'Breaking news syndrome hinders fight
against terrorism'
Saturday November 10, 2012 01:05:40 PM,
IANS
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Aligarh: Corporatization, politicization and trivialization of the Indian
electronic media is hindering the fight against terrorism in India
says Lt. General (Retd) S.S. Mehta.
Mehta was delivering the inaugural address at a national seminar
on "Terrorism in South Asia: Issues and Challenges", organised by
the Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University,
Friday.
Mehta said that the on-going trend in the media for producing a
"breaking news" by sensationalizing events often results in the
"arrests of innocent people", which does not help in the larger
fight against terror elements.
South Asia today is a critical zone in the world in the battle
against terrorism, said Gen. Mehta, who is also the former deputy
chief of Army staff.
He said that certain sections in the West have "wrongly promoted"
the theory of "Clash of Civilizations" for rationalizing their own
theory regarding the proliferation of terrorism.
An impartial understanding of the real historical background of
present conflicts in the world would suggest that the East
represents the "confluence of civilizations", said Gen. Mehta.
He said that contrary to what the West has projected, the dominant
theme among the people of South Asia was "empathy" and that "your
pain is my pain".
Mehta said that if India wished to achieve a "dominant status as a
world power", it would have to "emerge as a key player in
controlling the cyber space".
He pointed out that presently smaller Asian countries like
"Indonesia and Sri Lanka were setting a benchmarks in the sphere
of controlling cyber space".
India cannot afford to not take cognizance of this trend, he
added.
Delivering the keynote address at the seminar, Air Commodore (Retd)
Jasjit Singh said: "Political exploitation, alienation of the
common man and the increasing divide between the privileged and
underprivileged sections of society was a major factor behind the
proliferation of domestic terrorism in India."
"Ninety percent domestic terrorists were in the age group between
15-24 years," he said.
Jasjit Singh said that if the battle against the terrorism has to
be won, then the "alienation of these segments will have to be
addressed and resolved by channelising their energies in a
positive direction".
The segments will have to be prevented from getting trapped by
those anti-national forces who always would try to exploit the
frustration in the youth, he said.
"Islam is a religion of peace but some forces in Pakistan had
deliberately distorted the concept of Jihad and were instrumental
in fanning the flames of violence," he said.
He said that the trend began after the defeat of Pakistan in the
Bangladesh War and was "fully exploited by the late General Ziaul
Haq".
He said that the Aligarh Muslim University was a very prestigious
national institution of higher learning and "could serve as a
beacon of inspiration for leading the younger generation of the
country".
Among those who addressed the two-day seminar Friday was Commodore
(Retd) C. Uday Bhaskar.
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