Regulating Media: A Bad Idea, Certainly

When the country is severely reeling under endemic corruptions and politicians have taken a ride on the sentiments of citizens of this nation, the very naive idea of pushing a private bill (by a first-timer MP Meenakshi Natarajan) to regulate media not only indicates how ignorant the MP is about the very basics of Indian Constitution that enshrines freedom of speech as fundamental rights, but also she intends to advocate a democracy to function without freedom of press. In a democratic setup, media is the only institution outside governance that acts as an independent watchdog and brings truth to the fore.

Freedom of expression is the corner stone of democratic evolution. Conventional media run by professional journalists and editors represents the pillar of free speech. Although recently few media houses have crossed their ethical limit and displayed downgraded standards in reporting biased, frivolous news pieces; nevertheless, the idea of regulating media by state agencies is altogether an untoward move.

As law makers, the legislators have the privilege to bring in any draconian law which would suit their political objective; however, in a functional democracy, the most stringent, anti-democratic law is even subject to complete abrogation when the government changes. India has already witnessed the fate of a draconian law like TADA in the last decade.

The developed democracies like US, UK, and France are the greatest upholders of the principle of freedom of speech and expression. Despite myriads of exposes against the ruling class in press, these nations have even ensured free and independent media. The law-makers of these nations are true democrats who believe in freedom of expression. A self-regulated media is undoubtedly a great partner in a long, meaningful democratic journey.

However, in India, majority of politicians are tainted, corrupt, and law-breakers, so a free press becomes a huge roadblock for their escapades. In the history of high-decibel scams in India, whether it's Bofors, 2G, or CWG, it was only media that exposed the matter in public domain first, and then the police or judiciary executed their responsibilities later.

With regulated media, the freedom of speech will be strangled and every report that will be published in media will be nothing more than a public relation exercise because of excessive state monitoring and hegemonic bureaucracy. Post enactment of law, no government would like to support an independent media, and eventually state-run media will take the lead. Are we heading to transform such a vibrant democracy into a communist country like China? Maybe, that could be the hidden agenda of many political parties. Nevertheless, India as a nation of great political diversity won't afford to take that route.

The Bofors Conundrum

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Flawed Culture, Appalling Generation

Why Indians are so brazenly proud of their viciously flawed culture and tradition that hardly accentuates the esteem of women in our society? Perhaps, this distorted social attitude in a male-dominated society has eventually trickled down to the modern adolescents, and the result is how boys and girls in the age group of 15-19 strongly feel that wife beating is justified. Thanks to the UNICEF's Global Report Card on Adolescents 2012 that reveals 57% of boys and 53% of girls in India consider physical violence against wife is legitimate.

The history of domestic violence against women dates back to the period of Ramayana and Mahabharata, and still we Indians, rather than evolving to a progressive society after many thousand years, still live in the shadow of an obnoxious precedence. When we claim that India is shinning on the economic fronts across the globe, the one pivotal point we often miss is how shinning our attitude towards women. Reports after reports get published via various social organizations and government agencies regarding the status of women in our society; however, we never mind, given a chance, to molest a woman when she is alone or helpless. The increasing crime rate against women in all parts of India, both urban and rural, is only a silent reminder of our corroded mindset.

Our judicial system that is supposed to uphold justice for all irrespective of caste, creed, gender, and social status, is embroiled by a heap of archaic laws those are hardly relevant to the current social conditions. Particularly, in case of crime against women, the legal measures are so docile that even a victim approaches the court for justice, it takes years together to land at a conclusive point. By that time either the victim changes her stand due to social conditioning or the perpetrator gets acquitted because of insufficient evidence. Either way the woman suffers the ordeal till her last breath.

So, what's essentially pertinent at this point of time is a complete overhaul of our social and legal system. A stringent legal framework backed by an expeditious execution of justice can only bring in a visible change in our society. But till then we must not slip into hibernation and forget our civil responsibilities. We must raise our voice against all sorts of crimes against women and keep this campaign going from strength to strength. Someday, I am sure, we can proudly claim women in India are adored and safeguarded.

