With bulldozers and encounters, Yogi becoming face of violent communalism

No one knows whether the encounter-killing of a former MP from Uttar Pradesh, Atiq Ahmed’s son, was genuine or fake. However, the manner in which the mainstream media celebrated it must make right-minded people uneasy. No sane society can celebrate the loss of life, even if it is that of a criminal. It is of no significance to elaborate on the murder of Umesh Pal, a politician from Pryagraj in UP, and the alleged involvement of former MP Atiq Ahmed and his family in it. It is well known that the murder was the consequence of a long-drawn battle over political dominance in the city of Prayagraj, an important center of culture and politics in Uttar Pradesh. Both the victim and the culprit were adept at switching from one party to another, and Umesh Pal was in the BJP at the time he died.

This must be borne in mind because the murder had nothing to do with the common man and was directly related to the rivalry between two warring groups with serious criminal backgrounds. However, from the day, the police named Atiq and his family, local and national media, especially Hindi channels, grabbed the story and turned it into a daily headline. Most of the story was fed to them by the police, and it included irrelevant stuff like how the accused went to urinate while travelling in a police van from Sabarmati Jail to Prayagraj.

Was this unwarranted coverage meant to attract more viewers? Were the channels deploying more reporters to dig into the story? If we go into the stories on Atiq Ahmed, we find a poor kind of media trial with one-sided views on the case and deeply flawed comments on the subjudice matter. A local strongman turned politician from Prayagraj overnight became a nationally important gangster. The character of this type of news coverage can be unearthed only when we consider the nature of the artifacts used to weave the story. Interviews with the victim’s family, who asked for instant justice, and the portrayal of the culprit as a hardened criminal were essential parts of these news features. The coverage eclipsed news related to major political happenings, such as the removal of Rahul Gandhi from Parliament after his conviction by a lower court in Surat in a defamation case. The coverage was only comparable to the coverage of Dawood Ibrahim in Mumbai before and after the 1993 Mumbai Bomb Blast.

It is not difficult to unearth the reason behind this disproportionate coverage. It was by no means unintended or overwhelmingly political. We can only understand it by uncovering the communal and casteist character of the whole exercise and the ultimate collaboration between the media and the State. This fact should not be overlooked: all of this information came from the police. Everything was aimed at venerating UP Chief Minister Adityanath Yogi and the BJP. These items quietly ignored the fact that the victim had a criminal background. A careful examination would reveal that sympathies can easily be manipulated on religious and caste grounds with biased coverage. Here, strict compliance with the rules of journalism is required. The collaboration with the state led them to throw out all the rules. They placed police versions as independently gathered news. The significance of this coverage is also in its timing. Indian mainstream media has made Hindu-Muslim relations its main focus and is always ready to highlight real or imagined contradictions between the two communities.

However, it does it for some immediate reasons as well. This time, it was the elections in Karnataka that inspired them to make Atiq a national villain. It is another matter; both history and geography helped with it. The former MP has been related to non-BJP political formations and associated with Apana Dal and the Samajwadi Party. Both parties are part of backward class assertions for political power in the post-Mandal Commission era. Murdered strongman Umesh Pal was also part of the same politics mainstream media has made Hindu-Muslim relations its main focus and is always ready to highlight real or imagined contradictions between the two communities.

The media is obviously playing the local BJP game with an eye towards influencing the Hindu-Muslim narrative at the national level. Maybe, it is a sad situation for democracy in India that the media throws away all its garb to become a campaigner from the side of the establishment, but it is a reality we must accept by now.

One more thing and this is the most relevant one, is the issue of human rights. While the media conveniently overlooked it and spent all its time portraying Yogi Adityanath as the vanquisher of evil forces, the Samajwadi Party, the main opposition in the state, raised the issue and termed it a fake encounter. Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav demanded a probe. While giving the details of the encounter and killing of the former MP’s son, the police claimed that 183 persons were gunned down by the police during the tenure of the current chief minister. The claim itself displays Yogi’s motivations.

We need to recall the Supreme Court's judgment on the petition of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties. The verdict clearly says, "Article 21 confers a sacred and cherished right under the Constitution that cannot be violated, except according to procedure established by law. Article 21 guarantees personal liberty to every single person in the country, which includes the right to live with human dignity."

The Court issued guidelines to be followed in an encounter killing. It made an independent investigation mandatory. However, in an era of collapsed institutions, who would believe that investigations by the same administration could be independent? When the media collude with the establishment and are bent upon promoting hatred, there is a very feeble hope of creating an atmosphere of justice. With bulldozers and encounters, Yogi is becoming the face of violent communalism, and the media is helping him to the peril of journalism and independent thought.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)