TERROVISION

4

Tweet

Last night as I watched the five-hour-long train hostage drama unfold on various television channels, I was forced to rewind my memory to the Indian Airlines Kandahar hijack of IC-814. You might not be convinced with the comparison I am making but allow me to put my point across which of course will be dissected threadbare.

As a school student years back, images of gun-toting, black turbaned Talibans remains fresh in my mind, the sudden news of young Rupin Katiyar who was on his way to his honeymoon stabbed to death, the nation left in tearful prayers for the stranded passengers, and then the big swap of Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Maualana Mehsud Azhar with the airline passengers -- all this unfolded before the nation for the first time on the television screen. Years have gone by now, but the phoenix of the Kandahar hijack raises its head time and again in the form of some politician penning the politics behind it, some airmen splitting the hijack preparedness, or some victim or his relative sketching out the hourly trauma.

Now fast forward to October 27, 2009, where the Delhi-bound Rajdhani express is hijacked -- this time of course no traces of visible bloodshed, except for sound bites of passengers saying" we are safe" but the blatant message which read on the train -" Chatradhar is our hero, please release him" - was sent out loud and clear, so loud that the central machinery was forced to take note of it.

The two hijacks are in no way comparable, for one was perpetrated by an international terrorist outfit leaving an imprint on the global canvas and the other executed by internal security violators raising the demand for the fulfillment of a cause. But I feel that there are two common denominators here, first is the aspect of terror and the other is vision through television - the term perhaps to be used is TERROVISION - where outfits use the media for their publicity. The term is a direct lift from books dealing with terrorist strategies -- and that's exactly what happened last night. A high-profile train detained in the middle of the dense forests, enough to give goose flesh to hundreds of passengers travelling. Leave aside what the nation thought but I as a person thought: "I travel so frequently on that route, what if i am caught next time "

We realize it or not but TERROVISION has become an easy vehicle of publicity for the disruptive outfits. The nation has been inundated for the past few days with bone-chilling pictures of the Jharkhand intelligence officer, Francis Induvar's decapitated body lying on the road, the much debatable swap of Sankrail police station in-charge Atindranath Dutta with 24 tribal women, or be it the Maoist leader Kishenji giving phonos to TV channels about his steely resolve. Somewhere down the line I feel we as the media allow ourselves to be played in the hands of the disruptive forces, to an extent that they seem to overpower us. Many of you might disagree with me I know, but it's just another view of looking at the episode. As a journalist I do feel such occasions are episodes are great stories which generate a sweeping public opinion, bring to the forefront the issues which have been lying buried for years.

Perhaps the irony of media is that it rides on Terrovision compulsively but ends up criticising it as well. If IC-814 was followed by a carefully-scripted anti-hijack policy, then this train hijack will definitely lead to security guidelines for the trains.But let's give a little introspection to a non-journalistic viewpoint - pause and maybe think like a common man on the street and ask: Do we as media allow ourselves to be played in the hands of the disruptive forces - the answer perhaps would be yes and no both - as they are two sides of the same coin - one is incomplete without the other.