Students show up mainstream media

BY PRUTHA BHOSLE| IN Media Practice | 13/03/2014
The big newspapers gave one version of events when medical students went on strike recently in Kanpur, journalism students in Bangalore found another when they began to investigate.
PRUTHA BHOSLE tells the story. PIX: A screenshot from a video of the scuffle between the cops and the students

Mainstream media coverage of medical students, who went on strike in Uttar Pradesh after they were severely beaten and arrested by the police on February 28, was partisan and unfair, according to the students.

The Kanpur students, having failed to get a fair hearing from papers like the Times of India and The Hindu, took to social media to vent their grievances.

After an altercation with a local politician, MLA Irfan Solanki, more than 100 students were beaten which led to the arrest of 24 students, some with fractured legs and arms, and many were hospitalised due to their injuries. Faculty members were also attacked. After the incident, the students went on strike. They also went onto Facebook and Twitter.

They were accused of allowing patients to die in hospitals affected by their strikes, accused of attacking an elderly man, an MLA and his armed guards and of rampaging around Kanpur. All of the allegations, made by the MLA and a local police chief, were reported without talking to the medical students in papers across India.

The students’ online campaign was much more effective in getting across their message, especially among Indian youth, that they had in fact been the victims. One student was left paralysed after he was thrown from a hostel balcony.

Other medical students across India organised strikes and candle-lit vigils after the arrest of 24 of the young trainee doctors. They have subsequently been released and the local MLA, Irfan Solanki, charged with attempted murder. A local police chief who was present on the night of the attack has been transferred and an investigatory commission has been established by the state government.

The students believe that change in fortune was, in large part, thanks to their ability to access the internet and organise protests via social media. Their Facebook page, Medicos Against injustice, was the “go-to” site for the latest news. Doctors who left messages of support unanimously criticised the Indian mainstream media, who had largely failed to accurately report events on the night and subsequently.

Print students from the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media (IIJNM) produced a special edition of their college paper that was quickly shared on social media sites. Student leaders, professors and seasoned journalists all agreed that it more accurately reflected events on the night.

As a follow-up exercise, those same print students analysed the coverage by the Kanpur media. The results are worrying.

The students were sent a video footage clearly showing dozens of medical students being beaten up by armed police in a night-time raid at the college hostel in Uttar Pradesh. Thirty minutes before the raid, the power supply to the hostel was cut off. 

On February 28, Kanpur police opened fire and attacked students of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical (GSVM) College, after the “fight” with Irfan Solanki, a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and his armed bodyguards.

Following the incident, medical staff across India went on a strike which brought emergency services in some hospitals to a standstill. A huge social media campaign was started to have the 24 student doctors who had been arrested and beaten up released from police custody.

As injured students admitted in the college hospital struggled for life, the mainstream media reported that the doctors were risking patients’ lives.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also called for striking doctors to return to work.

IIJNM students uncovered video and stills in evidence and testimony, not covered by the mainstream press in India, which supports student claims that police and bodyguards of the MLA opened fire on unarmed students, tossed at least one student off the balcony of a college hostel and beat up a 14-year-old boy so badly his entire back is streaked in lathi-strike bruises.

Hundreds of students and teachers hid in nearby fields as armed men and police trashed the boy’s hostel of the medical college ­– beating up anyone they found. One student, who was thrashed brutally, has now been diagnosed paraplegic after his spine shattered on impact. Cars, bikes, laptops and rooms were also trashed.

According to the version of events provided by MLA Solanki and published by most media houses, the clash broke out after he attempted to intervene on behalf of an elderly man who he says was being assaulted by students of the college at a petrol bunk that night, at around 7 p.m.

Solanki also alleged that one of the students present at the scene came forward and snatched the gun away from one of his armed bodyguards. He then asked his other gunman to intervene and retrieve the gun, which resulted in a confrontation with the students.

The first story published by most media houses on their respective websites explained how the MLA and his guards were so badly beaten by the students they had to attend the city hospital. The entire article talks of the rampage created by the medicos which escalated tension at the GSVM campus. Below are the links to the stories reported that day:

SP MLA beaten up by junior doctors

Doctors clash with SP workers in Kanpur

Kanpur: Several injured as doctors clash with MLA

Doctors clash with MLA in Kanpur; several injured

Doctors strife with MLA in Kanpur; several injured  

Doctors clash with MLA in Kanpur   

Many stories blamed the students for the deaths of patients in hospital during the strikes. 

This piece, from the Times of India, cites 15 deaths in the headline, just five deaths in the lead and has no attribution or evidence to support the story.

