Vir Sanghvi parades his prejudices

In a column about prejudices of all and sundry, the heavyweight(pun intended) of Indian media Vir Sanghvi does not shy away from parading his own-

"The real reason why we are so horrified by Terry Jones’ prejudice and venom is because we believe that somehow, Americans will be different. It is all right for some mad mullah on the West Bank to bless suicide bombers, we say, but how can an American pastor go on television and exhibit such prejudice and ignorance?


In doing so, we vastly over-estimate American sensibilities. It is tempting to see America through the refined prism of the East Coast establishment or savvy Hollywood film-makers. But far away from these global advertisements for American culture lies the heartland, a dark underbelly of foolishness and insularity.


Indians are always shocked to discover that nearly 75 per cent of Americans do not have passports. It is not as though they cannot afford to travel abroad. They simply don’t want to because they have no interest in the world beyond their borders. They regard it as mysterious and uncivilised."

So your prejudices against the decent folk of the American heartland are alright, Mr.Sanghvi?


As if on cue, Janet Daley had an article in The Telegraph the same day that had something to say about people like Sanghvi-

One publicity-crazed loony threatens to commit an irresponsibly offensive act, to the virtually universal disgust of his own countrymen and the populations of America’s allies, and that’s it: the annihilation of any chance of bridge-building or conciliation between Muslim countries and the Western nations.

That this absurdity became the immediately accepted received wisdom suggests that the world (and not just the Muslim parts of it) must be very eager indeed to find a plausible excuse for casting America as a cartoon country whose heartland is dominated by bigoted know-nothings.

Sanghvi had earlier distinguished himself by running the Hindustan Times as a New York Times' clone -with all the biases included.There's a shared ideology, a very broad consensus shared across the world by the ruling and media elites.That is why Sanghvi and his ilk(e.g. Barkha Dutt) are comfortable with "the refined prism of the East Coast establishment or savvy Hollywood film-makers" but not with the ignorant "rednecks", the pilloried conservatives or the dreaded neocons. That is why newsrooms across the globe(and certainly at the Hindustan Times) drooled over an Obama victory and sicced their attack dogs on Sarah Palin.


Note -
I left the following comment at Sanghvi's post. It has not yet been published(after approx.24hrs)-

Janet Daley, by coincidence, has an article today that seems to fit you well, Mr.Sanghvi. She speaks of people who-
"must be very eager indeed to find a plausible excuse for casting America as a cartoon country whose heartland is dominated by bigoted know-nothings."

That would be you, sir. Do read it all-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/janetdaley/7996761/The-Terry-Jones-saga-shows-the-strength-of-anti-Americanism.html