Public Interest vs. Right to Privacy

Propriety is fast depleting from public domain. What was once considered to be the key characteristic of a public figure has now touched the nadir. Hardly one can find a person in public life who is out and out honest in every dimension of trait calibration. After all they are little mortal and human. They have all those mundane aspirations that often transgress the idealistic fabric when they come across a situation more tempting than the laurels of idealism. And how can a human being become so indifferent to inherited animal instincts that today drive mankind towards unachievable goals through sheer determination? The determination to surpass all established dogmas, doctrines, and demarcations. But along with that proliferates another human trait – hypocrisy – which emboldens human beings to do the unthinkable and still engage in self aggrandizement. Perhaps, that's the most sordid aspect of human evolution.

Well, the world is changing, so is the human perception. In the advent of ubiquitous social media and 24x7 news channels, the jury is out in the open. Any act of corruption, malpractice, wrongdoing, or even unethical private affair is not more privy to the public figure, rather it's analyzed threadbare, disseminated bit by bit, debated unabashed, deliberated to the last grain, and finally bounced back to public domain for a savory relish. For that act becomes a subject of public interest.

The recent CD controversy in which Abhishek Manu Singhvi,a senior Congress leader and a member of Rajya Shabha, is allegedly shown to be indulged in a sexual act in his chamber with a senior advocate and aspirant of a higher judicial position, the arguments supporting right to privacy fall flat on the face of a larger public interest. What's more deplorable here that Singhvi is not only a senior MP, but he is also chairman of a Parliamentary committee on law and justice, and he undoubtedly has the capacity to influence the selection process of the position for which the lady is a contender. So this sexual favor can be treated quid pro quo, given the alleged audio content in the CD proved to be authentic. In that case, the arguments supporting the privacy of a person crumble like a house of cards.

However, this alleged sexual act could have been an absolutely private affair if the lady in the CD would not have any aspiration for a hugely respectable public position, and moreover Singhvi hadn't been in an influential position in the system. Rather not being tempted into character assassination of Singhvi, the subject must be investigated in the light of public interest. Both Singhvi and lady are equally responsible for violating the due diligence selection procedure of a judge, which is largely dependent on meritocracy, intellectual calibre, and other fundamental human traits such as honesty and integrity.

The buck doesn't stop at the resignation of Singhvi from all public positions, rather the lady must also be investigated, and if proven guilty of influencing the selection process through sexual favor must be barred from holding any public position in future. Indeed, that's a matter of judicial enquiry; however, the fact remains that the people who give lecture to public on right to privacy must not tread in the public domain and complaint about their privacy being breached, rather they should shun all public positions and do whatever they want to do in their private life. That could be more sensible and safe charting. Anyway, who does care about those people who don't have any stake in public interest?  

Let The Earth Live Her Way

Let the Earth live her way

Despite all possible reasons

Good or bad

Scrutable or inscrutable

In human prescience.

For nature knows the secret

Of surpassing eons

With human furies

Come symbiotic imbalance

Hurricanes

Tornadoes

Tsunamies

Tremors

Floods

Landslides

And many alike.

Often mistakenly brushed

As nature's tyrannies

And some profusely stand

Nature's a great equalizer.

Who bereave nature?

Her stored bounties?

A query always haunts

And the Earth is clueless

Absolutely.

From stone age

To this century

All squander her legacy

Mindlessly

Mercilessly

Destroying verdant terrains

Forests far and near

Sometimes in the name of development

A lopsided development -

A false premise.

Miles of woods go missing

When a high way connects two cities

Concrete jungles pop up

With all modern amenities -

Shopping Malls

Hotels and motels

Theme parks

Parking lots

A new definition of development.

And then come surges of campaigns

Green campaigns

Sustainable development

Reduced carbon footprint

Inclusive growth,

Crusaders of nature

In all hues and shades

To protect the Mother Earth

Join the bandwagon

Quite farcical

The Earth is dying

Save her now

Let her live in pride

With her glory.

(A small tribute to my Mother Earth on this Earth Day!)     

