This article was originally published on Mar 7, 2017
Lance Naik Roy Mathew became the latest victim of gutter journalism. The Quint carried out a sting operation, on the much debated ‘’sahayak’’ (helper) system in the army which dates back to the colonial days. It showed Mathew, from the artillery , speaking against his superiors. The pixeling of his face was not useful as he was identifiable through other markers. He had no idea that he was being filmed, a fact that is confirmed by his family, in whom he confided later. The sting operation was done by posing leading questions seeking specific answers, and cleverly designing them in such way that only the answers that came could be twisted to serve the agenda.
When the video came out, all hell broke loose. Mathew had no idea that he was being filmed, and he later wrote to his brother that he had never said that the Colonel’s wife makes him wash clothes and do other menial tasks.
Mathew Roy preferred death to the infamy of court martial.
After writing his suicide note, and sending an apology SMS to his reporting officer, he hanged himself on Feb 25 in an abandoned barrack.
As per reports:-
// The diary in which he made his last comments, his apology to his superior officer by a message on mobile and his last call home have confirmed this inner guilt. The website, while releasing the video, gloated over its ‘exclusive’ without once considering the ramifications of its actions. If it wanted to highlight the ills of the buddy system, then surely its ‘sting’ should have been conducted on the perpetrators – on the officer and not the jawan, who is the supposed victim. (https://thewire.in/114385/quint-roy-mathewarmy-soldier-suicide/)
The diary was recovered from the abandoned barrack in Nashik’s Deolali cantonment, where Mathew’s body was found hanging from a ceiling. The police suspect the note was written hours before Roy hanged himself — on February 25 — after a sting operation video of him criticising the ‘sahayak system’ in the Army went viral (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/jawan-suicide-none-responsible-for-my-death-says-lance-naik-roy-mathewin-diary-4554832/)
Whatever the rights and wrongs of those arguments, a new low was surely reached when a website, the Quint, released a hidden camera recording of a jawan from the artillery speaking about the hotly debated buddy issue. The Quint showed the soldier, Roy Mathew, located in Deolali, making comments against his superiors. This was done by posing leading questions seeking specific answers. According to his family, in whom he confided later, Mathew was unaware of the fact that the reporter was recording his views using a hidden camera. The website pixelated his face but he was identifiable through other markers. Worried about the consequences of featuring in this “exposé”, he committed suicide.
Had he really been abused by the Colonel he was assigned to, as The Quint sting operation claims, would he have sent a ‘’sorry’’ SMS to him, before writing his suicide note? Would he have absolved everyone for his suicide? He killed himself because he thought that he was going to be court martialed. Not because of his Sahayak duty as the sting operation claims.
“Soldier or Slave” ran the news headlines in the visual media. No effort was spared to make it appear that Lance Nk Mathew was fed up of his superior officer harassing him. The nature of the coverage suggested that he had killed himself due to harassment or that he was silenced forever to stop skeletons from rolling out. They portrayed him as a whistleblower, conveniently ignoring the fact that whistleblowering is a voluntary activity, and their words are never twisted. The media which was braying like a donkey over Rohit Vemula’s suicide holding everyone culpable is now silent on Lance Naik Mathew’s suicide because the perpetrator is one of their own (The journalist who made the sting video has conveniently gone underground). Because there are no votes that could be garnered on Mathew’s remains like it could be on Vemula’s remains.
The Quint has their hands full of his blood.
A while ago, all media channels were crying about the bad food quality in case of BSF personnel. Why are they silent in the matter? Why is the journalist who carried out this sting operation not been singled out? Why is The Quint not being condemned? Why aren’t its management booked for abetment to suicide?
Similar misreporting happened earlier. Rifleman Chandu Chavan was captured by Pakistan Army on Sept 29th 2016. Due to the euphoria of the surgical strikes, this was the secondary news. For four months, virtually no news came of his. When he was finally released, Pak Army released a statement that he had crossed over voluntarily due to harassment by his superiors. The news channels played ‘’According to sources, Chavan crossed over due to harassment by his superiors’’ all day long.
So should we presume that their sources are Pak Army/ISPR/ISI (who have spared no expense in financing anti India elements in all fields in India)? They did not have the decency to report in the same breath that Rifleman Chavan was severely tortured by his captors, and had been injected with various drugs repeatedly during his confinement. He was totally traumatized and incoherent, who needed help even for walking . And this news came out quietly, a couple of days later (http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/soldier-returned-by-pakistan-after-four-months-was-traumatised-incoherent/story-SCz0nJv1Rf1yflSUbhXMhO.html) .
There is a planned effort by most of the news traders to sow discord in the Indian Armed Forces. There is no stone left unturned to put a divide between the soldiers and officers, portraying the former as the victims of abuse and the latter as abusers. ISI’s jihad with India is less about bullets and more about deception . All those fools from India who go to Pakistan and are hosted lavishly come back singing praises of their newly made friends across the border forget that the hospitality showered on them is to soften them up, and make them. Don’t government officials get plied with booze and delicacies here as an accompaniment to bribe? This is a similar, but a way bigger and a long term version of it. Aman ki Asha is nothing but a long term ISI ploy to soften India’s rootless elite class and upper middle class to do its bidding. It already has many of its paid representatives among India’s media houses, performing artistes, politicians, bureaucrats, leftist ideologues, intellectuals and any field of value that can influence public opinion and conscience.
There is no use of getting into what the mainstream media has become, because its clear that most of the people who form a part of it are among the lowest forms of life. The question here is that for how long can this be allowed to go on? Sowing discord in the armed forces by the left is not new. During WW I, Bolsheviks enlisted their own cadre into the imperial Russian army to sow discord among the troops and it had a devastating effect. Our work is much simpler. We have to stop similar attempts by the media and academia , via words and policies. This has gone beyond nuisance value now.
Alas ! Lance Nk Mathew, if only instead of sending that SMS, had you met your reporting officer, you would still be with us…
