Sensitivism or Sensationalism !!!

Its been 5 years and finally the documentary has opened my eyes. Its inspired me to write a blog after a looong looong time

To all those who have not yet seen the documentary : sadly the official link is not available in Indian IP addresses. but there are suggested links on side which have the same documentary in full...so enjoy.

To all those who have seen the documentary : I know your blood boils to kill those guys immediately in your own hands and your heart is for women emancipation etc etc blah blah (pun intended or whatever)

At the core are certain issues that really need to be looked into before going gung ho and halla bol for the documentary. Also mentioned are certain other issues which are equally sensitive and definitely need our attention. 

1) The defence lawyers are High court/Supreme Court lawyers not sure. They have this great mindset and that itself is enough for people to hang them along with these rapists. But my question is did anyone listen to the fluency in their English. It will definitely put a TOEFL or IELTS Topper to shame. How did they get to this position with such skills. People abroad will be laughing not at their mindsets but at the terrible skill for our highly powerful lawyers. So enough of your Hindi bachao, Tamil than engal pechu and moochu , Kannada rakshana vedhike , Marathi Manoos/Mi Marathi  and all such shit. Get your kids enrolled in proper schools where the english teacher knows english and for schools where english teacher himself/herself doesn't know english, help them out. Publicity "athons" are not needed on news channels and lots of “athons” can be done to improve this quality of teaching.

2) We discuss so much about secularism, equality, right to speech etc etc. But how many of you still enjoy your privileges. How many of you enjoyed an admission in a top ranking college even though you got less marks than many others. How many of you got admitted in college just because you are from so and so religion or creed. Damn if I keep going on with more examples I might sound like Arnab now. Bottom line is how many of you have asked questions against such systems. How many of you have rejected such systems? How many of you will take to the roads to protest if anyone starts or better how many of you will start a protest against all these? How many of you agree to the fact that a whole community is protesting against the government because they want to be recognized as backward class ? Why I mentioned this point is very simple and has nothing to do with me. It’s basically to do with all those underprivileged people from the Hindi Heartland…oops sorry from UP, Bihar and central India who have just been denied a gateway to showcase their talent just because some rich chamcha from a lesser division/strata of society has used up that opportunity and that too for what, to mainly join his father’s business or party. I may seem like I am supporting those rapists which in no way I am. I am just stating that if Mukesh or Ram Singh or the other three for that matter were educated enough both morally and scientifically, Jyoti Singh and many more such women could have been saved.

3) We talk about freedom of women, equality of women, women are goddesses and so on and so forth. How many of you actually have stood up to violence/ ill treatment against women. It could be of any kind. How many of you have questioned a man who has more than one wife. How many of you have questioned people who treat their wives like baby making machines. Oh yeah right whole India protested when Sakshi Maharaj said that women are baby making machines. But if he was educated he wouldn’t have said the same. Anyway I have told that in point two. Coming to this, people only question when someone says women are baby making machines. But people care a damn if they actually see others who have treated their wives as baby making machines.

4) Coming to this case, this fast track case has happened gone on for almost 2 years. The rapists have got a stay over their hanging and finally at end of day, the Honorable Supreme Court will pronounce the verdict after another two years as “Being in death row for so many years is more torture than hanging. So let’s commute it to life sentence as per recent verdicts of the Nithari Killers or the Rajiv Killers”. (Oh please Rajiv Killers were pronounced to death not for fighting for eelam/freedom cause in Sri Lanka, which is what Hafees Saeed says that he is fighting for Freedom of Kashmiris, but for killing more than a 100 people along with Rajiv). Then will come the case like Manu Sharma where these people will want to write exams and get degrees and finally after about 10-20 years we will forget Jyoti Singh and will start an agitation as to why Degree holders and PhD holders (who knows they may complete) are in prison serving life sentence, ours is a tolerant society and we must pardon them just as how we grant furlong to Sanjay Dutt at the drop of a hat.

