Student Reporter: Hritam Mukherjee
University: a student of Bachelor in Mass Communication and Videography in St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata
A century old gate is blazing. Noticeboards have been set on fire. Hundreds of goons armed with tridents, tube lights, rods and firearms have broken into the campus. Union Minister is shouting expletives. Acid bombs are being thrown at the students’ union room, “ABVP” written across it’s walls in large letters. Goons are beating up protesting students. Several hospitalised, few critical. Another feather to adorn the fascist, saffron cap. This is Jadavpur University, an ancient prestigious seat of learning; attacked and disrobed of its deserving honour.
What exactly happened?
Babul Supriyo, Member of the Parliament, elected with a ticket from the BJP was called inside JU for a Freshers Party organised by ABVP (also called, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, a rightist student organisation, affiliated to RSS.) Once inside the campus, he is alleged to have passed instigative hurtful statements and have misbehaved with women. When students refused to let him leave without him publicly apologising, heated arguments started building up. With situation gaining momentum, a student pulled his hair, in retaliation to which he dragged and slapped many students. In the meantime the Vice Chancellor of the college, Suranjan Das arrived. He too was mistreated by Babul and currently is under hospitalisation.
By evening, when no way was effective in freeing Supriyo, he called up the State governor, Jagdeep Dhankar. Soon enough, Dhankar arrived and rescued Supriyo from the thunderous students. Within few minutes of them leaving, a monstrous mob accumulated outside the campus. They were armed with ammunitions and were breathing revenge. When not allowed to enter, they broke the gate and entered JU campus to create havoc. They were the goons of ABVP.
Where was Media?
Amongst all this fiasco, this time too, like all other times, the media has effectively utilised its power to sway public opinion in accordance to their own political affiliations. Their bootlicking reporting has stooped down to a new low where the authenticity of the news and accuracy of the details has taken a backseat while trying to frame the sensational news by all means of yellow journalism.
Although all the media houses are united in the cause of not portraying the reality as it is, they are as diverse as they can be when it comes to putting the blame. It comes as a no surprise to us that this dirty game of mudslinging that the various media houses are playing, germinates from the pockets of those bigshots who sit beside the cushions of power and make plans to destroy the democratic fabric of India.
After this vandalism set social media ablaze with rage and renewed hatred towards the xenophobic autocratic regime we all are reeling under, media coverage bifurcated into two narratives.
The first narrative was pro-BJP/ASVP/RSS which went on to portray how Babul Supriyo was “heckled” by the students of Jadavpur University, especially by those who had a leftist inclination or were from SFI (Student’s Federation of India). The second narrative was anti-BJP/ABVP/RSS that condemned the entire incident from head to toe, accused the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests for misbehaving with the students and reported heavily on the vandalism that took place later that evening as a way of “avenging” the lockdown of the minister inside the campus.
Bengali newspapers like Anandabazar Patrika and Bartaman, were highly diplomatic while reporting, not to put the blame blatantly on a single name. They fragmented the entire incident into episodes and published numerous reports in which they highlighted issues from both the sides. Some of their reports blamed ABVP-BJP for the attacks while some condemned students’ wild behaviour and questioned TMC’s authenticity.
(Anandabazar Patrika’s two headlines: In the first one, it is criticising ABVP for creating havoc inside JU with lathis and rods; in the second one, it is questioning the accuracy of TMC’s official statement which declares that the governor had gone to rescue Babul without informing the state govt.)
(In a similar case, Bartaman publishes two headlines in one of which it underlines the ensuing diplomatic talks between the governor and the ruling party while on the other, it supports student rallies against the vandalism of ABVP.)
Although questionable, the neutrality quotient of these reports could be still vouched for. Their reports tried to portray the reality as it was. However this was not the case for all newspapers. Some of the newspapers were very radical in their reportage, sided with a particular party and blamed the other for all the misdoings.
Ganashakti, a Bengali newspaper affiliated to the CPI(M), explicitly blamed the ABVP goons for disrupting peace inside the JU campus by institutionalised attacks. They also reported that this followed the student protests when the Union Minister made instigative and politically triggering statements.
Just like Ganashakti had a leftist, pro-students stand, hindi newspapers like Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar were loud in support of ABVP-BJP. In their reports, they repeatedly brought up how Babul Supriyo was attacked with no circumstantial evidence, ‘gherao’-ed by the unruly mob of revolting students, and detained unconstitutionally until late hours of evening. They justified burning down entry gates as “tit-for-tat.”
These two papers are the largest vernacular newspapers in circulation of North India, in majority of the BJP-ruled states. It is not surprising to know that the content of these newspapers are driven by the fact that the owners of both these newspapers have connections in the central government.
