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By Mari Marcel Thekaekara Times have changed for the media. The IT revolution has meant that your message can go to the four corners of the earth in minutes. This has been proved in Iraq, in Gujarat and most recently in Cancun. Can the media turn to the most pressing issues that need attention in our society, to bring about that radical change which has eluded us for so many decades? This article suggests it can
Genocide is not a word to be lightly used. But, without doubt, March 2002 can be regarded as one of the blackest periods in India's beleaguered history because of the planned pogrom that was perpetrated on Muslims in Gujarat after the ghastly burning of Hindu families in what is now known as the Godhra massacre. Yet, Black March, was a watershed in Indian journalism. Apart from a handful of privately owned communal papers, the media, both print and television, did a brilliant job in exposing the Gujarat genocide in all its gruesome detail. They brought home to the entire nation the fact that though we had experienced hundreds of ugly, cruel Hindu-Muslim riots before, this was the first time in the history of India, that a government had systematically, cold-bloodedly and deliberately, planned the rape and massacre of its own citizens. It was the Gujarat government, we underlined, that had planned the Final Solution. That had issued orders to police stations in Gujarat decreeing the dogs of war were to be unleashed. And no Hindu mob was to be stopped because the Modi government had decided to teach the Muslims a lesson. So a democratic government ordered and perpetrated the pogrom. Which was the difference between this and other outbreaks of Hindu-Muslim violence. This chilling fact was documented and restated by hundreds of journalists and independent citizens' fact finding committees. I was part of a Womens' Commission whose brief was to document the plight of Muslim women. Every journalist who arrived in Gujarat was stunned. What had happened there was something none of us believed could ever happen in our country. And when we reported back, the stories were filled with the anguish, passion and shock we'd experienced. It was a difficult task. Because the press carried the additional burden of not inciting further violence and hatred. It had to be restrained and responsible in its reporting. An unwritten code that has been in existence since Independence and possibly before. Yet, we did it. The press held back the most sensational horror stories from the front pages. And the violence did not spread. But in addition to mere reportage, there was investigation and analysis. And the naming of Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat as the chief architect behind the genocide. No Indian government had ever been so publicly pilloried before, or so justly crucified. And to a man, (and one hate-filled woman MLA) the fascist Gujarat government vilified the press. The entire media wore the condemnation as a badge of honour. And the stories continued relentlessly. The victims' plight, the governments' continued denial of justice, the intimidation of witnesses. Finally, in a landmark pronouncement, the courts decreed that due to the intimidation of the witnesses, in one particular case, the Best Bakery murders, the trial should be held outside of Gujarat. Those who'd fought long and hard for justice were jubilant. And if the Best Bakery verdict does procure justice for the victims, then the press can stand up and say ‘we did it.' From a personal point of view, there was little I, a freelance, not terribly well-known writer, sitting on a remote hilltop in the Nilgiri mountains, could say that hundreds of accredited journos and columnists had not already written. Yet, our Womens' Commission report “The Survivors' Speak” made it to the web pages of every major national newspaper. This bulky 49 page document was picked up and carried for months on the web pages of The Hindu, The Times of India, Tehelka and Outlook. We were deluged by mail. Hate-mail, spam and abuse from Hindu fundamentalists and fascists. But also congratulations from every corner of the earth. From the great Indian diaspora ranging from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, all over Europe, every Gulf country, even Pakistan. Decent Indians, both Hindu and Muslim voiced their concern for and solidarity with the victims of Gujarat. They thanked us for exposing the truth. From the Arab and Muslim world came the blessings of Allah for the work we'd done. I was grateful that even Muslim fundamentalists could not fail to appreciate that the majority of Indians and Hindus were horrified by what had happened in Gujarat. Ten years ago, before the internet connected people and helped disseminate information, it would have been impossible to reach such a diverse group of people, scattered all over the globe. Now journalists could disseminate the information and within hours, people mobilised support, voiced protests, and demonstrated before embassies and consulates. Something else happened. Unlike in the old days, when you hoped desperately that your passionate prose was being read intelligently, you could now see tangible results almost immediately. In the US, non-resident Indians led massive protests. They saw for the first time that their hard-earned dollars, sent back to improve the lot of less fortunate Indians were being misused to spread hate, to destroy their beloved homeland. They learnt that the VHP were using US campuses to indoctrinate young American born Indians with hate for Muslims, unscrupulously using their yearning for a closeness with their roots and homeland. Thousands of US-based Indians took out full length ads in US and Indian papers asking for justice for the victims of Gujarat. In spite of intimidation and vilification, both from Delhi and Ahmedabad, the media, both print and TV, kept on exposing the terrible truth. They continued long after the violence had stopped, highlighting the victimisation by the Modi regime of the few policemen and IAS officers who had tried to do their job and protect innocent lives. The internet contributed by keeping the flow of information circulating to Indians in every corner of the globe. Solidarity groups formed and in spite of the government's protests and denials, the entire nation, the entire world, heard the tales of genocide. The truth could not be suppressed.
