THE GUWAHATI INCIDENT STILL REVERBERATES

Close on the heels of Guwahati tragedy - I prefer to call it tragedy - the day a teenage girl was stripped and forced to run down  a street in the evening in the presence of a number of onlookers by a group of vandals and subsequent protests by political leaders and social activists across the spectrum, another incident occurred in Udaipur, Rajasthan a tribal majority village named Meena – in which the caste panchayat played a dominant role, a lady who had eloped with her lover was stripped and tied to a tree, beaten up by the village people who played moral police. Her lover was also forced to undergo what all the lady had to suffer, tied to a tree and beaten up. Today’s newspapers carry the news. The lady’s husband was also among the people who were involved in the incident to punish the lady and her paramour.

This is not intended to justify the elopement of the married lady with her paramour but the village men taking the law in to their own hands and the barbarian way they adopted to punish the lady and her paramour was something to be condemned. Be that as it may.

Here I am coming back  to the Guwahati incident about which I would like to elaborate.What made me sad and angry was the role played by the media-reporter of a local TV channel - Gaurav Niyog.  The reporter (who didn’t have a moral prick) ran-after the girl and the crowd allegedly instigated them, to chase the victim and molest her near a bar in Guwahati. The reporter covered the incident and recorded the scene hurriedly and with excitement, thus prepared a visual feast to the TV audience across the country. The media person didn’t have any compassion towards the hapless lady who was in pain and despair and he didn’t feel like interfering in the incident or report to the police thus saving her from the ignominy.

The media reporter can justify his action pointing out a fact that he is not bound to intervene in such incidents, instead his only duty is nothing but covering the incident. But he should have remembered the simple fact that he too is a human being, he too has sisters or other close relatives. Will he dare to cover the incident in his camera with the so-called detachment of a hermit to arrange a visual treat to the TV watchers. He didn’t care to think about such aspects while covering the ‘hilarious’(?) scene - for him it must have been a hilarious scene - worthy to be covered and flash it across TV channels without an iota of repentance because of the reason that the person involved is a strange girl.

Will he quote journalistic code of conduct or principles of journalism to justify his action when the victims involved are his own sisters. Could he deny it with his hands on his heart? Never. The reporter who quotes journalistic principles to justify his action and journalistic ‘ethics’ is not at all human. There were arguments, counter-arguments, discussions and writings by the intellectuals throughout the country about the role of a journalist in the Guwahati type incidents. While a number of journalists, even ace photo journalist Raghu Rai justified the reporter with the argument that he did what he was supposed to, as many were there to squarely blame for the insensitive attitude he displayed.

There was a period in India when gender equality very much prevailed in the society and women were treated on a par with men. Down the lane, instead of keeping up that healthy practice, ladies were subjugated to the levels of slaves. Lack of education facilities and unemployment are the reasons but our shrewd and cunning rulers and male-chauvinists are bent upon seeing that they are bound to be the ones who are on this earth to take care of the conjugal needs of their husbands first and look after the domestic chores. What about the fate of the 33 percent Women’s Reservation bill? – still kept under suspended animation.