News channels that betray the nation need to be reined in by the Indian Government

Some news channels resort to slander campaign against our Saints due to their vested interests. The magnitude of the impact of this campaign on the image of India becomes apparent by a letter written to the Prime Minister of India by Sh. Mahendra Tanwar who heads-up the Operations of “Globe Trotters Travels and Tours” a well-known travel company in the United Kingdom. Sh. Tanwar writes in his letter that the image of India is as a sacred land where tourists from all over the world come in search of peace. Foreign tourists experience bliss and mental peace by their travels to the shrines and the Darshan and Satsang of the saints.

Sh. Tanwar writes further that this sordid campaign against the well-known and immensely respected saints have beeously by some news channels in India. “My business was also impacted by this and that’s the reason I came to India to get details about these allegations. What was exposed is that these channels are fighting their TRP battles by making rounds of allegations against the saints. Are they not concerned even a little bit, about the impact this will have on the nation and its people? I investigated into a channel “Aaj Tak” that was broadcasting a program “He Ram” in those days. What I discovered was that this was actually footage of the conversation with the saint that was tampered with the sole intent to defame. This is what they wanted to show so they could implicate the Saint by sensationalizing with their added commentary. When I enquired about this with the Channel, but they lectured to me in disdain that they did what they thought was right. I can very well initiate a legal action against them. The Tourism sector contributes 6.23% of the total GDP of the Indian economy and the contribution of this sector in the Employment area is around 8.78%.

In circumstances like this, how is the nation of India letting these news channels destroy the Tourism Industry? Not only are these channels causing economic losses of billions of Rupees, but they are also committing a crime against the nation by obstructing the country’s progress. The press and media in other countries greatly highlights the news of Christian missionaries and Muslim institutions but being of Indian origin I was greatly dismayed that this section of media in India considers itself progressive when it discredits for vested interests, these great saints.

It was only after visiting India that I learnt that these saints are not only building the character of citizens by their spreading of spirituality but also are more than a match for even the largest welfare organizations in the areas of social service in the world.”

In this context, Sh. Tanwar also gave an example of the great Saint of the Country Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu and the organization founded by Him Shri Yoga Vedanta Sewa Samiti. In Sh. Tanwar’s view, Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu’s organizations and Ashrams are the largest in the entire world of all the organizations that provide education, health services and character-building in the society as well as are at the forefront to serve the people in the times of any natural calamities.

Giving an example of the Tsunami, Sh. Mahendra said that Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu not only distributed food supplies, medicine, tents and blankets but also constructed and provided free permanent housing for the people rendered homeless in this fearsome disaster. And this is only one example out of countless. I was amazed to know that this institution is also running more than 17000 Baal Sanskar Kendras (Children’s Education Centers) to build the Nation’s character and numerous academic institutions. It was truly astonishing to find out that Shri Yoga Vedanta Samiti is also running countless Cow-shelters (Gau Shalas) in the country and has made these self sustaining by putting to use the cow-urine and cow-dung in medicinal and incense products.

I had a chance to meet with Sh. Tanwar who is the Head of Operations at one of World’s foremost Tour and Travel Company. He mentioned to me that he was sincerely astonished by the social services rendered by the institutions of Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu. All the welfare work such as Education, Health Services, Publications of spiritual literature, Service to the cows and building character of the next generation is being done at a national-scale in such a well-organized manner. I find it almost unbelievable how one person has been taking care of all these things. If Bapuji was in the UK, a number of Universities would invite Him for educating on the subject of Management and bestow the highest honorary degree in the field of management.

This is really India’s misfortune that the news channels just for their selfish interests seek to bring discredit to such great saints. The truth is that these are taking advantage of the somewhat lax laws in India but the Indian Government must definitely take stern action against these channels that have been betraying the nation.

Sh. Mahendra found the reason for this slander campaign to be “the race to increase channels’ TRP” which is partially correct but there is also a deep conspiracy behind it. This most venerable Saint of India was becoming a hurdle in the generally unobstructed path of conversions run by the missionaries. During the past few years, because of gaining strong ground of the campaign by the Saints to awaken the people to Dharma, the business of conversion has been hit hard. That is why conspirers bought the support of these news channels and media so that they could remove the saints from becoming an obstruction and spread discredit in people for these revered personalities. The news channels were enticed by the lure of money and hence propagated with a lot of vigor untrue, fictitious news aimed at inciting the innocent public. It is worth mentioning the foreign investors own a majority of these news channels, so this work became even easier to carry out. The amount of the money given to these missionaries from foreign sources and how it was spent in India should be thoroughly investigated. Government’s economic help to these through NGOs should also be independently and impartially investigated. This will lead the truth to be unveiled and bring to light the fundamental reasons for the campaign to slander the saints.

Mahendra Singh Tanwar is the Head of Operations at "Globe Trotters Travel and Tours" , a leading travel organization in the United Kingdom. He has also worked for a number of years with Gulliver Travel Associates (GTA), one of the foremost Tours and Travel organizations in the world. Organizations like these bring tourism customers for India's largest tours and travel companies.

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There had been a steady decline in the number of tourists visiting India from other countries for the past several years. Sh. Tanwar visited India to analyse the reasons behind this and his findings report that the fundamental reason behind this has been the campaign to defame the renowned saints of India by some news channels. "These channels do not realize the enormity of losses afflicted on the nation by campaigns like this" - Sh. Tanwar commented.