The coverage of the Sheena Bora murder case has laid bare the lust for TRPs among news channels
That people have lost interest in turning the real pages of a book is a known fact. They would rather listen to an audio-book or read it on the Net. And when a thriller with its many gory details, including characterisation, is being fed daily over the news — in their bedrooms, living rooms, restaurants and clubs, why would they not lap it all up! At the end of the day, some unknown voyeuristic pleasure is being well fed.
The fact remains that the Sheena Bora murder has been one of the most pre-meditated and heinous ones. That Indrani Mukerjea, the alleged murderer, is a alive character from our milieu who fits perfectly in the mould of a MPD psychopath killer from a Sidney Sheldon novel. At least, that is the public perception.
I remember doing a story almost a decade back in 1998: Ram Shri, a woman from Mahoba, was being taken to the gallows after being convicted in a mass murder case in her village in Mahoba. The story did a few rounds in a couple of newspapers. After that, the National Commission for Women and the Supreme Court took it up. Finally, the woman was sentenced to life-imprisonment. I am fully convinced that most of us haven't even heard of this one case, for which Kallu the hangman was all set to prepare the noose at Mathura. After all, there were not as many TV channels. Besides, the ones that were on air maintained some prudence. Most importantly, if the murderer was one poor non-celebrity woman from an erstwhile village, who caresIJ In the Sheena Bora murder case, the alleged murderer is a high-flying glamorous wife of a one- time media baron.
Every morning since the murder was unravelled, the headlines screamed about the dark deed, and there was one ‘breaking news' after the other round the clock. People at work, parties and home seemed to have lost interest in anything else happening around them — this was the only topic of conversation. No one cared about Hardik Patel taking on the Prime Minister in Gujarat, the one-rank-one-pension or the floods in Assam that occurred almost simultaneously.
That both men and women use their charm and often their sexuality to climb up the ladder of success, is known. While some succeed with such tools, others fail. Don't men ever try their sexual charms in getting their work doneIJ leave alone the media quoting one ‘source' or another that created the ‘breaking news’, they even flashed diaries and had friends talk about things that coloured Indrani Mukerjea blacker than the blackest available. She has been compared to lady Macbeth, and so on. There are now checklists also that dominate such studio bantering on defining a ‘good mother' and a ‘bad mother'! Have these self declared moral judges never indulged in shenanigans everIJ For the past 10 days, in the world of television studios, there has been no dearth of people who have known Indrani and Peter so very closely.
It amazes me and makes me wonder as to how a woman's character is linked to being a murdererIJ Does it mean that a demure and low-profile woman can never commit a crime of this levelIJ Does it actually make sense to fall back on an angry teenager's diary to draw conclusions about the alleged crimeIJ I have known zillions of young girls being intolerable of their mothers when in their teens and early twenties, and vice versa. It is what psychology terms as ‘heightened amygdala reactivity to threatening stimuli in women '. So, does this hatred indicate that all mothers who have faced it are potential killers of their daughtersIJ The media has taken it many steps ahead by even publishing a note from a child of a reputed private school in New Delhi, stating: “My mother is like Indrani Mukerjea, likes to have sex with many men...” Will this have no impact on the child when it shapes into an adultIJ Besides, it also points at the fact that the passion of yearning for such ‘masala'-ridden news has an effect on children.
While so much is being said and shown about the alleged murder, the driver of the vehicle in which the alleged act was done, seems to have been pushed in the back-stage. Is Peter Mukerjea an absolute doodh ka dhula hua guy who does not need to be bared as much as his wifeIJ Also, let’s not forget Sanjeev Khanna, who people still can't believe has had to do anything with the crime. Why aren't their life pages being turnedIJ Are we still living in lord Ram's era where only Sita had to undergo agni pariksha in publicIJ These days, the fire has been replaced by the media. Most of the people who are called every evening surely are not saints. One very senior journalist has even gone ahead to state what Indrani had perhaps confided to him: That Sheena is a product of a rape child, the rapist being none other than Indrani's step-father. Have such men and women sitting at the pinnacle on judgement in the very many discussions aired on TV, really clean. Are they people who have had a completely straight lifeIJ Such cases seem to let loose the judgemental values of one and all.
The people of our country especially the viewers of English channels and of a certain status seem to have scant interest in mass sufferings. The fact that we live in a news saturated world is true. But what about having this kind of feverish taste for the evil especially when it comes from the upper strata of our societyIJ Has democracy and the concept of equality lost its way in the cravings for brands and Page 3 typesIJ
We have not learnt our lesson from the Aarushi case. Getting clues is one difficult task indeed, so it has become easier to talk and discuss more about salacious details about people to satiate the viewers. The Sheena case will take its own path on the way to the courts and the trial in due course of time. The culprit(s) will be brought to book and sentenced. It is but a matter of time. Meanwhile, we must brace for another such frenzy in another similar case that may break out somewhere in the country. Break ke baad.