5) Two years ago Jyoti Singh was raped and a nation boils as to why justice is still not served. Two decades ago, precisely on January 19, 1990, that’s exactly 25 years (wow…a quarter century) a whole community was massacred and chased out of the land that they were staying for generations. Have we become so insensitive a society that on the anniversary (how ironical) week alone news papers and news websites carry volumes of articles and every news channel covers the day in detail and next day forgets it. Yes I am talking about the Kashmiri Pandits. Those innocent people who were the residents of India’s Shaan (read Kashmir) were called immigrants and chased/massacred away from their land. No one talks about them or even thinks about them. The very few voices among them have been termed as right wing, left wing and so on. Anupam Kher, Sushil Pandit, Ashoke Pandit (his work "And the World Remainded Silent") and the list goes on. People may say all of these people have something in common or their political affiliations are same. So let me add another name which is radically different. Sunanda Pushkar. Yes you heard it right - Sunanda Pushkar, who was herself a Kashmiri Pandit. She supported the very man who mocked her for being a 50 crore girl friend just because he spoke in a public forum about a cause close to her heart. Finally someone seemed to remember those people.  Have we thought about them even once? Has the parliament debated about this issue atleast in January (like how media does)? Check these out for more

Book -  From Home to House: Writings of Kashmiri Pandits in Exile 

Videos - Paradise Lost: The story of Kashmiri Pandits, The Lost Paradise : A documentary on plight of Kashmiri Pandits

 6) The fifth accused, who was a juvenile at the time of crime (he was 17 yrs 6 months. Just 6 months short of adulthood, how innocent), whom Mukesh Singh said did the maximum damage vis-à-vis the iron rod and stuff, is currently being treated in a correction home. Indian law states that juveniles cannot be tried on par with adults and hence he is currently serving a 3 year sentence in the juvenile home. Surprise, he will be released in December this year. How sweet!!! We have managed to correct a child from going on the wrong path and led him on the path to enlightenment. Now he will come a changed man and will see to it that his life is used in the betterment of the nation and for nation building. Last week in parliament, a law was supposed to be passed which would have given the fifth accused and many more such people the gallons. Did any media house talk about that. All the news channels were so busy in finding out where Rahul Gandhi has gone for vacation and discussing on it. (Like we care). It was also busy discussing whether Venkiah Naidu must apologize to Congress or not since he told them to introspect among themselves.  But the law was rejected by the Parliamentary committee comprising members of all parties. All the news channels reported about was "Menaka Gandhi shunted out by her own party" and human rights activists rejoiced

Ok forget about all that has been said above. All said and done we will not rest until the documentary is shown by BBC in Indian channels. Of course who wants to see the people hanged. All we want to see is the documentary released.

So to all those who really want to protest. Here are topics which you missed the bus on. Sadly the media did not consider them important topics

1)      A Tiger, yes the endangered national animal whom we boasted had increased in population, was shot dead in TN-Kerala border. Who gave the permission to do that? Whose mistake was it if the tiger strayed on to human lands

2)      An oil slick happened in Sundarbans in Bangladesh threatening the ecologically sensitive place. Sundarbans is home to some of the most endangered flora and fauna species in the world. Millions of people’s livelihood is based on that. Sadly this topic was nowhere discussed.

3)      We have a parliamentary MP who happens to be the daughter of a sitting Chief Minister and she happily says that parts of India do not belong in India. Yes Kavitha Chandrashekar Rao said that in a public forum and it was forgotten completely by the media

4)      Foreign Journalists offers food to a tribal population peacefully co-existing with nature in Andaman and films them. Government arrests them and files an FIR no one asks questions because they were foreign journalist

5) Smoking in Public is against the law. How many of you still do it or how many of you have questioned people who do it. How many of you have reported such people. How many of you are subjected to health hazards just because the person next to you wont nip the bud.

6) The usage of high beams is banned in certain cities. Infact Section 360 (3) R/W 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act also bans the same. How many of you still use the high beams. How many of you have questioned someone using the high beam. Are you aware of the health hazards of it. In fact there are a huge list of traffic rules to be followed which are basic but do induce a fine. How many of you follow it. (Air Horn among the most frequent violations in our city roads and the next highest will be the use of indicators)

So long…others are welcome to point out more instances where media just failed to notice sensitive issues or certain basic issues which people/media cared a damn about. Of course Azam Khans buffaloes are always on news. Kudos to media for covering that non-stop.