People often wonder why the Sikh community continues to be angry with the Congress party. This question hit the headlines once again when a Sikh journalist, Jarnail Singh, hurled his shoe at the Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, during a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday. Perhaps, if one looks at the sequence of events for the past 25 years, the answer to the question is obvious.
In our context, the anger of any and every community which feels wronged is justified – it is the Sikhs on 1984 anti-Sikh violence, the Muslims on Godhra in Gujarat and so on. The anger is against the system – or a lack of system – of the Rule of Law not being followed for years. If you don’t follow the Rule of Law, the anger – justified or not - will manifest in various ways – as has been happening in our country and globally. It is in this context that the Sikh anger against the Congress should be seen. This is irrespective of the incident involving the shoe being hurled – an issue on which as a journalist I have different and strong views.
The community is angry because of the way the Congress has conducted itself. In the case of Jagdish Tytler, the party has not only given him a ticket all these years because of the “winnability” factor but also given him ministerial berths. Since this happened when he was facing inquiries, this obviously gives the impression to the community that he is being protected by the party. The timing of the CBI clean chit is also very odd – why could the CBI not give its report a few months ago or a few months hence? This gives the impression to an aggrieved community that the party is deliberately rubbing salt on their wounds. I would say that since the Election Commission has been pulling up various state government, ministers and officers, it should even look at the prosecution powers of agencies like the CBI and the state vigilance commissions in the run up to the polls. It is another matter that in this case the whole game plan – if there was one - appears to have boomeranged.
I am not sure if the BJP can claim much credit either on the issue of violence against Sikhs in 1984. The party did initiate some fresh inquiries but in concrete terms ended up doing little to take the guilty to task when in power. Mind you, the incident is 25 years old. Isn’t it a shame on the Rule of Law that we claim to profess and practice? BJP also has much to explain on Godhra violence in 2002.
On Tuesday evening, I was invited to a panel discussion on CNN IBN, where Sagarika Ghosh, who was anchoring the programme, asked me how felt on the shoe throwing incident. “Do you see yourself as a Sikh first or as a Journalist first,” she asked? I told her that I saw no contradiction in being a Sikh and a Journalist at the same time. While giving my view on the anger of Sikhs against the Congress, I told her that I strongly disapproved of the shoe throwing incident. Undoubtedly, journalists are mirror images of the society to which they belong and in which they live and on which they report, but they have a medium to express themselves. They can’t and should not take advantage of the ring side view of the events – howsoever, painful the events are. If they do that they would lose the special privileges they enjoy in the performance of their job. Besides, they lose credibility.
While there is onus on the journalistic community to ensure that its brethren conduct themselves professionally, the governments are bound by the Constitution to ensure a Rule of Law, which is unsparing, transparent and time bound. Tuesday’s incident reflected a failure of both.
In our context, the anger of any and every community which feels wronged is justified – it is the Sikhs on 1984 anti-Sikh violence, the Muslims on Godhra in Gujarat and so on. The anger is against the system – or a lack of system – of the Rule of Law not being followed for years. If you don’t follow the Rule of Law, the anger – justified or not - will manifest in various ways – as has been happening in our country and globally. It is in this context that the Sikh anger against the Congress should be seen. This is irrespective of the incident involving the shoe being hurled – an issue on which as a journalist I have different and strong views.
The community is angry because of the way the Congress has conducted itself. In the case of Jagdish Tytler, the party has not only given him a ticket all these years because of the “winnability” factor but also given him ministerial berths. Since this happened when he was facing inquiries, this obviously gives the impression to the community that he is being protected by the party. The timing of the CBI clean chit is also very odd – why could the CBI not give its report a few months ago or a few months hence? This gives the impression to an aggrieved community that the party is deliberately rubbing salt on their wounds. I would say that since the Election Commission has been pulling up various state government, ministers and officers, it should even look at the prosecution powers of agencies like the CBI and the state vigilance commissions in the run up to the polls. It is another matter that in this case the whole game plan – if there was one - appears to have boomeranged.
I am not sure if the BJP can claim much credit either on the issue of violence against Sikhs in 1984. The party did initiate some fresh inquiries but in concrete terms ended up doing little to take the guilty to task when in power. Mind you, the incident is 25 years old. Isn’t it a shame on the Rule of Law that we claim to profess and practice? BJP also has much to explain on Godhra violence in 2002.
On Tuesday evening, I was invited to a panel discussion on CNN IBN, where Sagarika Ghosh, who was anchoring the programme, asked me how felt on the shoe throwing incident. “Do you see yourself as a Sikh first or as a Journalist first,” she asked? I told her that I saw no contradiction in being a Sikh and a Journalist at the same time. While giving my view on the anger of Sikhs against the Congress, I told her that I strongly disapproved of the shoe throwing incident. Undoubtedly, journalists are mirror images of the society to which they belong and in which they live and on which they report, but they have a medium to express themselves. They can’t and should not take advantage of the ring side view of the events – howsoever, painful the events are. If they do that they would lose the special privileges they enjoy in the performance of their job. Besides, they lose credibility.
While there is onus on the journalistic community to ensure that its brethren conduct themselves professionally, the governments are bound by the Constitution to ensure a Rule of Law, which is unsparing, transparent and time bound. Tuesday’s incident reflected a failure of both.
An important ethical debate in the western media now: how to keep your self separate from your job as a journalist? And also, how do you develop a global model of ethical journalistic approach?
ReplyDeleteA number of western media are looking to the African models of "interfering in the process", instead of being "silent observers"... it calls for a bigger discourse.