People die to set a record?

BY Ramanujan Srinivasa| IN Media Practice | 06/09/2009

                      Reprinted from mediawhistle.org

The late Yeduguri Santinti Rajasekara Reddy was undoubtedly a popular leader whose welfare programmes like Arogya Sri, free power for farmers, JalaYagnam, Indiramma housing scheme, rice for 2 Rs/kg, Pavala Vaddi, etc, benefited millions of people of the state. People in turn showed their love and affection for the departed leader by turning up in large numbers both in Hyderabad and in his native village Idupulapaya, though everything went haywaire in the process at the funeral site.

But to say that around 150 people died because of shock/suicide on Thursday and Friday is stretching it too far. Deccan Chronicle reported that ?g141 people lost their lives unable to bear the loss of their leader.?h According to the daily, it was ?gan unprecedented show of love for any politician in the history of Independent India?h. The break-up for the toll was like this. 115 people died of cardiac failure, another 26 committed suicide.

There were no details, nor was the story attributed to any source. The Hyderabad datelined story should have atleast mentioned where all these deaths occurred, who are the people, their age, background and the like. The front page report only quoted the chief minister K Rosaiah and YSR?fs son Jagan Mohan Reddy appealing to the people to maintain restraint and not to resort to extreme steps.

Obviously,the daily must have been skeptic about its own report. It approached a psychiatrist to rationalise its story. The psychiatrist attributed such ?gunprecedented number of deaths?h to mass hysteria. He also said had there been a sudden announcement of YSR?fs death, instead of 24-hour suspense over his fate, ?gpeople would have resorted to violence. They would have made someone their object of attack?h.

The Hindu was a bit realistic. Its Karimnagar datelined report said that ?gthirty-nine die after watching TV?h. It also gave a sketchy break-up for deaths in districts like Medak, Nizamabad, Nalgonda, Adilabad etc. without any details about the identity of the people who died except for one, Ukke Vasanth, ex-sarpanch of Sattenapally in Khanapur who ?gsuffered a heart attack while watching the final rites?h.

The Times of India had a screaming headline: ?gHeartbreak over YSR?fs death : Toll 100??. The daily attributed only eight deaths to suicide and over 100 due to cardiac arrest. It, however, had a caveat. There is no official confirmation for these deaths and the information is based on the inputs from ?glocals?h. Who are these locals and how this figure was arrived at in the absence of any specific details. How is it that no media outfit tried to contact the families of the dead and put out authentic and credible narration of the events. Of course, the daily identified a few individuals who committed suicide and added they were farmers. You have to read between the lines!  Among those who died was a 90-year old woman. The TOI report raised a doubt whether the cause of her death was really due to the tragic news.

The TOI, as a post script to the story, added the opinion of a political analayst and a Professor at Osmania University who said ?gWe don?ft know exactly if these (deaths) are for real. There may be some truth, but attributing every death to YSR is wrong?h.

Certainly, some ?ginterested?h parties wanted to create a hype to prove a point. The more the deaths, the more the popularity of their departed leader among the people. Why should only one MGR or NTR hog the limelight on such a record. So, whoever died in the state on Thursday and Friday are assumed to have died for YSR. May be, someone wanted to create a ?gdubious?h record. But, why should the media play second fiddle to such an exercise without a semblance of verifcation of facts?

Ramanujan Srinivasa has been associated with newspapers, television for 30 years. He has also served as a member of the film censor board.