The final straw for the country’s mainstream media seems to have come when Solanki produced the old man he claimed was beaten up. At this point the mainstream media houses began to run more balanced stories and some were also critical of Solanki. Reporters also questioned the extent of Solanki’s stated injuries.

His medico-legal report, which IIJNM students obtained, stated he was treated for grazes. He claimed he had six stitches in a head wound and appeared on the night of the attack with his head wrapped in bandages.

Irfan Solanki presents old man to the media   

Many more such articles started to appear, contradicting the initial reportage published by some of the country’s most respected newspapers. 

Here are few links to the story:

GSVM students narrate their ordeal   

24 medicos hospitalized, medically examined   

The IIJNM Weekly Observer team covered the actual facts of the story contacting students and teachers in Kanpur. 

A graphical representation of a series of events that led to the clash between MLA and doctors on February 28.

Statements from faculty beaten on the night were also obtained by students.

According to Dr. Amreesh Gupta, a professor at GSVM College, the fight started after Solanki’s driver opened the door of the car which then collided with the bike being driven by the students.

He added that after a scuffle broke out between the students and the MLA’s driver, one of the students was hit on the head by a member of Solanki’s staff. Following this, the student started bleeding profusely.

This is what Dr. Gupta’s quote reads like, “The MLA’s car was coming from the wrong side of the road. The students were coming from the other side and they went to the petrol pump. The driver opened the door and it hit the bike. The driver had a scuffle with the medical students. The gunner hit one of the students hard on the head and he started bleeding profusely.”

Mayank Singhal, a student of GSVM College and a witness to the incident, confirmed Dr. Gupta’s statement.

He said, “As soon as we heard that our friends were in trouble, the rest of us reached the spot and witnessed something more shocking. After the gunman shot at a few of our colleagues, all the others barged into attack the MLA and his goons. Things turned ugly and the police arrived.”

Footage collected by sources in Kanpur clearly shows lathi-wielding riot police forces repeatedly beating unarmed students while they attempted to escape the attack. Some officers also carried assault rifles.

Here is the link to a video provided by one of the students, Raghav Gakhar: GSVM

Kanpur, see how the police beaten innocent Doctors   

One of the clips also shows a senior officer speaking through a loudspeaker and instructing his armed troops to return to the hostel and ‘break the backs’ of the errant students. 

Here is the link to it:  Exclusive footage: See what happened inside GSVM Medical College, Kanpur on the night of 28th Feb

Dr. R.K. Thakur, a senior teacher from GSVM, who was also thrashed by the police forces and is now undergoing treatment, said: “Many students jumped from the terrace out of fear to escape the situation.”

She added that several students had sustained extremely severe injuries. “One of the boys who was beaten up is now lying in hospital with a fractured spine. The police did not even spare the 14-year-old brother of another student. Even he was beaten,” she said.

The fourteen-year-old in question is Miraj, the brother of Mohammad Ejaj, a final-year student in the college. Miraj was picked up by the police from one of the hostel rooms, brutally thrashed, kept in police custody and only released the next day after he said that he was not feeling well. Photographs taken after his release show heavy bruising on his back. He declined to comment on his treatment at the hands of police when contacted.

Another student, Singhal, said the jailed students are suffering from serious leg and arm fractures but have been denied medical care.

A student of the college, who did not wish to be named, said: “Our Out-Patient Department (OPD) and emergency services have been closed since Friday. We did, however, attend to patients who were in critical condition by getting them in through the back door. We faced an attack (by relatives of patients) on Saturday and the police protected us then. We were asked to open the OPD on Sunday. When we refused to open it, the police refused to give us any more protection.”

The town’s most senior police officer, R.K. Chaturvedi, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Kanpur, said: “The lathi-charge was our mistake. But I do not understand why they are punishing people by going on a strike.”

Superintendent of Police (SSP), Yashasvi Yadav, who was present on the night of the attacks said, “The police department has absolutely no remorse in the action that was taken against the students.”

He added, “We had to control the situation, so we sent around 500 officers at the spot. These students have started violence in the society and they needed to be hushed.”

Here is a link to the video showing the brutality of police inside the college hostel:

Kanpur: GSVM Medical College a day after   

After other medical institutes in the country extended support to the protest campaign, the state government announced an inquiry into the incident constituting a one-member inquiry commission. The commission will be headed by retired judge R.M. Chauhan. After six days of protest the strike was finally called-off by doctors on March 6., after their demands were met. 

Meanwhile, Solanki has been booked for attempt to murder, rioting and voluntarily causing hurt for his alleged involvement in clashes with medical doctors in Kanpur last month. Superintendent of Police (SSP), Yashasvi Yadav, has been transferred.

The story was compiled by:

To read the IIJNM Weekly Observer special edition, click here.


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