As the age old adage goes, ”Democracy dies in darkness”, its congruity in present times cannot be shunned, ignored nor obliviated. And the most humongous pillar in upholding the very essence of the statement is Media which has been attributed as a fourth pillar of democracy only and only because of its credibility in delivering, entangling and unravelling the truth before the people in its unembellished form ultimately speaking truth to power. However, when the same media who dares to speak truth to power is coerced, brow-beaten, hijacked, smothered, stifled and given a vengeful heads up by those at the helm of power in spite of being scrupulously, meticulously, impeccably and speckless clean then either the latter, i.e. the media is forced by unfortunate circumstances to cow down or be vanquished with mortars.
And here the mortar is nothing but political pressure, unjustifiable, dizzying, falsifying FIR’s, baffling, perplexing arrests and bewildering, unimpeded and unabated intrusions into newsrooms which is absolutely bizarre in the 21rst century by some wretched stooges who pathetically and miserably ague Press freedom for vested interests. Untowardly and unfortunately all hell has broken loose in a particular part of my country, India where an honest, true, magnanimous and ass tongue journalist is being maligned and vilified by a certain political tiller and festering hegemony. All of this began when the shocking, fratricide Palghar lynching case was brought to light wherein two vicars were led by the Police to their untimely doom and reporting of the subject nettled and crabbed some pseudo harbingers who carried out a desperate, cowardly attack on a journalist at 12:15 a.m. in the night after which the Police even refused to take Suo moto cognizance of the situation and rather the journalist faced 200 FIR’s against him.
The rabbling mayhem is furiously glaring back at us right in the pupil of our eyes. The caucus seems to have lost all ground when an ex-Navy veteran who should have been revered for his selfless service to the nation was black-eyed just for sharing a joke on a social media platform.
It consterns and perturbs me to say that while some pseudo journalists might have even refused to broadcast the deeply dejecting and mystifying death of Sushant Singh Rajput, a top Bollywood actor, the various botch-ups and drug racket exposures we had our only Mr. Goswami stick his head out for the truth. It pricks my conscience to see over a 1000 journalists face reckless and frivolous hob nailing FIR’s against them most of whom form a part of the background team. The evil, malice aim is crystal clear. Force a hitherto middle class man, now a top journalist to shut his network. However, they fail to realize that in Democracy it is the people who decide despite being strait jacked and not a particular group of opinionated people.
The fact that many accuse Mr. Arnab Goswami of conducting a media trial is nothing but a pure fallacy. I would like to ask a fundamental, elementary and rudimentary question to them. When a particular scam was brought to light some ‘accused’ journalists brought in their own selected, jury members on their channel just for the purpose of acquitting themselves. Wasn’t that vindicating and cynical tactic too an exemplary example of media trial ? How outlandish was that? Just because a women is a key accused in a particular crime based on incriminating evidences it can’t be called patriarchy or misogyny. Moreover, are those at the cusp of societal and administrative power allowed to give Press conferences accusing people if they don’t sing Doxology’s in their favour?
The TRP scam and suicide case (under which Mr. Goswami had been incarcerated and apprehended) accusing Mr. Goswami, one of India’s most seasoned journalist is nothing but a concocted case filed by base motives. The fact is that Mr. Arnab has been no. 1 not since the past 3-4 years but since the past 25 years. Rather the channel named and mentioned in the FIR must be investigated. Being a 17 year old youth I strongly oppose muzzling of rightful, justified, prudent and lucid dissent. No matter how many times one may try to smother truth, mar it, straggle it, frazzle it, cut it by flints, sting it with nettles, tear it with briers and lame it with stones, time will play its imperceptible game and truth will stick out impregnable, formidable, unfettered, unaltered, untouched and unbounded. Thus, I would like to conclude, “Republic’s Democracy Gets Vanquished In Inequity.”
(The above article is written without prejudice to my rights) Author’s name: Dev-Rajesh-Chawla (Age: 17 years)
