The gruesome murder of the Shahjahanpur-based local journalist has created an uproar in the social media. However, the response of the people regarding this disturbing incident has been rather passive and indifferent in the real world.
The incident raises some thought-provoking concerns: the role of police and politicians, psychology behind giving out punishment and painful death, perception about journalists, and the responsibility of the public.
The slain journalist, Jagendra Singh, was writing posts on Facebook for a long time. In one of his posts on May 29, 2015, he had accused Rammurti Singh Verma, a Minister in the Akhilesh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh, and his men of kidnapping, raping and conspiring to murder an Anganwadi worker. Next day, Jagendra Singh had accused Rammurti Singh of illegally appropriating property worth hundreds of crores. Further on May 31, 2015, he accused all SP leaders of supporting the rapists of the Anganwadi worker. In his last post on June 1, 2015, he alleged the same Minister was sabotaging the Samajwadi Party by supporting an MlC ticket for a person belonging to the BSP. He even accused the leader of helping the BJP in the Assembly election.
Whatever Jagendra Singh alleged may or may not be true. It cannot be denied that often a lot of journalists publish paid news and work at the behest of politicians. But whatever be the facts, it doesn’t give anyone the right to kill him. According to a report published in a prominent national daily, Jagendra used to write, in what can best be qualified as social media journalism, on a Facebook page called Shahjahanpur Samantha which used to serve as a hyper local news page for the town. A lot of newspapers and social media platforms allege that Jagendra Singh didn’t follow the ethics of journalism. Even if there is an iota of truth in accusations against Jagendra, it could have been dealt with taking the legal route.
The way the murder was carried out by immolating Jagendra Singh, it cannot be just termed as a revenge murder. Had the purpose been just to silent Jagendra, he could have been killed by some goons in a road accident or by supari killers, which would have saved the accused Minister his face as well as from the possibility of spending years behind bars. It will be a mistake if we take this case simply as a murder. The involvement of the policemen in the murder, without any personal enmity, indicates that the whole Government machinery is hand in gloves with criminal politicians.
Was Jagendra punished in the most horrible way to set an example for othersIJ Perhaps yes. Whoever will try to raise their voice against these political sharks would be done away with in the most painful way in broad daylight. It is a lesson for all whistleblowers!
Making things worse, less than two weeks after Jagendra was killed, another incident occurred in Philibhit district of Uttar Pradesh. Haider Khan, a local journalist, was allegedly tied to a car, dragged and beaten up by a group of people on June 13 night. Here again, the reason behind this gruesome attack was a story reported by Haider, which didn’t go down well with the attackers.
Even in the case of Haider, the attackers could have just beaten him up. But the way he was tied to a car and dragged for 100 metre shows that the perpetrators didn’t just want to silent the journalist, but wanted to set an example. lessons not learnt from the incident of Jagendra Singh might have fuelled the anger of the attackers of Haider.
The politicians are well aware that people’s memory is very short and they can’t muster strong for protests for long, especially when the perpetrators are powerful politicians. After a few days, media would stop reporting, public anger would be doused, family members of the slain journalist would not want to lose other dear ones by fighting against the powerful, and ultimately the case would drag on in the court.
Everyone knows how our judicial system works. Registering a case incurs high expenses and it keeps dragging for ages. A case generally takes 10-20 years on an average and this would be no exception. During this period the family of the journalist will have to undergo innumerous ordeals. Apart from facing the problems of survival and security, fees of lawyers and future of the next generation have to be taken into account. Perhaps the family of Jagendra would stop going to court, and ultimately the accused will be released due to lack of evidence or other loopholes.
Ethically a journalist should not accuse or claim anything, without any proof, which might malign the image of a person. But doesn’t the way Jagendra has been killed affirm that the people against whom he was writing were very dangerous and powerfulIJ Why they had to end his life if they were innocentIJ Naturally if they can be involved in such a heinous crime, the allegations that the journalist had brought against them might be most probably true.
We need to analyse what is journalism and what defines the role of journalists. Doesn’t journalism mean to search for truthIJ Aren’t journalists there to excavate the hidden truth, present it before us and spread awarenessIJ The murdered journalist was perhaps doing that. It’s unfortunate that his voice was silenced before it could reach out to wider readers. What is our responsibility as a citizen of this nation and as human beingsIJ Doesn’t corruption and crime affect usIJ Are we supposed to remain deaf, dumb and blindIJ Are we not supposed to raise our voice and protest against crimeIJ Is spreading the news on social media and giving comments enoughIJ
A person who died doing his duty as a journalist now demands our active response and strong criticism so as to bring the culprits to book. This active response doesn’t just mean marching through the road with torch (mashal), but utilising our power to vote against the corrupt. We need to transcend our ignorance and our own reservations about caste and religion, and cast our vote wisely. If we can bring them to power we can strip them off power too. We must act now to bring change before it is too late.
(Anish Gupta and Aaleya Giri teach Economics and English respectively at Delhi University. They can be reached at pioneer.article@gmail.com. Views expressed here are personal.)