REMEMBERING VINOD DUA

REMEMBERING VINOD DUA

We lost a well-known media personality VINOD DUA on December 4. 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 the 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 did nothing wrong.

For many VINOD was fearless. He wasn’t. He was a part of the establishment.

In 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 a national narrative.

Here is an illustration. Commies, along with British and Jehadies, 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 a long time. 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.

Author Balbir Punj is Sr. Journalist, Author, Political Commentator & Former 2 times MP of Rajya Sabha