When channels jump the gun...
…without probing the facts, the result is a mess under which the truth is buried.
ALKA GURHA describes how the channels botched the Rohtak bus story.
Pictures do not lie. But neither do they speak the truth. When the video of two girls thrashing their alleged molesters went viral, it captured the imagination of a nation outraged by crimes against women. The timing was right. Moreover, coming from the Haryana hinterland - a state that boasts of a patriarchal mindset, the images were liberating, if not heartening. No wonder the national and international media lapped up the story.
Most news channels invited the girls and interviewed them in a bid to outdo one another. Those who could not have enough of the girls’ account, landed at their village in Rohtak to interview the family members of the brave hearts, including an elderly aunt who was asked: “Aapko kaisa lag raha hai?”
One NDTV reporter managed to ask the accused boy if he was ashamed of what he had done: "Sharm to nahin aayi hogi?" The other side of the story had to wait while the media had already pronounced judgment.
Under pressure from the media, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar quickly announced his decision to congratulate the girls. Media vigilantism also ensured that the bus driver and the conductor were suspended without a preliminary enquiry. Such was the media pressure that, despite the girls’ clean chit for the bus conductor, Labh Singh, he was suspended, even though he claimed that he had warned the three men against harassing them.
However, what began as a spirited show of bravado by the two Rohtak sisters turned out to be an embarrassing story when a new video began doing the rounds where the girls were seen thrashing a different boy. Amazing, how some news channels jump to conclusions without presenting the alternative story.
Confusion reigned supreme when Rohtak villagers began asking questions about how an eye-witness seems to be available to shoot a video each time the sisters are allegedly harassed. The sarpanch of Aasan village, Raj Singh, said that the boys were being framed by the girls. More cracks appeared when women co-passengers and eye-witnesses said that the girls were not telling the truth. When conflicting videos surfaced about the alleged sexual harassment, the Haryana government decided to shelve its decision to give the girls an award.
While the government reaction under media duress was understandable, what about the news channels who did not present the entire picture or listen to the other side of the story before pronouncing the boys guilty?
For this reason, it is said that those who sow in a hurry, reap indigestion. If the news channels had bothered to authenticate the exact sequence of events before pronouncing a verdict, they would have saved themselves some embarrassment. So eager were they in pronouncing the boys guilty that even the Army (the men had applied to join) succumbed to pressure and slammed its doors on the men, with the Defence Minister saying that there was no place for such men in the Army.
If reporters and news anchors had been more discerning, some kinks in the girl’s version were apparent. One sister mentioned that she was thrown out of the bus. If this was true, why were there no injuries? Were the girls actually thrown out of the bus, or were they made to forcibly alight from the bus? Why wasn’t the pregnant woman who allegedly shot the video interviewed? Why wasn’t the conductor invited to the studios for an eye witness account? Several other questions, including why the co-passengers weren’t interviewed, went unanswered.
First, the boys were molesters and now the girls are liars. The truth is that only an investigation can reveal the reality. However, we are not sure of how investigations work in a society dominated by caste and money power. The upper class Jat boys were about to join the Army and with the Army closing its doors, the incident has become a cause for rivalry between two villages. There are even unsubstantiated reports about the girls receiving threats.
While the news channels have moved on to a new story of a young woman being raped in a cab in Delhi, the fate of the Rohtak girls and the three boys will bear the marks of a story that was botched up by TRP hungry channels.
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