nearly 140 people have been killed in police firing, the highest ever in Gujarat, and 27,000 people have been arrested, which too is the highest ever.

Dear Shekhar Bhaiyya sorry I missed this indianexpress.com/oldStory/44861/ but how could your editorial desk miss this too from April 2004—
Shashi Shekhar (@offstumped) September 03, 2013

nobody could be proud of the events of 2002

 Interview to DNA in 2009  in response to a question on an apology for 2002

“There should be no forgiveness if something has been done intentionally. But if it is unintentional, then, as I have said so many times, I am also human and I can also make mistakes. But I will never do anything with mala fide intent”

March of 2010 when popular Bollywood Actor and India’s number one Celebrity, Amitabh Bacchhan was attacked for agreeing to become a Brand Ambassador for Gujarat Tourism through Government sponsored Ads

The Congress has asked Shri Amitabh Bachchanji whether he opposes Gujarat riots or not? Friends, Modi himself has opposed the riots and still does. Every citizen must oppose riots.

Subsequently in a blog post in August of 2011

Narendra Modi sought forgiveness for his actions of the past for any hurt he may have caused by thoughts, words or actions, knowingly or unknowingly

In September of 2011 in an open letter filled with contrition Narendra Modi on the eve of his 3 day Sadbhavana Fast

shared the pain of every Citizen of Gujarat who had suffered during the horrific events of 2002 while going on to thank them for pointing out his mistakes..

Then in July of 2013 during the interview with Reuters

If I’m a chief minister or not, I’m a human being. If something bad happens anywhere, it is natural to be sad.”

All of this setting aside the 9.5 hours deposition to the SIT which is unprecedented for any Political Leader in India holding Executive Office and the extensive conversation with Shahid Siddiqui in July 2012. So dear Shekhar Bhaiyya if after 30 minutes on the Internet an amateur like me can dig all this up, surely with the time and professional resources at your disposal your Editorial could have done much better than obsess over Mr. Rajnath Singh’s face reading skills. This lazy attitude to writing editorials and passing judgments on Leaders of the Opposition is symptomatic of a larger problem with an Institution like the Indian Express. This is deeply personal for I come from the generation that grew up looking forward to reading the Indian Express every morning. The Institution you head was once the only formidable national voice against the tyranny of the establishment. The editorial space of your newspaper shaped and influenced not just my thoughts but that of an entire generation during its formative years. Your editorial space taught us to challenge conventional wisdom and to question the status quo the establishment represents. Now that you have more time at hand, perhaps you would do well to reflect on why the Indian Express has become an apologist for the establishment ? Do you realize if this were the 1980s the kind of sharp editorials one would have seen in the Indian Express for the monumental blunders of the UPA ? Let me in the closing say this. Today if the UPA has managed to persist with its mismanagement of the Indian Economy it is because you the Delhi based media elite failing to hold its feet to the fire for the last many years. Your failure to hold it accountable while making excuses for it had allowed it to get away with its folly. So rather than write ill-informed editorials on “loud silence” that never was, please reflect on where the Indian Express as an Institution finds itself today 3 decades on. regards Shashi Shekhar

Filed under: Narendra Modi

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