All claims of India leapfrogging into the future, joining and finding place with the best nations of the word as equal partners, the big new hope of world order, the country to come to, the land to come home to, were set on fire, burnt to ashes, ravaged by a mob of supporters of a self styled Godman in Haryana, with millions of followers, who was brought down to earth and reduced to the rank of a common and a disgusting criminal, convicted of rape, and sent to jail.
Panchkula, a sleepy, well designed town, on the outskirts of Chandigarh, but very much within the state of Haryana, with leafy lanes, large homes with manicured lawns, has been marauded by supporters of the Dera Saccha Sauda, whose self styled head and godman is Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh aka ‘Baba’. And they have blood on their hands. And not just those of the 28 and counting who have died, some of them right on the main thoroughfare of Panchkula, but the blood of an intangible killing they have committed, along with a complicit state – the killing of a belief that India was really ready for change. India in fact looks like a Banana Republic today, with the madness and mayhem spreading across four states, if Ghaziabad in UP is included.
But there is also another extremely disturbing narrative. The randomness and the viciousness of the criminals of Dera Saccha Sauda, the supporters of Baba Ram Rahim, as they attacked journalists, their equipment, cars and vans, has never been witnessed in India in this scale, and that includes two of the greatest carnages India has faced – the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Outdoor broadcasting vans of four or five of the national TV channels were damaged and burnt, reporters were attacked, stones pelted on their cars, media cars were severely damaged, one crew member of a channel was wounded severely and had to be rushed for medical attention. While the attacks itself were deplorable, what was shocking was the impunity and confidence with which they were carried out. As the state stepped back and watched the destruction and the killings, let this be said that the brazen attack on the media, took mob violence to another level. And that is where we need to take guard.
While the instant attacks may not have been state sanctioned, it is clear that the ruling BJP in Haryana, as well has parties across the spectrum have hob-knobbed with Baba Ram Rahim. It is only the media and the media alone, which has taken on the now convicted rapist Baba, when the elected executive has acted an ally.
On a day like this let us not forget Ram Chander Chhatrapati, the editor of a Haryana daily Poora Sach, who was shot at point blank range after he published the letter sent by the woman disciples to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in 2002 containing details of the rapes then allegedly committed by the Godman. According to a report in news18.com, in September that year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo motu cognizance of the letter. On October 24, the 53-year-old editor was shot four times by two men on a bike, and battled for his life in Apollo hospital, New Delhi for 28 days. The men were alleged to be Dera followers. Before he died on November 21, Chhatrapati named Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh as the man behind the act. His son Anshul, then 21, is still waiting for justice for his slain journalist father.
It is in this context that the no holds barred attack on journalists should be viewed. The only two institutions that worked in Haryana to bring the rapist Baba to book were the Judiciary and the media, when the other pillars of democracy, failed. On Friday, the media was targeted as a pre-determined enemy of the state of Baba Ram Rahim, while the state of Haryana flew from the scene.
We will indeed be missing the wood for the trees if we do not see this as a growing virus throughout the country. The guts to identify and attack the media as an enemy by forces like the army of the rapist Baba Ram Rahim comes from the confidence that the media today is seen as a soft target. And if the State cannot prevent the media from being a soft target, the media needs to be united for its own protection.
That is why this edit is dedicated to the slain Ram Chander Chatrapathi and his son Anshul, and the reporters and crew who covered the Haryana violence, as they were stoned and hit and their cars and equipment destroyed and set on fire. In the bloody mayhem and shame to our country, which the whole world watched and commented, we stand united and proud with our colleagues that the pillar of democracy we represent is still held together. And if we don’t stand firm, this pillar will indeed give in.