Arrogance of Power

“Power”, in general, may be a subject of glorification for sycophants and bootlickers, but for pragmatics and intellectuals it's the worst form of despondency that reveals the deteriorated perspectives of the person who possesses it. When a person internalizes the hallucinatory effects of power, he or she loses the holistic view of the system and treads on a dangerous path and eventually gets stripped of the position. In almost all walks of life, the leaders, whether they are into politics, business, or bureaucracy, who nurture ego and shun humility often run the risk of being decimated by their followers someday.

Recently many political leaders like Mamata Banerjee who think their highhandedness is rational just that they are elected representatives of people and have the right mandate to execute any damn thing, even gag democratic rights, they are rapidly demolishing their own existence. Any leader who has an iota of knowledge about statecraft and other leadership skills won't dare to curb the fundamental rights of citizens who are the dispensers of highly accumulated power at the top. This indicates either that leader is bereft of the universal reality or crazily adumbrated by the arrogance of power. The arrest of a university professor for allegedly posting a cartoon that portrayed Mamata in poor light reflects her sheer vainglory and inability to understand humor in a democracy. Being in power doesn't necessarily afford one to become an autocrat and dismantle the subtle fabric of democratic principles.

It's not only the politicians who alone tread the path of arrogance, there are innumerable leaders in diverse fields who have displayed their vulnerability being an addict of absolute power. When someone rises up and ultimately reaches the top echelon, he or she carries along a great deal of gravity of power to naturally become angelic towards the people below the rank, but a reverse thinking process that triggers the adrenalin of arrogance dilutes the entire mix of benevolence and transforms the person into an implausible one who in all probability loses the sight of rationality. What's more portentous then that the leader regresses and becomes an object of ignominy in the eyes of people.  

Ugly Truth

How many Baby Falaks and Baby Afreens have to sacrifice their innocent lives for the sick mentality of Indian society? How many female fetuses are forced to be aborted even before they experience the first light of this planet, just for the whims and fancies of a feudal, patriarchal mindset? How many women are to be battered, brutalized, ravished, raped, and finally pushed into death for no reason, but being the easy target of boorish criminals? How long the judicial system of this country will be fettered by the archaic jurisprudence and let those bloody criminals run scotfree because of the damn loopholes in our legal system? How long the executives and legislators of this country support those criminals in perpetrating the crimes against women in broad daylight and still not get convicted? And how long the insensitive citizens of this country notice all these heinous acts like unabashed nincompoops and forget it next moment in the pretext of false resilience?

Certainly, there is no concrete answer to any of these queries because we as integral part of this rotten system are so engrossed with our own selfish agenda that we have hardly a moment to think about the larger society around us. And what we do? Twit a couple of harsh or sarcastic comments, write a bashing blog, or, in the worst case, given an opportunity, force our fiery arguments in a television debate and forget right there that the issue is so deep rooted in our collective mindset that even the severest ever tumbler can uproot a mountain, but it may be too feeble to shake the collective conscience of this nation.

In a sense, the 21^st century Indian mindset is still shackled with the rituals of Iron Age. We are the slave of a dangerous notion that men are dispenser of this evolutionary civilization. We still worship goddesses like Laxmi and Saraswati, but given a chance to exploit our free will, we instantly get infected with chronic dementia and infest upon the physical body of women like wild vultures prowling upon a corpse. Is there any resurrection for these crazy, barbaric tribe called men? And we claim civilized? Shame on these monsters who live behind the facade of hypocrisy and still project themselves as emancipator of women.

Now is the time to overhaul this status quo mentality and gear up for an altogether new civilization where there would be no discrimination against women. Let's completely forget those vilified learning that man is superior to woman in every dimension. Let's unshackle us from the spell of those false doctrines and dogmas that paint women as inferior, weaker, helpless and they need man's support to exist in this society. Let's banish all those literatures that glorify man as superior being. Let's move away from those archaic, worthless rituals and practices that in their infinitesimally small measure even differentiate man as holier than woman. Let's remember that according to the indisputable laws of nature, men and women are compliment to each other – without one the other is meaningless.

