This cartoon was based on the comment by minister R.R.Patil about the terror strike in Mumbai. The comment means "Such small issues happen daily in big cities". This really spurred the public and made them protest. This was really a silly comment to make.
But at that time almost all the ministers were caught in controversies. The media was on a defamation spree, trying to catch fish in troubled waters, bending facts and trying to misinterpret what the politicians say. Many of the wiser politicians chose to remain silent and get blamed for being irresponsible rather than open their mouth and lose their name forever.
One case during that time was that involving kerala chief minister V.S.Achuthanandan making a statement including 'dog '. The media twisted his statements and made people believe that he had insulted a dead soldier(killed in the line of duty during terror attack) by calling him a dog. The people just blindly believed this news and condemned him. There were posters held condemning him during the vigil held a few days after the blast. Senior members of the party apologised but Mr.V.S stood his ground and said firmly that he had not said this. Days after when the whole clip was shown in TV, viewers understood the truth. Minister had made the comment on some other context. The soldiers father also apologised to the minister for the misunderstanding.
So was the media really acting responsibly? When it was so enthusiastic to Flash the news and show the clips 24/7 ,why did'nt it show the news that the previous one was false. Why dint the channel apologise to the whole nation for making them fools? What about the senior ministers who just apologised to the channels on behalf of Mr.V.S instead of really standing by him and waiting to hear the truth?
Here are just 2 lines from the poem 'If' by Rudyard Kipling.
"If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, "
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment