(Balbir Punj, a senior journalist and politician, presently a BJP Member of Parliament for two terms, recounts his personal view on journalist Vinod Dua who died on Saturday evening).
We lost a well known media personality VINOD DUA yesterday. I had known him for over three decades and his untimely demise has left me sad. He was full of life and a karam yogi.
However, his ‘ journalism ‘ was obviously shaped by the ideology he believed in. In last years of his life , he sounded more like an urban naxal , not as a journalist in pursuit of truth.
Over the years , VINOD’s heavily biased views overshadowed his journalism. He ignored inconvenient facts or twisted them to suit his narrative. No wonder, in such a scenario, truth was the first casualty. But he couldn’t care less.
Can we call him a journalist? I am afraid not . He was essentially a political campaigner, wedded to his world view. For him MODI & RSS couldn’t do anything right , and communists / Jehadies / evangelists nothing wrong.
For many VINOD was ‘ fearless’. He wasn’t. He was a part of establishment.
In the post independence India, the ‘Left’ is the establishment. The media and academia are still dominated by this self hating creed. They have the power to set national narrative.
Here is an illustration. Commies, along with British and Jehadis, were responsible for the creation of an Islamic Pakistan. For this ‘ Establishment’ , Commies are not only super‘secular’, they are the ones ‘authorised’ to issue certificates of being secular/ communal to individuals and organisations.
Look at the irony: those who created ‘ Pakistan’ are ‘secular’ and the ones seeking a Ram temple in Ayodhya are ‘ Communal ‘.
VINOD was a part and beneficiary of this establishment for long . He usually toed the establishment line – may be out of conviction or for some other considerations – I am not sure.
However, as a person, VINOD was a good , vibrant and entertaining company . He had a sense of humour, and a capacity to laugh at himself. I will surely miss him and mourn his untimely departure from this world .
