Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Breaking Journalistic Code

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or the ABC, has become synonymous with misinformation today. In March, after Avani failed to comply with the rules set out by the "Norms of Journalistic Conduct" and failing to get her paperwork in order. A video on the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar was withheld as it was based on hearsay evidence. Her visa was subsequently extended for two months for covering the elections, despite the irregularities in paperwork.  

Illustration by The Geostrata

In her brand new video, Avani barely covers this aspect of authorities helping her get the Visa despite the irregularities. It merely focuses on strawmanning the government as “fascist” and the group of journalists quoting party members and their opinion, and confusing it for the stance of the government. If anything, it shows that the government machinery is willing to go above and beyond to get a journalist their Visa, despite the opinion of a party spokesperson, which is evidence of a robust and independent democracy.

One would assume this act of kindness, of going out of the way for a journalist who is not particularly well known, would be appreciated by a person, but we should assume entitlement as the default.

Priya Chacko, another person interviewed for her opinion, gave many pointers about the BJP, and the voluntary corps RSS. Even Arjun Nidigallu, an ex-member of the HSS, was consulted. This was clubbed with hearsay evidence of the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. To understand all of this, it is important to address Bharat’s perspective on this issue. Let us discuss it below.

Rashtriya Swayam-sevak Sangh, or the RSS, was founded in 1925 in Nagpur. The name “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh” roughly translates to “National Voluntary Service Corps”. Its goal during the British era was to militarize Hindus and overthrow the British from within the military, a goal it shared with the Communists. Sardar Vallabhai Patel also acknowledged this front of violent revolution, despite opposing this in favor of a “non-violent” revolution. Almost all historians acknowledge the dual role of both violent and non-violent fronts of revolution in the process of attaining independence.

Arjun Nidigallu quoting Gowalkar’s words in the video is taken out of context. Gowalkar’s arguments revolve around the increasing communal riots at the time. One can read more about it here.

Would the Australians object to Senator Thorpe’s comments about Europeans too, if she or an Aboriginal Native Keo Deudai expresses their frustration at the foreign ruling dispensation, do we consider them fascist? If yes, does Australia still follow the infamous “White Australia Policy” against the indigenous people they rule over till date? Do Australians not have an affinity towards Europe, in language, culture and laws? 

This is the same reason why Palestinians can raise their voice through rhetoric against Israel but the reverse is not true. It is why Senator Thorpe is celebrated but “Reclaim Australia” is not.

In Europe such rhetoric is seen more positively because Europe is the native land of the Europeans, since the times of the Germanic Pagans. The Americas and Australia are not native to the same people. The West, including the South Asian diaspora, must understand this migrant reality of theirs before commenting on the attitudes of indigenous people in their own homeland.

The Narendra Modi government has done more than previous governments to lift the Muslim community of Bharat out of feudalism. Narendra Modi in a speech said he envisions Muslims with “a Quran in one hand and a Computer in the other”.

Removing triple talaq and the efforts to ban the abaya also come under this aspiration to modernize Muslims. Yet, in a city like Indore, where there is 14% Muslim population, 14% of people voted for NOTA. Feudalism is hard to remove in most communities, especially without internal motivation. This system of feudalism has carried over from the Mughal times, and was codified into the British India constitution from the Fatwa-e-Alamgir.

The National Voluntary Service Corps is much like the Boys Scouts today. The institution has parallels with the Australian scouts organizations like the “Police Citizens Youth Club”. This organization takes root from the Police Boys Club. The Police Boys Club is rooted in Nazism, and was founded by William John MacKay, an open Fascist. Wilfrid Kent Hughes, another proud Fascist, was an MP from Victoria. 

Their Police Boys Club, despite a minor name change to remove associations with their sinister past, still function and carry out rather mundane and normal activities. Outside of Australia, many countries, like Britain, had Oswald Mosley, who was a socialist but then became a Fascist. We can see that Fascism and Communism were two sides of the same coin, with the word “Nazi” standing for “Nationalist Socialist”. They were seen as revolutionary ideals that inspired everyone across spectrums. To view this from a decolonial perspective, we must see what inspired respective groups.

While most of the Hindu Right saw the Unification of Italy under Giuseppe Mazzini and the Unification of Germany under Otto Von Bismarck as an inspiration to the Unification of Bharat, many other thinkers such as EVR Niacker saw Brahmins as Jews, and in precise words called for their genocide.

He said, “The Jews are only interested in themselves, and nobody else. They somehow contrive to have the rulers in their pocket, participate in governance and conspire to torture and suck the lives out of other citizens in order that they live (in comfort). Are they not comparable to the Brahmins who too have no responsibility but have the rulers in their pocket, have entered the ruling dispensation and been lording over (all of us)?” Such calls to genocide was why the highly revered first Prime Minister of Bharat, Jawaharlal Nehru, openly said that EVR Niacker should be “put in a lunatic asylum”.

The ABC video also tries to frame that the RSS has tried to change Bharat’s lingual diversity into “a unified Hindi speaking entity”. This is untrue, as the states with Communist parties voted to power, like Bangal and Keralam, have seen their language Persianize and Anglicize respectively.