Life of A Bubble

In journalism, facts are always sacrosanct, but the facts alone never rise up to a conclusive truth, both are different. When facts come from various heterogeneous sources, the validation, analysis, and inferences drawn on them all depend upon the intellectual mettle of the editorial team of a media house. The editor is the judge who always balances between the outcome of facts and rational conclusion. In no circumstances, a precariously inferred editorial judgment can be contested with the veracity of facts because if that could have been so the media could have turned into a soap opera house where skepticism and conjecture rule the roost. Of course, some media houses do believe in this kind of tabloid journalism to increase their readership or viewership.

In the post-Independent period, if any media report has gone formidably wrong is the report "The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt" published in the Indian Express on April 4. The report not only reflects the collective penurious judgment of the editorial team of this newspaper, but also it dangerously reveals the low institutionalized IQ that the tribe called journalists possess and often use it for creating jitters among readers. Well, this is another media gimmick to perpetuate sensational reports for acquire more eyeballs when the newspaper internalizes the fact that it's ABC rank is moving southward.

Well, let's get down to brass-tacks. There are two theories that influence the genesis of this story. First, what prompted Sekhar Gupta to put him in the shoes of a reporter and push such a stinky, unintellectual, hyperbolic story on the front page is an indication of the plummeted readership of Indian Express in all these years. Second, in the nexus between arms lobby and bureaucracy, media has turned out to become a harlot in displaying all wrong innuendos to attract customers (read readers/viewers). In a democracy, the role of media can't be enfeebled, but the growing instances of pulverizing truth and promoting sensation have put a question mark on the probity of media. Fewer facts and a blunt ego of understanding the facts from the pith of real issue, without even having deep domain competency, are a dangerous outcome of free press.

The myopic “coup” story is just the menacing tip of the iceberg called investigative journalism a specialized domain in media studies that prompts all and sundry to tread on the slippery slope of truth seeking, but that aspect of human endeavor is neither a child's play. And investigation is rational when all sides of the story have been scrutinized threadbare and the analysis is done based on considering all possible parameters that have a stake in shaping the singular, incontrovertible judgment. Mr Gupta, are you listening? Take a snap before the bubble goes burst.  

Army Coup in India? Impossible

The report "The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt" published in the Indian Express is only an indication of extreme desperation by the editorial team to create a nation-wide sensation and increase their daily circulation. Irrespective of who's who in the editorial hierarchy of Indian Express, the report doesn't qualify to be called as a product of investigative journalism, rather it underlines the immature methodology to justify the credibility of a profession called journalism. Perhaps, the editorial team of Indian Express has gone a bit discombobulated and kinky by tagging such grave and terrible charges against Indian Army. What this so-called investigation claimed by the paper is an absolute boozed concoction and hilarious outburst of a bunch of hallucinated nuts who had ever endeavoured to tread on a slippery slope like rouge reporting. Moreover, this indicates the gross cannibalism of propriety at a time when the trust level of citizens is dangerously nosediving.

Brushing a normal army exercise as an allusion of coup not only unearths the rotten collective intellect level of editorial team of Indian Express, but also it emphasizes on the fact that how ludicrous these guys who don't have even an iota of rationality in understanding the political system of this country. India as the largest democracy of this world has proved time and again its deeper commitment towards parliamentary democracy and the political supremacy is well documented and conspicuous. Moreover, Indian Army is the most disciplined and patriotic organization of our country. What's more rational to build up is when the Intelligence Bureau is 24x7 working under the political leadership of the ruling government, how prudent is it to think of an army coup in 21^st century India? Just a series of incidents that at best can be pieced together to create a collage of fuzzy stratagem, the truth perhaps is grossly undermined. Probably, the editorial think-tank of Indian Express needs to unlearn a lot before pushing out their sensational stories (read garbage) to the citizens of this country. They have lost their credibility as journalists. I think Bollywood could be a better place for them to become sleazy script writers where they can earn even more by selling their scroungy narratives.