We Need Dramatic Change

This is typical Indian way of handling an issue and is rather interesting and symptomatic of the mess that the social and governmental system of the country is in :

•         Deflect the issue and never call spade a spade
•    Neither pronounce nor denounce anything with vehemence. Stay tentative and non-controversial
•         Fence sit and immediately start playing the blame game
•         Refrain from delving into statistics, don’t get facts, harp on generalities no end
•         Allow personal prejudices, parochialism and caste-ism, take over objectivity

The advancement of electronic digital technology and opening up of air-waves to private parties in 1991 has brought in a deluge of TV channels fighting first for eyeballs and then for bytes. This industry, which I would say is still in its infancy, and still morphing to become mature media, YET has about 15 cr homes hooked on to it, with about 10cr having access to private channels through cables.

What irks me is that our media shuns research. In its eagerness to air-wave a burning issue earlier than competition, it usually sacrifices full facts for part fiction.  

Amongst the plethora of debates on the Dec 16 episode, I did not see on the any news channel even one expert, who staked claim to have worked amongst rape victims or claimed to have studied the root cause of this malaise or some statistics showing international trends and patterns. The media does not even do a preliminary background check on the person. You could well find a corrupt politician or bureaucrat condemning corruption.

The media has turned this unfortunate event into a man vs woman debate. This is clearly not a man verses woman debate. No father would want his daughter to be raped. No son would want that for his mother. No brother for his sister. It is detestable, deplorable and simply sordid.

The pressure of media is important and very relevant in cases which involve important people or public figures.  Even in the UK, the posthumous proceedings for conviction of philanthropist Jimmy Savile of BBC would never have been instituted had it not come in media gaze. That people know, builds pressure.

But the media puts pressure where it suits them. They hesitate to ruffle feathers of the high and mighty. In the Robert Vadra land grab case the media has been so effectively silenced. You don’t hear anything on any channel now. The government has in its quiver some draconian measures, drawing lineage to the colonial legacy, that can be used to harass any individual or institution that brings out facts to its discomfiture. There is a whole big battery of babus willing to tutor often an otherwise ignorant political master on how the latter can tweak the law to his advantage. Even in the Dec 16, gang rape case, after smarting media criticism for a couple of days, the government managed to finally gag the media and black out the coverage of protests.

Mostly, sedition laws were framed by colonial masters, to ensure the colonies don’t rebel against their rule, more so, when the rulers were usually sitting in a different continent. Such laws existed in all British colonies including Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and even the US, but other than the US (which recast them) most got rid of these laws by the seventies.

Indian sedition law, drafted by a crooked bureaucrat Macaulay in the late 1800s, was used first to indict “disaffection” and used against the Wahabi movememt, but later amendments included “hate” and “contempt” and even stalwarts like Gandhi and Tilak were framed. But the pity is, though the British scooted the law stayed.

Today, we need dramatic change in attitudes. Sincerity and commitment of purpose are missing in all walks. We must learn to value our vote and bring in well meaning people to power who will engineer sustainable change and reform.