Assam mayhem raises questions of media ethics

Most editors are failed authors, argued T.S. Eliot. By the same logic, television hosts must be failed politicians and crusaders, I guess. Every time I watch folks like Bill O’Reilly of Fox News and Arnab Goswami of Times Now, I am reminded of the Spanish inquisition.

While O’Reilly has spawned an alternate universe of his own where Islam is out to capture the West and the shadow of Islamist terror is lurking everywhere, Goswami, India’s answer to Rupert Murdoch’s hatchet man, likes to think he’s holding his own court every night to tackle the formidable challenges facing the great democracy. He believes his profound wisdom and vision can provide instant solutions.

With his full court in attendance and the whole nation dutifully watching, Goswami is the judge, jury and executioner as he rails and rails against the usual suspects. It’s an endless treat to watch the Times Now host as he addresses the nation from his pulpit, angrily demanding answers from politicians — usually the prime minister himself — and almost everyone else. Forever outraged, our hero truly thinks he is God’s gift to mankind and has been sent down to watch over the national interests.

While Goswami finds something or the other to be outraged about every night, nothing gets him going like the never-ending shenanigans of India’s western neighbours who are apparently forever plotting against the country. If it’s not Pakistan, then it’s Indian Muslims or “international Islamist terrorists”, who deserve his outrage. In any case, as far as he is concerned they are all one and the same!

The latest to provide grist to the Times Now mill is the unfolding mayhem in Assam, the Indian state bordering Bangladesh. Scores have been killed in the violence that broke out earlier last month. 500 villages have been burnt down. Hundreds of thousands have fled homes and at least 300,000 have taken shelter in relief camps. While the government blames both Bodo tribesmen and Muslims, the former are the hardest hit as they have repeatedly been over the past three decades.

While this was going on with television networks bringing home the ‘action’ live, the state administration and security forces were nowhere to be seen. Police patrolled urban areas while it was free-for-all for marauding mobs in vast swathes of interior Assam.

It was a long week before chief minister Tarun Gogoi found time to visit the affected areas following media pressure and only after learning that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is to visit the state. Dr Singh, who incidentally represents Assam in parliament, did visit promptly and announced a Rs30 million (Dh1.97 million) aid package. But financial aid is least of Assam’s concerns right now.

History of violence

The picturesque state has a long history of recurring violence targeting minorities. However, what remains forever seared in public memory is the 1983 Nellie massacre when Indira Gandhi ruled from Delhi with her famous iron fist. The pogrom, carried out with crude weapons in a matter of few hours, left 1,819 people dead. Independent sources suggest the toll was as high as 5,000. They didn’t even spare young babies.

As usual Muslims were caught in the deadly games of the Congress and assorted separatist groups. The Hindutva zealots added fuel to the fire by raising the specter of invasion by Bangladeshi Muslims. The same drama is being reenacted today with consequences that could be even deadlier. Yet unlike in the past, this conflict isn’t communal or religious in nature. It’s an economic struggle for the land and its dwindling natural resources.

In the end, it’s a humanitarian tragedy and which is how it should be viewed. People hadn’t even recovered from the havoc wreaked by one of the worst floods in history when they were driven from their homes by people with whom they have lived for decades.

Even Goswami began his debate on Assam by warning that no one should “communalise” the issue. Yet this is precisely what he and his guests ended up doing. Instead of offering some sympathy for the victims and what they have just been through, all northeastern Muslims are condemned as “Bangladeshi infiltrators”. Indeed, our prophet of doom warns of “thousands of international Islamist fundamentalist terrorists with heavy weapons invading from across the border!”

In fact, listening to the finger-wagging television pundits you would think the entire Northeast has been taken over by Bangladeshi infiltrators and Pakistani terrorists and Delhi and thousands of its security forces and intelligence agencies haven’t the faintest idea! Extreme as it is, Times Now--from the Times of India stable--is hardly an exception. There are many out there who routinely tap into this reservoir of deep-seated hatred and fear of the Other.

Is this how responsible media should function? What’s the difference between this scare mongering and the Nazi demonisation of Jews? As journalism rookies, we were told ad nauseam by our teachers and editors that the media’s job is to inform, educate and act as a watchdog of society. A journalist’s job is to speak the truth and report facts as truthfully as possible and let people draw their conclusions. Media’s job is to stand up for the weak, not join their witch hunt.

Many from my tribe routinely quote CP Scott, the legendary editor of the Guardian, that comment is free but facts are sacred. How many of us really believe in it though? How many of us pause and ponder before passing off blatant lies, innuendos and our prejudices as facts, endangering lives and putting an entire community in the dock? If I was one of those watching that Times Now “debate”, I would have probably rushed to join the bloodthirsty mob rampaging across Assam to teach a lesson to the “international Islamist terrorists” as Arnab calls those fear-stricken, bruised and battered people running for their lives with their humble belongings!

But all this is in a day’s work for television pundits. Who gives a damn who killed who and what havoc your words wreak in an already inflamed land as long as you have your TRPs up and your audiences suitably agitated! That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? So what if Assam has always had a large Muslim population as much as 30pc and most of those being terrorised as ‘outsiders’ today have been there for ages, since long before the Partition?

Of course, given the porous and indistinct nature of India-Bangladesh border, it’s possible some Bangladeshis might have now and then crossed over to this side. But as Congress leader Digvijay Singh points out, there has been a similar movement of migrants from Indian side as well. With the Bangladeshi economy doing well in recent years, people have been moving to work in Bangladesh as well. Besides, weren’t we all one country not long ago?

The BJP has a point when it claims all this is a result of the Congress’ vote bank politics. Successive Congress governments have indeed used Assamese Muslims as little more than a vote bank without recognizing their rights.

If the Congress were serious about the well being of Muslims as well as other communities, it would have taken steps to cool down this simmering volcano that erupts from time to time. There’s no peace where there’s no justice. Muslims or for that matter any other community need no special treatment. They just need what’s their due. Recognise everyone’s rights and give their due. That’s the only way to lasting peace in Assam.

Aijaz Zaka Syed is a Gulf based writer. Follow him on twitter.com/aijazzakasyed