PatnaDaily.Com - Readers Write

I seriously don't understand the quality and relevance of news items these days. Reporters, it seems, have nothing better to do than to report all these nonsensical items in news papers. Even the editors feels them worthy to be reported and allow it to be published. One example I just case across is about Rakhi Sawant being diehard fan of Lalu Prasad Yadav!

Full news items from Bihartimes.com:

(Item girl Rakhi Sawant is diehard fan of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and said she loves his lifestyle, rustic Hindi and body language.

"Laluji is my favourite leader, I love him, he is the best leader I know," Rakhi Sawant told media persons in Patna before her dance show Sunday.

"I know Bihar as Lalu Bihar, for me Bihar means Laluji," she added.

Nitish Kumar's supporters were hugely disappointed when she said: "I know little about Bihar's new Chief Minister Nitish Kumar."

It was not first time an actor has praised Lalu. He has huge fan following in Bollywood - Manisha Koirala, Shilpa Shetty, Pooja Bhath, Nagma, Bhagyashree, Pakistani actress Meera, Suniel Shetty, Govinda, Chunkey Pandey, director Mahesh Bhatt and Sanjay Manjrekar to name a few.)

Not sure, if anybody is at all interested in either of them. So what if Rakhi Sawant is a diehard fan of Lalu and so what if a bunch of Bollywood actresses are fan of Lalu? Who really gives a damn?

If that is true then why don't we see these actresses and actors changing anything in their lifestyle? I can understand some of these people (Mahesh Bhatt) when they say they like Lalu because of his directness, which I believe, is good and I admire him for that too.

But regardless, who really is interested in these news items? I am not sure if there is any relevance of these items to our society, science, politics, drama.... So, why am I wasting my time writing this article?

We Biharis are insulted when somebody says that "I know Bihar as Lalu Bihar, for me Bihar means Laluji," and that is the reason I am writing this article. We don't take pride in anything that has to do with Lalu. It is shame that people know Bihar because of Lalu and not because of our real heroes. Somebody had listed real heroes of Bihar in some previous article. Bihar should be known because of Gautam Buddha, Jain, Arya Bhatt, Rajendra Prasad, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, for good places like Bodh Gaya, Pawapuri, Patna Sahib, Rajgir, Hazaribagh, Sasaram, Madhubani for paintings etc.... The list goes on and on yet the reporters find items about Lalu and Rakhi Sawant to write article on!!!

Why can't these reporters write something about these things that are genuinely good and people are interested? Has relevance to the society, our children and even adults will learn about our heroes. We can attract tourists to Bihar by talking about great places of Bihar.

Bihar is rich in many different ways:
- Historically - among one of the oldest
- Politically - Chanakya, even till Bihar was divided, it used to be one of the biggest contributor in India's politics / democracy
- Geographically - wild life, minerals, rivers etc..
- Religion wise - more then one religion started from Bihar; They still are one of the religion that people in the world follow.
- Arts & Craft - Madhubani paintings
- Literature - there were many good authors and poets from Bihar
- Mathematics - Arya Bhatt

the list goes on and on.

The point is, if you don't have anything worthy to report from current events, why don't you spend time and learn and report something worthy from past?

Just beats me.

Comments:

I understand your pain...Roshan.

At the same time, I do not feel insulted. Bihar had/has lots of Laloo, Paswan or their type since 1970s and later got percolated in all section and profession. You just name any leader.... I will give you detail....irrespective of whiteness of their white-clothes... it was/is highly blotted. Go to the PatnaDaily.Com website and photos by Shashi Uttam. You will see all "Dheela-dhukur". We are so rigid (Lalooism) to change ourselves and look smart, and make smart Bihar. "Dheela-dhukur" Chinese and Japanese now look so very smart, so does Japan and China.

In other words, from 1970 to 1990, Lalooism was divided in several parts, and fortunately each part did not have enough threshold to identify themselves alone (I mean with Bihar). Laloo had/has charisma, so he crossed threshold, then derived strength from us, whatever the means is, and ruled Bihar and gave a new name to Bihar. Did anyone ever think that why Bihar produced "Laloo like leader", and is still continues to produce? Why highly educated people have systematically been sidelined from the politics? Why or when did we stop producing leader like Dr. Rajendra Prasad?

We need to ask these from our ancestors who simply watched the demolition of Bihar before or after JP movement. Since early 1980s, Biharis started sending their children outside Bihar for better education without protesting or demanding for better educational institution within the boundary of Bihar. It is unfortunate that those Biharis who do not have political/police connection in Bihar, never felt safe and hardly try to visit Bihar; who is responsible for such pity situation --- the growing Lalooism of early 1980s. This is one of the major reason, why Bihar produced so many administrative staffs across India (UPSC, BPSC, MPSC, UPPSC, RPSC, etc), to just derive power and provide security to their loved ones.

What else shall I write about Bihar? Our fault lies in our society, which guides us more than one way. Just check the background of entire participants of our political or social system, 100% have no vision. In my hometown we have roads where only two rickshaw can pass at one time, and so in Patna at many places. Just imagine, the great intellectual planners of Bihar of early 70s who never thought that one day all Biharis will be riding in cars. This is because of arrogant Lalooism of our mind. Recent example, Ritesh Mohan, an NRI who fought with Jet Airways staff after being denial to board the plane even after reporting late at Patna Airport reveals the Lalooism of our present mind. Can he repeat the same at any airport in USA? The answer is a BIG NO. In brief, we need to defeat Lalooism within us for the betterment of Bihar. Hundreds or thousands or better to say millions (all of us) of power mongers are practicing Lalooism everyday in Bihar. Those who think, "that we are different" are venting anger at PatnaDaily.Com.

