The Aarushi Talwar episode and the India of today

Unlike most people my age, I don't watch much television. Till the football World Cup, I didn't even have cable. So I was largely immune to most of what happened in this context. I gave up on the "in your face, devoid of thought" journalism peddled by most channels and the newspapers these days, a while ago - mostly from not having time, rather than a moral stance. However since I do look at the ToI everyday (at least I did till I came over to the US on my break), I did know that this promising girl had been killed.

About a month ago, I attended the  book launch of Patrick French's book on India in Mumbai. I distinctly remember three things he said

1. This was the pleasant surprise. He said something to the effect of Dr. Manmohan Singh (MMS), our PM not being very highly respected as an economist. Apparently some leading economist said that MMS was not much good as an economist and was a great bureaucrat. He also mentioned that it is perhaps better to be so, rather than be like the mega-brain Mahalanobis, wherein he would be generating bright ideas but not implementing much.

2. There is this stomach-churning episode of a bonded labourer somewhere in a stone quarry near Mysore. Apparently the guy had been chained with the shackles on his feet being welded such that he could not wear underwear or trousers for a long time. In fact he was freed due to the action of some agricultural activists. What French found curious was that it was not like neighbouring farmers and shepherds, etc were unaware of this bonded guy's state. They were fully aware. It was puzzling that the rest of our country carried on, while this guy existed in this state. And the tragic part was that this location was not some back of beyond place - It was barely 100 miles from Bangalore, the IT capital of India. India's pride and humiliation co-existed in a 100 mile radius.

3. He mentioned the Aarushi Talwar episode and said that this was sad.

 

The 1st one above was amusing since I never thought someone like MMS could be disrespectfully spoken off by anyone, let alone an economist. The 2nd one above was extremely disorienting. The 3rd prompted a thought - Why was a "tourist" author talking of an Indian incident? While I did know that French was married to an Indian lady, I had no idea that the episode featured in his book. So I began to read articles on the episode more carefully. And then of course the piece appeared at the url below.

 

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/worse-than-a-daughter-s-death

 

Then a friend sent the url below, in another independent magazine.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=hub190211THE_HOUSE.asp

 

I am as materialiastic and as selfish as the next Indian, but the general level of indifference I and most of my countrymen show is shocking and in several ways, depressing. Why does it take 18 months for even the above publications (I can say from personal experience that both of them write more fearlessly than most Indian magazines) to take the stance that they have taken now? Is investigative journalism so expensive? Or is the payoff from backgroundless sensationalism more remunerative than making an effort to check stories? And why are readers not more "activist" in their demand from the media in general? Why can't we blackball media which does not make an effort to probe and take an independent stance?

 

As I have said, I am as guilty as the next Indian, given that I have never written to any publication saying that I am appalled by their lack of objectivity and lack of bias. This episode is just one such instance. There is also another cause which has caught the media's fancy on occasion - the Binayak Sen one. Dr. Amartya Sen is now leading a bunch of 40 Nobel winners to petition the government. And you don't even need celebrities to stand up for a cause. There are several episodes which pass through our media which we barely question. And I shudder to think of the ones which don't even catch media attention, let alone be subject to biased reporting. The ordinary Indian needs to display a little more spine and be more outraged more often.

 

Sigh!