There is too much heat on the national news channels for last few days. Talks and speculations about the jail break in Bhopal by SIMI terrorists and their subsequent encounter by the MP Police is a sure shot TRP-Turner.
NDTV is the torchbearer in this drive, the anti-Government channel has been desperately trying to build a case against state police.
Let’s first try to understand the basic sequence of events, there were 8 terrorists from banned terror organization SIMI who escaped the Bhopal jail at 3 am midnight killing a policeman and injuring a few, they were later chased and shot dead in self-defense by 11 am. Out of these there were few who have repeated the jail break in Khandwa in 2013 too killing 2 policemen.
While many of the media houses termed them as terrorists NDTV headlined it as “Eight SIMI prisoners escaped from Bhopal jail”.
Subsequently senior congress leader and Ex MP CM, Digvijay Singh said “Why only SIMI Muslim activists escaped from Khandwa jail? Why do only Muslims break out of jail and not Hindus? NIA must conduct the probe, a court should monitor it. Also, why only Muslims break out of jail, what is the problem, must also be probed,” he added.
Now ideally what should have been the topic of evening debate on a national news channel? That a “senior politician and ex CM uttered such foolish statements and tried to give a communal twist to an episode related to national security” Or “casting aspersions on state police for fake encounters based on some raw mobile footage with a disclaimer – unverified and unauthenticated”. Well NDTV repeated the “Yakub Memon hanging episode” and as expected gave priority to the latter.
NDTV has been conducting interviews and desperately trying to project that the whole encounter was staged to eliminate these terrorists, firstly because they were Muslims and secondly because they were under trials. So now members of banned outfits, who fled after killing cops on two different occasions, need to be accorded more “respect” and “benefit of doubt”.
Who were these escapees? They may have been under trials but they were no petty thugs with a couple of petty crimes to their credit. There are charges of multiple heinous crimes of dacoity, bomb blasts, murder and acts of terror against the people of India and therefore one can never have a same line of approach for the two.
Those who normally watch televised debates can gauge the desperation of the “Left, Right and Center” anchor and star NDTV Journalist Nidhi Razdan. Do check her biased views on the 1st Nov 9:30 pm show. The panel was carefully chosen to make the debate one sided, Vrinda Grover a known BJP baiter, Alok Kumar congress spokesperson, Michael Pereira a former Delhi joint CP and Shaina NC from BJP.
Out of the four panelists, views of two of them Vrinda Grover and Alok Kumar are known for obvious reasons, the points put forth by Michael Pereira was not critical of the police action, but had an additional suggestion for a possible independent probe. Shaina NC put forth the government’s views, but was constantly interrupted and not allowed to complete her statements. Nidhi was in an overdrive, actively hammering her point of agenda that the govt should appoint a Judges committee to enquire if the terrorists were killed in a fake encounter because well…only then can justice be delivered to those slain terrorists.
Though it is worthwhile mentioning that the promise of a NIA directed probe has not quenched their thirst for a free and fair investigation, such is the rot filled in their brains against the system.
Why cannot we just trust our security forces, are not they jeopardizing their lives to secure our lives, why do news traders like NDTV go into overdrive and try to make a big issue out of such actions by constantly projecting, debating and displaying the cops in a bad light. Even if by any remotest chance it is a fake encounter the govt will decide for appropriate actions, after all no one can forget Ajmal Kasab and Yakub Memon’s endless opportunities for exploring justice.
Finally the most appalling and sad thing was that throughout the NDTV debate, the host never felt even once to talk about the cop Ramashankar Yadav, a father of two army soldiers. Cop Yadav, who was mercilessly killed by these terrorists before escaping.