Not only Hindi newspapers, some English newpapers too, sided with and supported the stand of ABVP. For example newspapers like The Pioneer and The Times Of India in their articles, wrote at length how the students’ unruly behaviour has caused injuries to Babul Supriyo and is tarnishing the name of the instituition in which they study. However, these points have been framed with utmost precision and carefulness so that their pro-BJP stand is not blatantly visible. They also raised questions about the powerlessness of the State government as it could not control the rising anarchy and lawlessness.
One can note how both of these newspapers have used the word heckled without putting them in quotes so as to clearly point out the idea that Babul Supriyo was indeed harassed with no iota of doubt.
Not only pan-Indian national newspapers, other English newspapers too with prominence in specific geographical regions of India like Deccan Chronicle and Nagaland Post had backed up ABVP-BJP-RSS and the stand of Babul Supriyo. In their articles, they have named the protesting students as “intellectual terrorists” and has accused the State Govt. of supporting them in their “radical left anarchical hooliganism.”
While these newpapers believed that Babul Supriyo was indeed heckled, some did not. Although not in confidence of discarding it, The Statesman used quotation around the word heckledto inject a subtle undertone of disbelief. The Hindu followed suit, but used the same editorial strategy on another significant action word : rescues.
Speaking about reports with sarcasm, The Telegraph’s report on this issue came as a pleasantly surprising respite. Distorting Babul’s name into “Babull”, it cleverly indicated the magnitude of vandalism through headline wordplay.
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However not all English newspapers presented the incident favouring or antagonising ABVP-BJP. Some newspapers were truly non-aligned with utmost independence from any party influence. Although all papers, in some direct or indirect alliance, are associated with a political party, this news article was well-rounded with no interference of safeguarding any political policy or party prestige.
Amongst what seemed like a conflict between protesting students and ABVP, there has been numerous allegations made to the State Government too, namely Mamata Banerjee. These allegations have been mainly raised by Hindi newspapers which has given rise to a division of opinion. Some of the english newspapers supported the official statement released by TMC while some did not. Reports of Hindustan Times and The Tribune can be cited as excellent examples.
Credibility of Media: does it exist anymore?
- India is the largest democracy in the world.
- Democracy is a rule which is by the people, for the people, and of the people.
- The fourth pillar of every democracy is the Media, a media that is by the people, for the people, of the people…
Do these sentences, in the Indian context, hold meaning anymore? The pillars of democracy are collapsing and ever so, alarmingly. The mainstream media has sold their ethics to the fascist powers, reporting the incident with effect to Human Interest does not remain their motive anymore. It comes as a jolt that the most objective organ of a democracy has wronged its privilege: the privilege of being able to speak fearlessly and independently.
With genuine questions like this being raised in social media platforms after such a wide coverage of the incident, people cannot help but question the credibility of the mainstream Indian media. Thousands of reports, but none that accurately portray the incident as it happened, except a few online news portals. With newspapers puzzling common people with one-sided stories, publishing reports devoid of proper coverage, and blurring the lines of distinction that separates reality and exaggeration, can we trust media anymore?
Fortunately, some are hopeful.
“The BJP is now set to execute it’s sinister plan in India and is fully backed by the corporate media. The mainstream media no longer reflects the truth. We don’t need any more evidence to support this as we’ve seen how the media has maintained complete silence on the Kashmir lockdown. But these tough times have also shown us how the alternative media is trying to expose the true version of events. On 19th September I saw journalists fighting with us side by side in Jadavpur University. They’ve shared our horror, the mass hysteria, the state of lockdown, the fear of acid attacks with us and have brought out these stories. As activists, we depend on our journalist friends who are on the right side of the barricade to reflect the truth when we need it most. The corporate media has become stooges of the BJP, but journalism is still alive” says Jadavpur University’s Student Federation of India’s Joint Secretary, who is pursuing postgraduate studies in International Relations.
Another student of the same institution, currently pursuing economics at the post-graduate level and a member of Jadavpur University Women’s Enclave (JUWC) says “Incomplete information is being given to the people, the students have suffered equally and news channels like ABP are only showing that Babul was heckled. The news channels must see both sides of the coin. They (ABVP Goons) have threatened several of our students. There is obviously more to come; given the lack of basic intellect, more violence will soon ensue.”
It is indeed a sorry state of affairs that we are going through. The instrument of society which all of us were supposed to trust on to take our woes to the room of the elected, have turned their back to us to keep their pockets filled with money and favours.
It will be wrong if I say we should start protesting, because we actually have; in different ways, we are resisting and opposing this fascist regime that we have borne upon us. I only say that we should continue it, without letting our personal interests infect the cause. It will be a long struggle, which can very well be called another struggle for Independence of India. We will be tired of the struggle, but never of the cause, because Rome wasn’t built in a day.
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