Dear Rajdeepji
Through your blog titled “We are all part of the circus -Sushan–Rhea case” you make some gross imputation that- the case does not warrant engagement of three premier investigations agencies and their involvement is linked to brow beating attempt by the centre. The SSR death is being exploited by politicians, public is taking voyeuristic delight in following SSR case and due to which the TV channels are giving inordinate coverage to this case setting aside other major concerns facing the Nation. True to your track record in journalism career here again you have got carried away and failed to take note of the important facets of the case. Thus all your accusations fall flat when analyzed with logical perspective.
What possibly could have been a suicide case has been escalated to death under mysterious circumstances, not ruling out a possibility of homicide, only because of the Local investigating agencies’ inept handling of the inquest into SSR’s unnatural death. Right from failure to keep intact the scene of crime (suicide too is a crime), not investigating call details of the deceased, not finding the room key, not locating the key maker who broke open the door, accepting a suspicious post-mortem report at its face value, absence of suicide letter and above all allowing the white washing of the full flat etc all these irregularities just does not invoke enough confidence that all was well with the investigation proceedings.
I am sure having been in the news reporting industry you would realize that tips concerning many of this short comings and flawed investigation must have been leaked by some insiders in the police force. There was no way Media would have come to know all these fallacies on their own. It should be clear to you by now that within the police force itself there is a section that does not buy the suicide theory. Any layman can deduce that the overt eagerness of the govt machinery to stand in defense of MS Rhea Chackraborty in itself presents the greatest motivation for the Media to probe further. It is very much akin to waving red flag to media bulls.
Your caviling at the flip flops of various theories coming from media concerning the SSR death like- Bollywood nepotism, abetment to suicide, drug induced depression, to finally cold blooded murder- is very amusing. Right at the beginning of a case revolving around a death of a celebrity under mysterious circumstances one does not expect the media to hit the bull’s eye. Given media’s natural tendency to sensationalize things I am sure you would give that much leeway to various theories that was sprung up by media investigations. This should not be an alien subject to you having run various sensationalizing media campaigns targeting individuals and political organization.
That premier National investigating agencies, NCB, ED, and CBI are involved in a case of unnatural death of an individual has you bemused and quite skeptical about the need for it. You should recall that even before CBI was directed to take over the case by Supreme Court, ED had got involved in the case having studied various intriguing money transactions. It was through probing by ED that possible Drug link to the money transactions were suspected and NCB thought it fit to come in.
You are trivializing the NCB findings and their investigation by reducing the entire sordid drug trafficking to few grams of commonly available Marijuana found in the possession of accused. You seem to pick and choose facts so as to suit your agenda, which in this case seems to establish witch hunting by the NCB. The whats app message trail clearly indicate dealing in high end drugs. Please evoke your common sense, drugs like Marijuana are cheap priced ones and has easy availability. It does not need sophisticated peddlers. Cash in thousands has been withdrawn frequently to buy drugs and definitely it cannot be for buying the poor man’s Ganja. In rich circles doping on weeds is like serving country liquor instead of premium brand alcohol.
As a matter of fact any responsible citizen, should be happy that some serious work is on into the drug menace which has been posing serious threat to the well being of the society. One should be really concerned at the various crimes and anti national acts that get funded by illicit drug money. Sadly enough you are not only trying to belittle efforts of NCB you are also politicizing it. Very regrettably when it comes to you and your ilk, who practice reductionist political reporting since 2014, the root cause of entire evil afflicting the world can be traced to Modi govt.
Your Left Liberal club of journalists politicized Gauri Lankesh murder to target Hindu outfits but it turned out that her murderer was a Congress MLC. Some media outfits from your fraternity politicized Phulwama killing by publishing the caste identity of martyred soldiers. The political parties that you take cudgels for politicized surgical strike demanding proof, they politicized Justice Lohia’s death seeing devious plot behind a heart attack and news anchors like you covered the same with numerous insinuations to indict BJP leadership, the unfortunate pandemic situation in the country has been politicized and even various Judicial verdicts not in favor were politicized by you guys. Not long ago Rohit Vemula suicide was exploited by the opposition parties playing Dalit politics over it. Notwithstanding all this past events you find Bihar politicians extracting mileage out of SSR’s death an highly abhorrent ploy.
It is a preposterous attempt by you to indict the viewers of Nationalistic TV channels (that you constantly strive to belittle) holding them responsible for the TV channels carrying on this ceaseless coverage of SSR death side lining other important National news. People try to watch what they like to watch and by the way TV is not the only source of news to common man – they have print media and web news media to get the input they need on the subjects like COVID, economy, China threat etc that you berated are not getting due coverage. We are sure your channel must be covering all those national issues you highlighted, but despite such coverage if you are still lagging far behind the nationalistic TV channels in viewership preference, then it has to do something with your credibility. Over the years people have correctly downsized you.
Viewed from a sympathetic perspective we take pity on your plight. The politicians would not have qualms about switching sides and burying up their old ideologies and adopting to new ones. But you guys irretrievably get hooked on to your ideology in a manner that you all would rather admit your personal fallibility than acknowledge the frailty of your ideology. It exposes the hypocrisy in the way the bigoted lots like you accuse others of bigotry.
The entire process of mention in your blog concerning SSR unnatural death is revolving around conjuring up a BJP and Modi factor that is exploiting it. We would urge you to reflect on this hypothetical situation, that in Maharashtra instead of Agadi Sarkar if BJP govt was in seat and with such a botched up investigation by police what would have been your approach to this case. In your answer be true to your conscience.
