Please go to the link below to watch the attack
on Rev. Walter Masih
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/pastor-attack-media-under-scanner/39465-3.html
By failing to act decisively against the Hindu
chauvinist organisations which are targeting
Christian priests and missionaries in Rajasthan,
Maharashtra, and elsewhere, the police are only
increasing the likelihood of copycat attacks.
"I can still hear the cries of the helpless
pastor in my ears. I had never imagined such
cruelty was possible. I had never ever seen
anyone beat a defenceless man in such a heartless
manner." — Sharat Kumar,
Jaipur correspondent, Aaj Tak.
ON APRIL 29, a pastor in Jaipur, Walter Masih,
was beaten mercilessly by activists and goons
associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. We
know this because unlike the scores of other
incidents in which "unidentified assailants"
have attacked Christian priests, preachers and
missionary workers in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, and other parts of India, two
brave television journalists managed to film
this particular crime at great personal risk
to themselves.
Thanks to them, we saw the faces of the attackers
and know the names of their ringleader. His
position as a senior leader of the VHP is a
matter of public knowledge. That the police
took more than 10 days to arrest him
is another issue.
Ordinarily, the exposure of such a shocking
crime on television should have goaded the police
into action and put the VHP and its kindred
organisations on the defensive. Thanks to the
laxity of the police, however, the opposite
has happened, with the Bajrang Dal activists
in Kolhapur who brutally assaulted two priests
on May 6 behaving even more brazenly than their
Jaipur counterparts.
Sharat Kumar is the Jaipur correspondent of
Aaj Tak, a leading Hindi-language television
news channel. Mohanlal Jain is the channel's
cameraman. It was the footage this duo captured
that was later shown on Aaj Tak and shocked
the conscience of the country. There is no doubt
in my mind that had they not been present, Mr.
Masih would have beaten even more mercilessly,
perhaps even killed. And yet, the two journalists
today find themselves under fire. VHP and Bharatiya
Janata Party leaders, upset that the involvement
of Hindutva organisations and activities in
the crime has been exposed, have started blaming
the "media" for being part of a "conspiracy."
And as if on cue, a section of the media has
started a fruitless debate on whether the journalists
concerned were accessories to the crime by their
presence or their "failure to intervene."
Whether intended or not, this debate has shifted
our focus away from the culpability of the perpetrators
and their leaders. It is precisely in order
to clear the air about how he and his cameraman
came to be present that Mr. Kumar has decided
to tell his side of the story.
In a first person account I received by email,
Mr. Kumar narrates how at approximately 1.20
p.m. on April 29, he received a phone call informing
him that Bajrang Dal and VHP activists were
planning to stage a demonstration outside a
Christian school located in a lane next to the
residence of a local Congress politician. Mr.
Kumar was told that two TV channels and one
newspaper had also been informed about the programme.
"We took about 15 minutes to reach the
spot. When our car reached the Nandpuri road,
I was shocked to see more than 50 people with
lathis in their hands sitting around near the
shops. I instructed my cameraman to quietly
film their faces and lathis. I knew that this
organisation would not hesitate to smash our
camera if they felt they might be implicated
in any way."
Unknown to Mr. Kumar and Mr. Jain, two VHP
activists had already entered the pastor's house
and started beating him. As for the goons outside,
they assumed the cameraman filming them was
"on their side" and had been duly
deputed to be present by their leader.
At this point, writes Mr. Kumar, he got out
of the car. Standing at some distance, the man
who was leading these goons, a senior VHP leader,
spotted him. "He started moving towards
me shouting filthy abuses and asking, `How come
he is here, he is from Aaj Tak, quickly cover
up your faces.' Upon receiving a signal from
their leader, the goons started advancing towards
me, saying `If he tells anyone, we will beat
him up as well.' Bearing in mind earlier incidents
when our camera had been smashed, I instructed
the cameraman not to argue with them but to
continue filming everything carefully."
All of a sudden, these activists went and
stood outside a particular house. One of them
knocked on the door. A man opened the door from
inside and ran out quickly and then the crowd
rushed in. The Aaj Tak cameraman quickly followed
them inside. "I had told the cameraman
not to stop filming. As soon as he entered,
he saw that two of the attackers who had been
present before had already badly beaten the
priest."
Mr. Kumar writes that since he is one of the
few TV journalists in Rajasthan "who have
consistently been raising our voice against
the activities of the Hindutva organisations
and have thus been targeted by them," he
thought it best to stay outside.
After a while, he also entered the house.
"As soon as they saw me, the attackers
ran out quickly. The entire incident happened
so quickly that even we were taken aback. Our
footage of the entire incident lasts barely
70-80 seconds. And it is during this time that
they carried out their attack, something we
had no forewarning about. After seeing this
incident, my hands and feet started shaking.
This was the first time in my career as a journalist
that I had seen such a barbaric incident."
Mr. Kumar went straight back to office. After
informing his seniors about what had happened,
he phoned the police and told them about the
incident. "Mindful of my social responsibilities,
I called the police over to my office, showed
them the entire footage and identified the saffron
goons," he writes. "The SP asked me
if I could name any of the attackers. Soon after
that, I saw a senior VHP leader [Virendra Singh
Ravana] giving a statement on ETV Rajasthan.
I immediately phoned the SP to tell him this
was the same man I had seen leading the attackers.
The SP told me that he too had identified the
leader of the attackers."
Mr. Kumar is understandably upset at the inspired
finger-pointing that has now started against
himself, his cameraman and TV channel. The VHP
activists had started surrounding Walter Masih's
house from 11 a.m. and the spot was hardly one
kilometre away from Rajasthan Chief Minister
Vasundhara Raje's residence. And yet the police
knew nothing about the incident. "If I
had not received news of what was happening,
and had we not reached the spot immediately,
the people beating the pastor inside his house
would have escaped. Isn't it also true that
had our camera not captured their faces, their
identities might never have been known? And
the police would not have got any information
either. And just as in the past, another 4-line
news item would have appeared that `unknown
persons' have attacked a priest in the city."
Mr. Kumar is absolutely right. He and his
cameraman lived up to their responsibilities
both as journalists and citizens. Their presence
and act of filming, in the final analysis, acted
as a deterrent for the cowardly goons. This
is not to say that the camera, in other circumstances,
never incites or inflames violence. It can and
does, and journalists should always be vigilant
about this possibility. But the question to
ask in this instance is not whether Mr. Kumar
and Mr. Jain did the right thing by exposing
the criminals. The real question is why the
police — despite having footage
and eyewitness testimony establishing the identity
of the attackers and their leaders —
have yet to act in a decisive manner.
It is very clear the Rajasthan state is not
observing the Rajdharma of ruling the state
as per the provisions of Indian constitution
Sajan George
GCIC