On the other hand, languages like Assamese have seen a revival especially with the help of tools like AI. PM Modi launched Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence(GPAI) in with the aim of reviving multiple languages of Bharat while also breaking the barriers between these languages. The NEP has also stated “mother tongue and one additional indian language” as a goal.

The video also frames the anti-Hindu riots of North-East Delhi as “anti-Muslim” riots, conveniently leaving out instances like where Shahrukh bought a gun to the riot and shot a police officer. These riots signify the importance of learning self defense, and using sticks to fight those armed with guns.

As for the Khalistani movement, it was started with the demand for a Punjabi Suba, or a state where the official language is Punjabi. The Indian National Congress political dispensation at the time refused to grant Punjabi language the status of official language of state. Punjab also included Haryana and Himachal Pradesh then.

While we can disagree with the INC dispensation at the time, the Punjabi Suba evolved into a terrorist movement and a separatist movement quickly. This included the Air India flight attacks of 1985. It also hurt the sentiment of Sikhs when Bhindrawale brought guns and women to the Sri Harmandir Sahib to hide from the government.

The government respected the sentiments of the Sikhs and delayed their entry inside Sri Harmandir Sahib, and while the cases of disrespect to the temple are known, the army officers responsible for it were tried in “S. Mohinder Singh Randhawa Giani vs Union Of India on 8 December, 1999” and punished. 

It is also worth noting that the RSS, including Shri Narendra Modi, were involved in helping those disparaged by the actions of the Indian National Congress dispensation. The anti-Sikh riots that followed after Indira Gandhi’s assassination were given a heads up by Rajiv Gandhi, and and those indicted like Kamal Nath and Jagdish Tytler not only roam free till date but are also contesting elections, despite their pending trials.

The modern Khalistani movement is not related to this at all. Punjabi has been made the national language of Punjab. Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have been separated from the state to retain Haryanvi and Hindi respectively.

This demand for a “Sikh State”, which is ironically missing the Pakistan Occupied Punjab, which includes the birthplace of Guru Nanak Dev ji is mostly operational from Canada,. This coincides with heavy missionary activity in Punjab as well, further indicating western links. The situation parallels Pablo Escobar, and his entry into politics to legitimize his drug trade.

The Khalistani “movement” takes advantage of the freedom of movement that political refugees get in countries like the UK and Canada. This has been reported by the Economic Times as well. An aspect of this was portrayed in the movie ‘Dunki’ as well. 

Similarly, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, photographed many times in Pakistan, was wanted for the 2021 Ludhiana Bomb Blasts, which he conducted under the pseudonym ‘Happy Malaysia’. He was the chief of the paramilitary gang “Khalistan Tiger Force”, which like Pablo Escobar, uses politics to gain legitimacy in Canada. His gang, and the gang Sikhs For Justice, were embroiled in a rivalry, which led to Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s death in a shootout in Surrey.

The guns were most likely given by the Pakistani Embassy to assist the groups in their drug trade, which they used against each other for their gang war. Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh were arrested. No investigation into the Pakistani Embassy angle has taken place yet.

The documents cited by Avani Dias also are not gone into in detail. The Government of India has clarified that these documents are fake. Avani Dias does not disclose how she got these documents, or how she verified their authenticity. More hearsay evidence that we are to believe uncritically.

The video also used clips of news organization “The Pamphlet” and YouTuber and retired Major Gaurav Arya. I find this choice interesting. Would the ABC consider YouTubers like Bearing to represent all Australians? Or do YouTubers like Sargon of Akkad, Count Dankula, The Quartering or The Amazing Atheist represent all of the West? Or Richard B. Spencer too?

Their views on Podcasts and news shows do not  represent all of the West. Their views are too, align with a certain polity, and are valid within their own country. But they have their own differences, and within their own country their views are valid. To nitpick any of their clips, without context, and using it to frame a narrative against the party the people of Bharat have chosen, is nothing short of hate speech.

The video finally goes and targets the unofficial and unregistered “Overseas Friends of BJP”. Almost every political party in the world has an overseas department. The Indian National Congress also has an Indian Overseas Congress.

The Australia Labour Party has an ALP Abroad, which is not registered. They mobilize their citizens to vote a certain way from overseas. Should these organizations also be looked upon with suspicion in their host countries?

As the White problem in Australia has heavily become reliant on drugs, Indian and Chinese origin people have taken to governance. This has led to hate crimes against Indians “leapfrogging”. In 2009-10, there were a series of racially motivated attacks against Indian people in Australia, including robberies and lynchings that were racially targeted. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was forced to apologize for this.

Western Sydney University’s Dr. Sukhmani Khorana wrote a report covering the extent of this violence in 2021. With Avani Dias saying Indians are disproportionately represented in the Australian government, and further using hearsay to tie this with the BJP government, she is creating a mood for another such pogrom in the hearts of the disenfranchised Australian people. It is highly racially motivated.

In light of all of this, we can safely assume that Narendra Modi is not what this video makes him to be, and the ABC is not able to take accountability for their reporter misrepresenting Bharat and the modern Khalistani situation by only calling selective actors to give their opinions. Bharat expects serious journalists who are interested in the India Story to come here for full time careers. That requires high quality journalism, and not a hit piece targeting one religion, one political party and one entire country.

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BY KARTHIK GOVIL

TEAM GEOSTRATA

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