A Biased View of India Through The Eyes of Gardiner Harris

This morning's email brought with it the regular list of sunday articles published in NY Times. And there he was again - Gardiner Harris, presenting a thoroughly biased view of India, an outlaw nation whose branches of government are out to persecute, rape and pillage it's citizenry. The title says it all ..."In remote corners of India, immunity for soldiers who kill and rape civilians". The article dredges old stories from the past to make a case that the Indian Government tries to hide the evil deeds of it's branches of government behind the facade of progress. I take issue with Gardiner's emphasis of focusing on problems of India, and with New York Times' willingness to publish such vitriol. If you doubt me, let's take a look at the articles written by Gardiner on India.

And this is just the first page!  Reading this list of articles one wouldn't come away with a view of India that the country is making progress.  One would not think India is a progressive nation with aspirations to free it's multitude of poor from shackles of poverty.  One would not know that despite all the troubles faced by the minorities in India, the Indian muslims live a far better life than their brethren in Pakistan or Burma or other countries in the sub continent.

I am not suggesting that Gardiner's articles should not be read, or that there isn't a modicum of truth in them.  But his focus on covering the failings of the society misses the larger point - India is a growing country with a lot of positive things happening.  It's citizenry isn't an oppressed citizenry, and while every one in India doesn't yet have equal opportunity and perhaps many are indeed persecuted and subjugated by the Indian system, many millions are in fact enjoying the benefits of a system that gives them voice and allows them to express themselves in ways almost impossible to experience in many countries like China, Russia, Cuba or others.

As I made my discovery of Gardiner's bias, I was curious, am I the only one to see this?  Turns out, not so.  A quick google search landed me on to a list of others who seem to have the same concerns of Gardiner's bias.  I am disappointed that New York Times should allow such a biased view to be presented all the time.