Strange encounter of the fake kind?

 

Manjula Lal

 

The Ansal Plaza shootout in which two alleged terrorists were killed, presented a classic dilemma to the media: how should it weigh the official version of events against that of a chance eyewitness? It was tempting, especially in the festive season, when religious sentiment is high, to project the view that our government is in charge and all is right with the world, as TV news immediately did. It would have been so much more reassuring all around to believe the Home Ministry version.

 

But the media cannot be a vehicle of propaganda, especially when we accuse the media of our neighbouring country Pakistan (in this case specifically the Home Ministry’s target) of going over-the-top with its anti-India tirade. On the whole, the public, which tends to root for the underdog, believes Dr Hari Krishna, the homoeopathic doctor who says the two men shot were unarmed, barely able to walk, and shot in cold blood. Let us delve into newspaper clippings to see how the media continues to be overawed by official briefs.

 

The crime reporter of Delhi Mid Day (DMD), the capital’s afternoon tabloid, rushed to the venue on Sunday, November 4, as soon as he saw the news of the alleged encounter on TV. There he noticed Dr Krishna trying to get the notice of a TV channel (Aaj Tak) which was interviewing Joint Commissioner of Police Neeraj Kumar. "This man is lying", he called out. However, a cop pushed him away. The tabloid reporter interviewed him and waited till Tuesday, November 6 morning to file his story (Monday was the Diwali holiday. The paper is sent to print at around 10 am every day).

 

Before that, the Hindustan Times carried the Ansal Plaza incident as its top story, highlighting certain loopholes in the police theory. This was despite the fact that no reporter had met Dr Krishna - he was till then a DMD scoop. In the DMD newsroom, meanwhile, there was a tussle about whether the report of one solitary eyewitness who spoke on condition of anonymity should be sensationalized, tabloid style. Finally, more prominence was given to the city editor’s story on the same topic, which was headlined: "Take back your dead, Pak told." The flagline went: "VVIP security beefed up." The junior reporter’s version, confined to a double-column spot, was headlined: "It was a set-up: eyewitness."

 

The lead para of the main story went: "After establishing that the two militants shot in an encounter in Ansal Plaza on Diwali even belonged to feared Islamic Jehadi outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Pakistan, the Delhi Police is trying to investigate whether their evil designs were confined to merely causing fear and mayhem before Diwali or more." In a nutshell, this was the whole atmospherics which the Home Ministry was trying to project, with the usual elements: Evil Pakistan, jehadi outfits, Hindu festival" etc.

 

Why do we say this? Because DMD’s rival Today, the afternoon paper started only in June 2002 from the India Today stable, was also dutifully putting out the official version at the same time. In triple decker headlines, it said: "MESSAGE FROM ANSAL PLAZA" "After high-profile hits like the Red Fort and Parliament, terror returns to soft targets with high casualties." "Terrorists shift tactic to strike at shopping malls, cinemas, buses. So be aware, be alert and be safe." Again, the atmospherics: Akshardham temple suicide attack, armed to the teeth…

 

Even the Indian Express gave the headline: "Terror casts a shadow over festival of lights,’ and in the second paragraph analyzed a "change in strategy of terrorists" from Army and government targets to soft targets (The old-fashioned would point out that this is precisely why news should be separated from views/analysis).

 

Note that Aaj Tak, from the India Today group, had already been seen sticking to the official version. No wonder, this group is being described as being close to the right-wing BJP government - especially as the next issue of India Today quoted a Marg poll which gave a two-thirds majority to the BJP in the forthcoming Gujarat Assembly poll.

Afternoon tabloids are hardly visible in Delhi, particularly after the police prevented their sale at traffic lights, but they are delivered to all newspaper offices, and are read by crime reporters, as blowing up crime stories is their standard practice.

 

By next morning, Asian Age had got hold of the doctor’s name and address, and arrived at his doorstep. The doctor’s son claimed he was not at home. Later (November 24) he was to claim that he had agreed to lie low on the request of the police, but had to join the fray when the police released to the press details about past criminal cases filed against him, and came up with the title ‘Dr Dubious’ (this appellation appeared the very next day in the tabloid Today).

 

As happens with crime in the capital, all kinds of speculative and planted reports started appearing in the press. The police claimed he wasn’t at Ansal Plaza at all at the time, quoting mobile phone records. The press did not check with any technical source whether this was feasible - Dr Krishna’s lawyer was to later point out that even the US does not have this technology. The police press conference was blown up by some, played down by others. The doctor was to later sue Airtel for releasing his phone records. He even played back to a select few newspersons tapes of his telephone conversations with police officers, which proved conclusively that he had been asked to lie low.

 

In fact, the doctor has been completely consistent in his statements. The murkiness seems to lie in his past, but as in the case of rape victims, this does not seem to be relevant to the issue at hand. "The police is now indulging in my social rape and I refuse to help them any more," said the rather articulate and courageous doctor at his November 10 press conference. The record of ACP Rajbir Singh who was involved in the encounter was dredged up by Asian Age to show that he has a history of involvements in fake encounters - now this is certainly relevant to the issue at hand, but this report was written not by a newspaperman but by Mohan Guruswamy a regular contributor who has been advisor to politicians like Yashwant Sinha.

 

The media created a bit of confusion by first accepting the official version, then questioning it bit by bit. Indian Express reported on November 6, after an interview with JCP Neeraj Kumar, that the encounter went on for 15 minutes. Later, it published photographs of only ten bullet holes on the walls and in the glass of the underground parking lot, as if some could not have lodged in cars - as had indeed happened, according to another shopper.

 

Vir Sanghvi, editor of Hindustan Times, took the main edit page slot to question the whole police encounter version - but did not even hint at the major political issue which might underlie the Ansal Plaza incident: did the Home Ministry choose to stage it at a crowded mall precisely to score a propaganda point? Because if the government of the day takes a hand in deliberately creating a fear psychosis, playing the same game as the terrorists, where are we all headed?

 

As for the whole business of fake encounters, there seemed to emerge an underlying consensus among all shades of public opinion that this is a good way to wipe out terrorists. Human rights activists, judging by newspaper reports (but they may  be misleading) seemed to be worried only about protection to the witness, not the the rights of the alleged terrorists to a fair trial. Nobody is worried about why the police had to kill them, only that they chose such a venue, and tried to fool the public. Meanwhile, the media have also failed to question whether they were militants at all, or just criminals/innocents "used" in a grand design, and how the police can pinpoint a body as Pakistani, considering they don’t any different from Indians.

 

Incidentally, recently released Hollywood film Insomnia, starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams, too justifies police action in tampering evidence - this movie is tipped as a hot bet for the Oscars, which could give its basic theme a certain legitimacy worldwide.

 

(Manjula Lal is a columnist with Delhi Mid Day, and a freelance journalist. She can be contacted at manjulalal@hotmail.com).