Masjid Kisne Toda?

Cobrapost’s Operation Janmabhoomi – what it revealed and what the media thought of it.

WrittenBy:Arunabh Saikia
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The Judiciary is examining it. The CBI is examining it.

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That is how Cobrapost had pitched their latest sting, two days prior to finally unveiling it on April 4, 2014. The cryptic Cobrapost pitch could have meant anything in a country where scams and scandals –most of which are forever sub-judice–take place more often than earthquakes in Japan. It was TheTimes of India which shed light on what the sting was about – much before the scheduled press conference. It revealed that Cobrapost’s latest sting would “tell the name (of which) would be to reveal all” pertained to the Babri Masjid demolition of 1992.

TOI’s giveaway, one would have expected, would dwindle the attendance of the press conference considerably. That was far from the case when Aniruddha Bahal, editor and founder of Cobrapost, addressed the media at the Press Club Of India. The scene could have easily been that of a hostel room (albeit with a lot of photography enthusiasts) in Aligarh University during an India-Pakistan cricket match.

The sting op, titled Operation Janmabhoomi, began with Bahal dropping a barrage of names, which sounded like an attendance call of the best, brightest and most strident from the country’s right wing. The list was long and no organisation worth its Hinduvta can feel left out. Affiliations ranged from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The right wing’s two flagship parties – Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena –were also well represented in the list.

Bahal claimed that Cobrapost’s sting cameras held by associate editor, K Ashish had on tape 23 leaders “at the forefront of the Ram Janmabhoomi” admitting that the infamous Babri Masjid demolition of 1992 was not a spontaneous act of rage but a planned sabotage planned by senior members of the RSS and BJP. According to Bahal, Operation Janmabhoomi proved the complicity of the likes of LK Advani, Kalyan Singh – who was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh during the incident,and then-Prime Minister, PV Narashima Rao, in the destruction of the mosque.

There were expectedly more than just murmurs in the room when the tapes started playing and known faces like the firebrand BJP leader Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh appeared. The audience, mostly young journalists who have little memory of 1992, seemed excited but the few old hands present appeared skeptical.

There was a slight distraction from the sting op revelations when lawyer Prashant Bhushan entered.

Bahal suddenly had to answer questions not just about the sting op, but also about Bhushan’s presence at the event.

Guest appearances aside, of more importance is that the BJP (on reading TOI?) wasn’t too pleased by Bahal and his team’s pre-election revelations. They moved the Election Commission (EC) to stay the broadcast of the tapes claiming a violation of the poll code. Bahal, though, isn’t the kind to “surrender his journalistic rights in front of the EC” and the show went on. Bahal asserted (with more force than ever) that it’s only morally and journalistically correct that Cobrapost released the tape before the country set out to choose its next government.

When it was suggested by a journalist that Bahal’s stings appeared to be skewed against a certain political party, Bahal was his trademark aggressive self. The reporter at the receiving end of Bahal’s rant on constitutional and editorial rights didn’t speak much after that.

Our question was not about Bahal’s stings being skewed to or away from certain political parties. It was about whether Cobrapost’s sting op “exclusive” announcements were skewed to or away from a certain publication.

Now that Bahal had helped remind us of what had taken place in 1992 and also made some revelations in the process, the question was, what did the reporters present there think of the sting?

This is what Neha Khanna from NDTV 24X7 had to say.

Here’s Akshay Mukul of The Times Of India on whether the sting revealed new information or not.

Neha from India News on what she thought of the timing of the sting.

Ashutosh from ANI on whether this sting will create communal discord.

About why Operation Janmabhoomi was timed for now and what ramifications it will have, we are curious too. What’s heartening to see is that in today’s day and age when journalists keep saying that the media is being muzzled by politicians, there are journalists like Aniruddha Bahal and organisations like Cobrapost which don’t give a damn about going up against politicians. All that matters to them is that people deserve to know the truth about incidents such as the Babri Masjid demolition which have indented the country’s politics and social fabric for the past 20 years.

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