Media circus

September 19, 2008: I have titled this piece "Media circus" although I am actually referring to this morning’s so-
called encounter killing of two young people referred to as "terrorists" by the Delhi police at L-18 Batla House, Jamia Nagar. I call it a media circus because that’s what I think it really is, like many other similar incidents.

The incident took place in my neighbourhood, about 150 metres from my house, so I have had the opportunity to see how things are turning out. Out on an errand, I was not in the area when the incident was taking place around 11 a.m. and found it impossible to return home two hours later because the road, for about one-and-a-half kilometres on either side, was completely blocked, not by police vehicles but by the parked OB vans of countless TV channels, some of which I had never heard of before. Each of these vehicles had its generator on and thick video cables jetting out for several metres to the other end where the cameraperson and the excited anchor were shouting about how two terrorists had been killed in the fierce encounter.

Most local people are surprised at the speed with which the TV crews arrived here and in such large numbers. Apparently, the Delhi police had already told a section of the press that they were going to carry out a raid at Batla House, based on a tip-off from suspect Abu Bashar (I heard this from an anchor on the Times Now channel although police chief Dadwal is now denying that there was any link with Bashar). But they obviously didn’t say it was going to be an encounter. It is strange that local residents got to know about the incident only after the two people had been killed – many in fact heard it on the Aaj Tak news channel. They claim they only heard the police firing but no gunshots from inside the flat, which, the police claim, injured two of their constables.

Most of you watching television news in your homes may have heard the cacophony of the TV anchors, each trying to be shriller than the other to prove that local members of the Indian Mujahideen had been killed. They now seem to have memorised their lines on this issue well since they have to repeat the same thing again and again. The graphics, animated logos, crawling tickers and dramatic music/soundtrack to go with such coverage are always ready in the can to be used at short notice. A cameraman running towards Batla House nibbles at a burger in one hand while he holds on to a camera with the other. I saw two members of a TV crew outside the Holy Family Hospital (where the injured policemen were taken) fighting fiercely about which camera angle would look best for a sound bite. Everything looks planned, part of business as usual. The cops are happily allowing the media to climb any wall to get the best shot while they beat local rickshaw-pullers to leave the roads clean. The message has come through loud and clear: we told you – Batla House is a haven of terrorists.

But many things sound fishy. I’ve been hearing a lot of angry conversations in the neighbourhood. People are asking why, if the police had only planned a simple raid (as they did two days earlier in Zakir Nagar and Abul Fazal Enclave), they had to bring battalions of police and encounter specialists with AK-56 and other deadly-looking guns (that I saw for myself) in advance. And why the media was called in even before the residents were told. Of course, the fact that this happens on a Friday in the month of Ramadan, and near a large mosque where people were due to gather for prayers in large numbers later, sounds altogether too predictable and clichéd for anyone’s imagination.

Some locals claim that the police had been visiting the area (and that particular building) over the past few days and the so-called terrorists and their weapons were probably "planted" for this encounter the night before. This claim would obviously find no takers in the currently created euphoria: did you see any channel that showed a sound bite to this effect? I didn’t find a single local resident who was not fed up with this oft-repeated image of Jamia Nagar as a neighbourhood that harbours terrorists. But none of the channels I saw aired the public angst against this portrayal.

To be honest, one cannot deny that the Batla House area does have some criminal and antisocial elements just as Darya Ganj or Shahadra or Govindpuri do. But most local residents believe that if Jamia has become a haven of such criminal elements, it is the local police and land mafia who are both equally responsible.

The Jamia area is one of the rare localities in Delhi where the rule of law doesn’t apply in most spheres. The land mafia openly indulges in illegal construction, no rules of traffic apply here and the condition of civic amenities is abysmal. Illegal shops, factories (many employing child labour) and businesses actively operate here with police connivance. Local politicians (MLAs, councillors) are actually part of the problem rather than the solution. There is a full-scale illegal Interstate Bus Terminus running in Batla House’s backyard to bring in hundreds of migrants from small towns in Uttar Pradesh every day (you can see the police openly accepting bribes from its operators any day of the week).

There is no question of sealing whatever the heck business you may run here and most places stink with the heaps of garbage lying everywhere. There are no residents’ welfare associations or citizen’s initiatives to discuss these problems. It is truly a manufactured ghetto of Delhi – why don’t all these problems arise in Lajpat Nagar or Kalkaji? I am positive that the authorities are aware that criminals (or what they call terrorists) exist here. But they deliberately allow them to thrive here, never to be touched in normal/peaceful times – saving them until the time is right. It is as if Batla House is a laboratory or breeding ground where things are allowed to grow by providing all the required ingredients and the protection. The fruits are plucked only when they are ripe (or required). So today they simply came to gather the fruit they had sown and made a big exhibition of it by calling in the media. Frightened that the next encounter may happen in their own homes, the local people simply squirm and hide in their personal ghettos.

In all this, a big responsibility lies with the media and I am yet to come across bold and honest reporters who are ready to go beyond the obvious and investigate the truth – not simply repeat what they are told by the authorities or their channel bosses.