Satisfying though it is to see that we, the press can contribute towards fighting for justice, there are miles to go. For a variety of ugly reasons Modi won his election. Recently, feted by British Gujaratis, he sat on the dais, gloating, unashamed and unrepentant. The Confederation of Indian Industries and prominent businessmen continued to receive him, honour him even, silencing the lone protester who questioned the morality of India's 21st century Hitler being allowed into such a meeting. A fortnight ago celebrities from all over the world were invited to invest in Gujarat. And they came. Businessmen, politicians and other opportunists including those who ought to have known better. Nelson Mandela declined the invitation. But former US Senator Larry Pressler who definitely could not plead ignorance, was there as one of the chief guests, singing Gujarat's praises. It made most people sick. But it is a grim reminder that public memory is conveniently short. We have to continue to bring the issues and questions upfront and in the public eye. The fight for justice must go on. Gujarat shocked us and we responded. But there are equally horrendous incidents which ceased to shock long ago. When you live with something for centuries your senses are dulled. You become benumbed, blasé, cynical. Everyday, in India a dalit woman is raped to teach her community a lesson. Every day a dalit is killed. Every hospital in every city of India has a burns ward in which our women lie dying. They are the dowry deaths. Statistics which cease to shock because they are not news anymore. They are commonplace. They happen every day. And the perpetrators get away with murder. We term them caste conflicts and dowry victims. We do not condemn them publicly as murderers. We do not describe the terror, the fear, the agony of a woman who has had kerosene or petrol poured over her deliberately and coldbloodedly by a man or his family without compunction. We do not report her screams. We do not personalise her slow, agonising painful death. For death by burning is the ultimate torture. And yet, the murderer almost always gets away lightly. Rape is always horrible. But using rape as a way to settle scores, to teach a lesson to the men of the dalit community has been an age-old practice in India. Everyone loves to report a rape. Makes good copy. Sex sells. Most beat reporters cover rapes. But following the culprits, checking on subsequent police action, finding out how the story ends is not a normal practice. As an impressionable teenager, I remember regularly reading a tiny news item which said “Sweeper drowns in manhole.” It was a sad but forgettable paragraph. Thirty years down the line, the same news item appears with monotonous regularity in most papers around the country. It is so trivial that the average eye tends to skip over it, probably move to the sports page, anything more engaging. A few years ago, I interviewed the mother of a 19 year old boy Rajan, who had drowned in a manhole. The experience will stay with me forever. The boy was happy and eager to clean the blocked sewage system because it meant a small bonanza in his estimation. The bank manager whose septic tank he planned to clean, had agreed to pay him Rs.300. After paying for breakfast and his two younger helpers, he would have Rs.100 entirely for himself. If the job was well done he'd probably get an additional tip. He was singing as he lifted the lid off. Then his bucket fell in. Cursing, he bent to retrieve it. The boy never knew what hit him. The carbon monoxide blasted him and he fell into the manhole unconscious. Rajan drowned in liquid shit. It filled his nostrils, his lungs and his airway. Nothing could be nastier, more vile, more nauseating than such a death. Rajan's photograph on the wall was that of a happy laughing teenager. His corpse was blackened, disfigured and revolting. His death would only merit a little unreadable news item like the thousands before and after him. In Gujarat, I heard about a Superintendent of Police who arrested a tea-shop owner for practicing untouchability. Dalits who came to his tea shop had to pick up their separate segregated tumblers and after using them, wash them and put them back on the dalit shelf. “Don't you know practicing untouchability is an offence?” asked the policeman. After a spell in jail, the owner returned chastened. He may not have liked dalits any better, but he had learnt that he would not in future get away with humiliating them. That breaking the law had consequences. There are countless stories of unsung heroes. People like the Gujarat cop, who just by doing their duty change the lives of thousands of people. We need to write more about them. They are in a minority and doing their duty, standing up for the poor and oppressed, often means punishment, transfers and harassment. There is a nexus of corrupt politicians, businesspeople, bureaucrats and policemen, with media people who can be bought. It is high time we searched for decent politicians, bureaucrats and policemen and highlighted the difference they make. The press did this in Gujarat. It must have brought some solace to the few police officers and bureaucrats whose courage brought them harassment, punishment postings and demotions. No society is perfect. But we have a longer way to go than many. And if we can achieve the world's highest IT standards, produce nuclear and space technology, and export doctors, engineers and IT professionals by the thousand, it stands to reason we can clean up our act in other areas.
We know that all it takes is political will. Our politicians don't have it. But in every corner of the country there are groups and individuals fighting for freedom for their people. For abused and neglected child workers and street children, for trafficked girls held in sexual slavery by pimps, for our scavenger women who still carry shit on their heads in 21st century India, for adivasis exploited and wiped out to make way for dams and development, for dalits who live without dignity. All these groups and individuals need moral and emotional support to enable them to keep fighting. We, the media CAN make things happen if we so decide. We need concerted action. We need to keep plugging at those routine, mundane stories until they become news. We need to reach a point where men who kill dalits, or burn their brides, know that they will not get away with it. We need to hound the police, the judges and the people in power till they are forced to sit up and DO their job. Only then can we call ourselves a civilised society. All this is eminently possible, more possible now than ever before in the history of humankind, because of the IT revolution. Because now, with the click of the mouse, we can flash stories to every corner of the globe to pressurise politicians, to shame governments into action. We can mobilise world opinion in minutes. It happened with Iraq. We did it in Gujarat. And we did it in Cancun. As someone once said “Nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” Especially when that idea can go around the world in seconds! InfoChange News and Features, October 2003
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