The tone, tenor and contents of the report ‘Man Tries to Slap Dwivedi with Shoe’(The New Indian Express, 07June, p.9) shows the media fraternity in poor light. Santwana Bhattacharya wrote that “ a mob of self-righteous(sic) media foot-soldiers…felled him to the ground and gave him a good beating”. And nothing short of 'preposterous' is the justification Santwana has for the repulsive brutality displayed by the media fraternity: “Already upset with Ramdev for making them work day and night, the newsmen too were clearly at the end of its tether. Therefore, Kumar got a thrashing not so mush at the hands of the Congress workers, but the agitated media-hands.” ! 

 

Regrettably, the report was factually incorrect too. Having seen it on TV as it unfolded, what actually took place was ‘brandishing of shoe and threatening' and not as reported that “Tries to Slap Dwivedi with shoe”.  
 

Every individual, even alleged criminals have the right, regardless of social status, to be handled within the bounds of the law and  not to be physically ill treated. This right can be ensured only by groups and societies who are sophisticated and have deep convictions about human dignity. 

 

The display of brutality  by the “self-righteous (sic) media foot-soldiers” exposed their veneer of sophistication and pedestrian convictions.  

 

Reportedly, the Delhi police is procuring footages of the happenings at Ramlila Grounds from all to prepare their report for submitting to the Supreme Court. There also is a strong case for the law enforcers to collect the footage of the incident at the Congress HQ from TV channels, for booking the involved “media foot-soldiers”, for their brutality. 

 

And if working day and night drives the newsmen "to the end of their tether" to indulge in such brutality, as reported by Santwana, well… there has to be introspection.     

 

 

Col (Retd) MN Gopakumar

Thiruvananthapuram