TV REVIEW
Channel surfer
By
Randeep
Wadehra
Rajdeep Sardesai (CNN-IBN) talks of media’s role (and
responsibility) in “reaching the nub” of an issue and reporting “without fear
or favor”; Arnab Goswami (Times Now) asserts the media’s right (and duty) to
investigate, and reveal the truth. Indeed, Sardesai was unusually blunt when he
asked the DRDO scientist Aizaz Mirza whether the police had targeted him
because he was a Muslim. Goswami wanted to know why the Kunda strongman Raja
Bhaiya, mentioned in the FIR regarding Dy. SP Zia-ul-Haq’s murder, was still
roaming free. The two issues show a multifaceted equation between the media and
the cops. It damns them for being persecutors in one case and damns a
politician for victimizing – and killing – a police officer in the other. Police
officers frequently emerge in unflattering hues on news television – be it
Delhi’s Nirbhaya case, caning and tear-gassing of teachers in Bihar or
thrashing a young girl in Punjab.
News channels ratcheted up decibel levels in the Punjab
girl’s case, repeatedly telecasting the video clip showing Taran Taaran’s big
burly men in khaki beating her up mercilessly. Thus, turning an open and shut
case of eve teasing into a gender and caste issue; the cops even tried to paint
the victim as perpetrator even while giving her the third degree in public. This
brings to mind the late Irish playwright Brendan Behan’s remarks, “I have never
seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn’t make it worse.” The lathi
blows were full-blooded, no pulling of the metaphorical punches there; and,
more brazenness followed when the cops tried to portray themselves as victims
of assault and “misbehavior”. Actually, averred the cops, this girl and her
(aged) father had attacked them, and the poor police officers had merely acted
in self-defense. They claimed that the father was “inebriated”, which proved to
be untrue subsequently. While watching the video clip on TV all one could see was
the rather slender girl getting pushed around, punched, pummeled and battered.
All she was “armed” with was her dignity, which they were hell bent upon
neutralizing. Citizens with dignity are, apparently, the ultimate threat to
cops, especially of the Punjab Police variety. Unfortunately for them, the
media interfered with their “law enforcing activities” and exposed them for the
louts that they really are. Now, just imagine what all these gallant men had
been getting away with in the days when there were no technologically
sophisticated gizmos available to record and transmit such misdeeds. With cameras
and mikes focused unwaveringly on them, cops, politicians and their musclemen
have no other choice than to let the law take its due course.
The News Hour (Times Now) discussed, what should be
accurately described as, the antediluvian case of Purulia arms drop. On the
issue of letting off the main suspects, and extraditing Kim Davy, there was
lively exchange of invective (“stupidity”, “lies”) between the ex-CBI Director
Joginder Singh and Peter Bleach, with the ex-sleuth coming out second best. No politician
emerged smelling of roses either.
However, the fiction TV keeps coming up with idealized
versions of netas and cops. While watching 26/12 (Life OK) one marveled
at the protagonist’s single-minded devotion to duty. He kills his sister to
save another girl from the kidnappers’ clutches; and risks his career and life
to prevent Pakistani terrorists from blowing several Indian cities off with
Nova-6 nuclear bombs. He is the Mumbai Policeman. Then there is the CM whose
copybook patriotism leaves one wonderstruck. When one sees such portrayals, one
really wishes that we had more of such characters in real life. Not that there are
not any patriotic police officers and politicians, but their number is too
small. Alas!
PS:- While going to the press, news channels were
full of convicted rapist Bitti Mohanty’s arrest. But who caught him out? No,
not cops but officials of State Bank of Travancore! Tells us something, doesn’t
it?
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