06-07-2006, 07:47 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>The law, did you say? </b>
Pioneer.com
Kanchan Gupta
This past week media, especially television news channels, has had a whale of a time converting a tragedy into a tamasha. Ever since last Thursday night's mysterious events at 7 Safdarjung Road in Delhi, which is located on the outer perimeter of the security arrangements to protect the Prime Minister's Race Course Road residence, media's entire attention has been focused on Pramod Mahajan's son, Rahul, and his alleged drug abuse.
Like a pack of hyenas, reporters and camerapersons have been relentlessly closing in on their quarry felled by circumstances over which he probably had little or no control. Is Rahul Mahajan a habitual drug abuser? Did Pramod Mahajan's secretary, Bibek Maitra, die of a drug overdose? Was it cocaine? Or was it heroin? Or was it a more lethal concoction? Why was it an all-boys party? Did the hospital where Rahul Mahajan recuperated try to cover up his unwholesome indulgence?
These and other questions are yet to be answered with any conclusive evidence. For all practical purposes, the police investigation is still at an initial stage. All that we have as "totality of evidence" are the versions put out by four delinquent young men who are believed to have been present at 7 Safdarjung Road on that fateful night - statements first made to television news channels and thereafter to Delhi Police. The facts of the case will emerge only when the prosecution and the defence meet in a court of law. Till then, your guess is as good as mine, never mind the exuberant reportage of journalists masquerading as Sherlock Holmes who, incidentally, was addicted to morphine.
This is not to suggest that what happened last Thursday night was nothing more than an innocuous teddy bears party. Nor would it be appropriate to rush in with claims of innocence because police investigations, if conducted with rigour and honesty, tend to come up with the most unexpected twist to what we believe is a predictable tale. No sensible purpose is served, therefore, in jumping to conclusions or irredeemably destroying reputations.
<b>Yet, what we are witnessing is gleeful delight in declaring individuals guilty after trial by media. This callous disregard for caution and fairplay stand out in sharp contrast to the manner in which media treats criminals whose crimes are of a far greater magnitude and with far reaching consequences. A Delhi-based English newspaper, for instance, came up with the most inventive excuses, including multiplexes not screening Aamir Khan's Fanaa, to slyly justify the terrorist attack on the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. A 24x7 news channel, while reporting the recent grenade attacks on two buses carrying tourists in Srinagar, kept on insisting that the "victims were caught in crossfire" even as its correspondent, clearly horrified by the sight of blood and gore, interrupted time and again to say it wasn't "crossfire" but a terrorist attack.
These are only two examples of lib-left media's double standards. A close scrutiny of news bulletins and the morning's newspapers will yield a rich harvest of how facts are twisted, glossed over, given a spin or altogether ignored to present stories that may fetch viewers and readers but do enormous disservice to the concept of a free and fair media. Those who argue that salad dressing is required to make stories more palatable are honest only up to a point. Much of the spin and twist is prompted by the perceived need to be politically correct or, at least, be seen to be subscribing to that which is socially fashionable at the moment.</b>
But we digress. Coming back to media's current obsession with Rahul Mahajan's alleged drug abuse and its tragic consequences, it needs to be said, and said unequivocally, that by going after an individual simply because his name titillates curiosity among the lowest common denominator, we have ignored the much larger issue of how ineffective our law enforcement agencies have been in preventing the illicit trade in narcotics and psychotropic substances from becoming a lucrative business proposition in cities across India.
Nobody has paused to ask the police as to how come they woke up to the grim reality of cocaine, heroin and other assorted drugs being sold without any let or hindrance only after last Thursday's incident. We have not paused to wonder what makes drug peddlers so bold as to appear on television cameras and tell all about their trade without any fear of landing in the slammer.
The high decibel highlife of the scum that sustains drug trafficking and provides custom to those who peddle nirvana for a price is telecast every night by all leading news channels to propagate deracination and debauchery as the only way to 'chill out' after a hard day's work by the bold and the beautiful. And don't we know just how hard it is?
Yet, dirty fingers are pointed without the slightest trace of remorse when one of them slips and falls. But only for a while. Ask Fardeen Khan and he will tell you there's no shame in being caught doing drugs, not least because the prosecution is loath to get him, and many others like him, convicted for violating the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the same law that is now being touted with such elan by both police and media.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, like all other laws of this country, is followed more in the breach than in practice. It provides for loopholes that can be used to get off the hook. It does not scare either drug peddlers or their clients because they know they can get away by greasing palms and, if they are picked up, by hiring bright criminal lawyers who can prove that black is only a darker shade of white.