There is no point pressing all the time that we were great (Chanakya-ism), what we are today is the matter of concern for the rest of India (Laloo-ism).

Historically we are one of the oldest, agree. Presently we are the laughing stock.

India's democracy is nowhere related to Chanakya's policy. It is not also in India's education curricula.

At present it is wild to live with fear and anger, if you do not know any bhaiya and chacha from political power staion. "Mukhiya aur sarpanch bhi chalega". (Even in Nitish Kumar's regime). Shri Nitish Kumar can talk of development, but development can only be done if society as a whole understands the meaning of development. That can only be possible if we defeat Lalooism from within.

Aryabhatta came from Kerala to study at Nalanda in 476 AD.

Again, in one line, our problem lies in our complex society. Although we claim to be simple, but basically we never think straight. We try to derive meaning and milage of our every act. "Mr. ABCD... sansand ke kote se bari path ka punarnirmankarya shuru..." Name, fame is so very important for us, that is why we always try to outdo individual effort.

We need to do introspection, without blaming other, even this reporter who quote Rakhi Sawant. Because it is our fault that we made our society like this where majority needs to eat and read masala. We need to come out from our constant state of self-denial. - Sudhir Ranjan - Nov. 2, 2006

Well said Mr. Roshan Kumar. Today's media publishes news that are not newsworthy at all. "3-year old charged with theft/ molesting". These kinds of news are a complete waste of time because you know the news will be changed tomorrow. "Police made a mistake in charging the 3-year old boy yada yada yada...". Rakhi Sawant (whoever the heck she may be) is in love with Lalu Yadav. So who gives a hoot? I am sure she has been in love with many other men (married/unmarried) before so why it is so important that the entire world should know about it?

I have noticed that IAN and CNN-IBN are the leaders in propagating absurd news like this and then web sites like Bihartimes.Com are just too eager to put them on their web site without first considering the 'newsworthiness' of the articles in question!

I am also up to my ears with NDTV.com news items. Just about all the news end up with a personal note. "...and Bihar, that is known as the badland of India, will continue to suffer through these problems unless..." Well, who asked for your opinion? Just stick to facts - date, time, characters involved, actions taken etc... don't editorialize every news item for god's sake!! - Anil Kumar - Nov. 3, 2006

Just as I predicted, the little boy who was charged with robbing a bus, has been set free as the police withdrew the case "under intense media pressure". Here is the link to the story . - Anil Kumar - Nov. 4, 2006

Just wanted to clarify one thing based on Sudhir Ranjan's comment - there is no historical fact that Aryabhatta came from Kerala. He was from Kusumapur (which was the name of Patna). Some Keralites or others are generally 'quoting' that he was from Kerala and propagating it. Let's not agree to that without facts. Just like that we are not so good in mathematics. We have an old base of Mathematics in Bihar. - Naveen Kumar Sharma - Nov. 6, 2006

Absolutely correct Naveen - we have to question such 'facts' which are thrown around without adequate research. In the context of today's coverage about Bihar in the National media which has mostly negative news, we have to be specially skeptical about such facts. I see a pattern to be to deny every positive attribute associated to Bihar.

I would go to the extent of saying that since a whole class of 'journalists' have anchored their being to a belief that Bihar is a living hell, such people get pushed out of their comfort zone by any coverage of a positive nature about Bihar and feel a sense of acute insecurity. They then attack Bihar with double intensity. We are in exactly that phase where such a feeling is at its shrillest worst and we have to take extra care at this juncture when things are beginning to turn positive.

Here are a few posers inspired by the book Freakonomics:

1. Does Bihar have the highest crime rate in India?

2. Is a Bihari more casteist than people from the other states of India?

3. Is Bihar more corrupt than the rest of the country?

4. Does investment by the government achieve less in Bihar than the rest of the country? Or is the investment itself less?

5. Is corruption the real reason for the backwardness of Bihar?

I am not saying whether any of these are false. Only unbiased academic scholarship can answer these questions. I am merely saying that we need to question such paradigms which are bandied about like facts without questioning.

Professors of economics at Patna University or other universities in Bihar could consider taking up such studies which mean something in our day to day life. Any takers? - Thakur Vikas Sinha, Powai, Mumbai - Nov. 6, 2006

Here is another example of media bias against Bihar/UP by NDTV. Someone needs to tell them to shut up.

"Noida, where several multinational firms have set up outsourcing centres drawn by a vast pool of cheap, English-speaking labour and a booming software industry, is in Uttar Pradesh, one of the most populous and lawless state.

This is first incident of kidnapping involving a high profile software company in recent times. But kidnapping for ransom is common in Bihar and other parts of Uttar Pradesh."

What was the point of adding these two paragraphs in the news item except to malign Bihar and UP? Wouldn't the story be still complete without such shameless editorialization of a crime news? - Anil Kumar - Nov. 14, 2006

Discussion on this topic is now closed.

Quality and Relevance of News Items