At least sixty (some say it was eighty) people perished and around two hundred were injured when six bombs ripped through crowded marketplaces in Jaipur on May 13, 2008. The media relayed live images of the dead and the injured being taken into hospitals. A particular image of (who I imagine to be) a bereaved mother wailing outside a hospital remains etched in my memory - a grim reminder of the soft casualties of a grisly terror attack.
A little over a month later, there is almost no mention of the blasts or the efforts of the government in tracing the suspects. The media doesn't seem too interested either and like most blasts that happened in the past year, this one seems to be forgotten and will in all probability, remain unsolved with the perpetrators going scot free.
Cut to May 16, 2008 - the scene is the upmarket suburb of NOIDA, where a 14 year old girl is killed brutally in her own bed. The servant is suspected initially, till his own body is found on the terrace of the same flat, the following day. Once again, the media swings into action with polls, debates, interviews and what not. I speak, of course, of Aarushi and Hemraj here.
A month later, this piece of news is firmly plastered across news channels, with dedicated reporters covering the beat and trickling every single detail - every flip flop by the police, every nuance of criminal investigation and moving montages of the girl who was killed. Ekta Kapoor in her infinite practicality (and showing lack of sensibility as usual) grabbed the opportunity to weave in a story into one of her umpteen 'K serials', a move that was fortunately scuttled in time.
I can't help wondering today, who is leading who? Is it really the nation, that has connected to the trauma of the murder of a 14 year old girl, or is it a beast, made to order by the Indian media that 'believes' that this is the news that the nation should be concerned about? Can we really blame NDTV/CNN-IBN/Aaj Tak or their ilk for this state of affairs, or have we, as a nation just grown insensitive to an attack on our democracy? After all, bomb blasts do happen with alarming regularity, don't they?
Do not get me wrong. I do not in any way condone either acts, indeed, I find ghastly similarities between the two -one, an act of terror against the nation, by a bunch of misguided cowards, another, a cold blooded act of murder by - as yet unknown. Both acts were carried out by human beings with scant respect to life and their own selfish interests in mind. Both acts reinforce the sheer apathy towards human life, that we as a race have grown to embody. Every day, we, as a race, kill people - physically sometimes, emotionally mostly, to get ahead in life.
Yet, one act has horrified the nation, while the other is glanced at with a 'chalta hai' attitude.
As of the time this post was published, a Google news search for "Jaipur blasts" returns 524 results. A Google news search for "Aarushi" yielded 1,996 results.
The image of that mother comes to mind as I type this post, and I just know that something is terribly wrong somewhere. Blaming the media would be just passing the buck.
P.S. This post was on my mind these past two evenings; however, a 'forward' I got really triggered it off. See the images below to know what I am talking about.