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Pioneer.com
Kanchan Gupta
This past week media, especially television news channels, has had a whale of a time converting a tragedy into a tamasha. Ever since last Thursday night's mysterious events at 7 Safdarjung Road in Delhi, which is located on the outer perimeter of the security arrangements to protect the Prime Minister's Race Course Road residence, media's entire attention has been focused on Pramod Mahajan's son, Rahul, and his alleged drug abuse.
Like a pack of hyenas, reporters and camerapersons have been relentlessly closing in on their quarry felled by circumstances over which he probably had little or no control. Is Rahul Mahajan a habitual drug abuser? Did Pramod Mahajan's secretary, Bibek Maitra, die of a drug overdose? Was it cocaine? Or was it heroin? Or was it a more lethal concoction? Why was it an all-boys party? Did the hospital where Rahul Mahajan recuperated try to cover up his unwholesome indulgence?
These and other questions are yet to be answered with any conclusive evidence. For all practical purposes, the police investigation is still at an initial stage. All that we have as "totality of evidence" are the versions put out by four delinquent young men who are believed to have been present at 7 Safdarjung Road on that fateful night - statements first made to television news channels and thereafter to Delhi Police. The facts of the case will emerge only when the prosecution and the defence meet in a court of law. Till then, your guess is as good as mine, never mind the exuberant reportage of journalists masquerading as Sherlock Holmes who, incidentally, was addicted to morphine.
This is not to suggest that what happened last Thursday night was nothing more than an innocuous teddy bears party. Nor would it be appropriate to rush in with claims of innocence because police investigations, if conducted with rigour and honesty, tend to come up with the most unexpected twist to what we believe is a predictable tale. No sensible purpose is served, therefore, in jumping to conclusions or irredeemably destroying reputations.
<b>Yet, what we are witnessing is gleeful delight in declaring individuals guilty after trial by media. This callous disregard for caution and fairplay stand out in sharp contrast to the manner in which media treats criminals whose crimes are of a far greater magnitude and with far reaching consequences. A Delhi-based English newspaper, for instance, came up with the most inventive excuses, including multiplexes not screening Aamir Khan's Fanaa, to slyly justify the terrorist attack on the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. A 24x7 news channel, while reporting the recent grenade attacks on two buses carrying tourists in Srinagar, kept on insisting that the "victims were caught in crossfire" even as its correspondent, clearly horrified by the sight of blood and gore, interrupted time and again to say it wasn't "crossfire" but a terrorist attack.
These are only two examples of lib-left media's double standards. A close scrutiny of news bulletins and the morning's newspapers will yield a rich harvest of how facts are twisted, glossed over, given a spin or altogether ignored to present stories that may fetch viewers and readers but do enormous disservice to the concept of a free and fair media. Those who argue that salad dressing is required to make stories more palatable are honest only up to a point. Much of the spin and twist is prompted by the perceived need to be politically correct or, at least, be seen to be subscribing to that which is socially fashionable at the moment.</b>
But we digress. Coming back to media's current obsession with Rahul Mahajan's alleged drug abuse and its tragic consequences, it needs to be said, and said unequivocally, that by going after an individual simply because his name titillates curiosity among the lowest common denominator, we have ignored the much larger issue of how ineffective our law enforcement agencies have been in preventing the illicit trade in narcotics and psychotropic substances from becoming a lucrative business proposition in cities across India.
Nobody has paused to ask the police as to how come they woke up to the grim reality of cocaine, heroin and other assorted drugs being sold without any let or hindrance only after last Thursday's incident. We have not paused to wonder what makes drug peddlers so bold as to appear on television cameras and tell all about their trade without any fear of landing in the slammer.
The high decibel highlife of the scum that sustains drug trafficking and provides custom to those who peddle nirvana for a price is telecast every night by all leading news channels to propagate deracination and debauchery as the only way to 'chill out' after a hard day's work by the bold and the beautiful. And don't we know just how hard it is?
Yet, dirty fingers are pointed without the slightest trace of remorse when one of them slips and falls. But only for a while. Ask Fardeen Khan and he will tell you there's no shame in being caught doing drugs, not least because the prosecution is loath to get him, and many others like him, convicted for violating the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the same law that is now being touted with such elan by both police and media.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, like all other laws of this country, is followed more in the breach than in practice. It provides for loopholes that can be used to get off the hook. It does not scare either drug peddlers or their clients because they know they can get away by greasing palms and, if they are picked up, by hiring bright criminal lawyers who can prove that black is only a darker shade of white.
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