I have scant respect for television as a medium of communication. Only seconded by the Times of India….The outcry over getting the Jessica Lal/Matoo case back on track may have had its benefits but when the victim isn’t a young good-looking professional, then it ‘aint news.
I don’t see the media getting their knickers in a twist about booking Bhotmange’s daughter’s murderers. And what of poor Gudiya? She subsequently remarried and was pregnant with her second husband’s son when the first (supposedly dead) husband reappeared. NDTV swooped down on Gudiya as did all the other news channels delirious for sound bytes. They dragged her family members into studios and thrust mikes into her face demanding, “Which husband do you choose?” - anything to feed our voracious voyeuristic appetite. Poor Gudiya really didn't have a choice, the Shariyat and the media did the choosing for her.
Anyway to cut a long story short, Gudiya committed suicide. I daresay the inhumane media coverage was one of the not-so-insignificant factors that drove Gudiya to desperation. Her death wasn’t deemed newsworthy enough. It found a mention in annews column on the 10th page of a daily.
Bhotmange, whose family was brutally killed, doesn’t want a Government job, he wants the murderers hanged. But then, he is a poor Dalit who dared to send his children to school and college, and who dared to dream of a better life.
I really don’t know what we can do to change the system or rid India of a deep rooted social malaise. Writing about it in a psuedo Mulk Raj Anand-Raja Rao way is all we ever seem to do – and that includes me. Is action being taken, I am not sure – the media isn’t covering it anymore you see.
‘The Untouchable’ by Mulk Raj Anand tells the story of a single day in a young boy’s life. He cleans latrines only because his father does. An extremely sensitive portrayal Bakha wonders ‘Do people consider us dirty just because we do dirty work?’
