Sushant Singh Rajput was found lifeless in his Bandra apartment in Mumbai on 14 June, 2020. The unfortunate and untimely death of a young, talented and promising actor left everyone shocked. I have been a Journalism student for a year now. I have learnt that Journalism is all about being fair, ethical and unbiased. It plays a significant role in helping people have access to a free flow of information.
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“The job of Journalists is to provide information as news to the people about the affairs taking place in the country,” and not to entertain or pass judgements. Presently, Sushant Singh Rajput’s case has rebranded Journalism. This brand new Journalism speculates events, gives superfluous opinions and is fond of rubbing salt into the wounds. This contemporary Journalism has thrown away everything. They are concerned about justice for one person when thousands of people are dying in their country due to Coronavirus. Let’s keep reasons for other deaths aside.
These modern Journalists perform several jobs simultaneously. They investigate, inform, write, interview and expose the names of drug peddlers, confidential health reports and share private chats of deceased. Moreover, they regularly come up with eye-catching, absurd and irrational headlines. They have turned themselves into CBI and NCB officials. Who can suggest/investigate better than these news channels about the next steps? Who can beat these news channels in apprising the audience about the celebrity, politician, investigation agency that will come into the picture next?
Since the Sushant Singh Rajput has died, TV channels have shied away from all the affairs of the country. They have forgotten the nomenclature of Journalism. They have become rudderless. When you say #justiceforSSR, you neglect the fact that there has been no decline in the number of rape cases even during this lockdown. It was reported recently that a 17-year-old girl was brutally raped and killed in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri. A Coronavirus patient was allegedly sexually assaulted by an ambulance driver in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district on the way to a hospital.
God knows how many cases lie unreported. You have forgotten that it took 7 long years to get justice for Nirbhaya. One of the most gruesome rapes in the history of India. Rapists were in jail for 7 years. Let me remind you one of them is scot-free for years now because he was a minor when he committed the crime. He dared to commit such a heinous crime, but no brain to think about the repercussions of his act. Don’t rapes fall under the list of justice?
When you argue with your panellists and say you won’t let this happen to anyone else in this country, you very sweetly turn away your faces with the fact that 20 Jawans were killed in a clash in the Galwan Valley on 15 June. Can you demand justice from the Government for the families who lost their sons, brothers, husbands and children? Can you ask the Government how many families of the martyred have received the compensation amount promised? Can you ask Government why they denied the fact that China had entered the Indian territory? Since May, the border disputes with China have escalated. The situation at the border is festering.
When you say #CBIforSSR, have you forgotten the hardships the migrants and marginalised are facing due to the lockdown? Cast your mind back to the initial phase of the lockdown when thousands of people lost their lives in egregious incidents. Does anybody know how they are earning? Have they become beggars because the compensation promised by the Government remains on paper only? Forget about the compensation; the Government claims to have no data related to the migrant crisis.
Would you demand justice for these people too? Or are they born to accept the atrocities and humiliation? Recall the time when our country had imposed one of the stringent lockdowns in the world but has eventually become the second-worst Coronavirus hit nation. And would you ask the Government about the economy going down by 23.9% in the first quarter (Apr—June 2020) itself, the worst downfall of the economy in decades? Can you demand justice for people who lost their loved ones in the communal riots in February when U.S. President Donald Trump was on his visit to India?
The sheer madness being shown on news channels have crossed all the limits. Why don’t you question the Government to provide real data of the people who died due to the Coronavirus, the ones that committed suicide because of loss of the jobs, the people who lost their homes and belongings in floods of Odisha, Bihar and Assam? Why don’t you demand an answer for not holding a question hour in this Parliament Session? Why don’t you show that the penalty of ₹1 paid by advocate-activist Prashant Bushan was absurd? His expression was not a violation of freedom of speech and expression.
Dear Media,
The list of news is endless. It goes on. It is high time you accept that Sushant Singh Rajput is not the only one that has died in the last 3 months. Lakhs of people die every single day more brutally. However, all those dead people become the number of deaths in Statistical Data of Government only. Justice for Sushant Singh Rajput will not feed people. It will not provide jobs to people. Let the investigative agencies do their work. Please focus on why you are known as the fourth pillar of democracy.