What goes around comes around! May be, this quote finds its way to prove that it's true to the core, which has reminded me of its genuineness once again today while searching about 'Rohith Vemula', the student who killed himself last week in Hyderabad Central University. Having read and heard of his row from print and electronic media since a week, while searching about this news in google, I inadvertently typed in 'Dalit', the word that's probably used more number of times in the news coverage than the name of the student itself. Only after typing the word I realized how impacting media can be or rather, how unconsciously comfortable I'm with the way the word is being used!
First and foremost, I agree with many people who have said that the usage of the word is irrelevant and unnecessary in many of the news paper articles and in the news channel scrolling. The name, a nice name indeed, Rohith Vemula, could have been sufficient. Well, I cannot teach media; no individual can I guess. A lot of disheartening stuff is going on around the suicide of Rohith. Amidst all this, I get to read the full length suicide note of his. Philosophical. Thoughtful. Emotional. Responsible and all similar adjectives can justify the content of the letter, provided the letter is read as a mere suicide letter of a person. But if the letter is read with a pre-set conclusion, then altogether different feelings come to the mind. Which has what exactly happened with almost every media person who has read the letter, and exactly the same thing as incidentally happened to the politicians too!
The conclusions that they derived have now become the head lines of the national news papers; the flash news in the national television channels. Apparently, the same conclusions are being debated instead of the opinions, ideas and views. And when conclusions are debated upon, the so called debate is not a debate actually, at least not a healthy one! Media persons, as I understand, are moderators or facilitators of the talk show. But unfortunately, some of them have these days become judges and a few others have become compasses, the compass that takes the people along towards the direction that it thinks is correct. Well, compass is a scientifically proven instrument which is accurate a lot of times, the media personnel are yet to be proven accurate and hope they will never be proven for the sake of the country!
While media play its part in this row, the political parties themselves run the row. From the beginning to the ending of such rows, we usually end up knowing that the politicians have their hands at every major step of the incident and also in the way it reaches the national headlines. Once the headlines are full of this news and its proceedings, various people from various political parties get to visit the victims!Probably, the only time the politicians do not visit the victims is during the outbreak of contagious diseases like H1N1. Other than that, they manage to reach the victim either directly by being present at the site or indirectly through the social media, the cheapest or rather cost-effective yet power medium now a days. While they try to console the victim, they victimize a few others; the opposition party leaders being the toppers of the list!
All the unusual yet usual thing happens and media finds a new topic for the debate-shows. But over a few decades now, there is no answer for the question - Why political parties shall get involved in students' affairs? Is there a students affairs or welfare ministry in the cabinet? Or is there any good intention behind all this to let students get practical exposure of the political scenarios like the way they get industrial exposure through internships? 'Good intention' does not exist or at least it cannot be proven in political sense. Hence, its up to the politicians who get involved in student politics and encourage students to fight with each other on the names of their respective parties. This has been killing the unity among students, which otherwise the students must possess in abundance.
The today's dealing model of students and political parties makes me ask if they cannot survive without each other! May be, they cannot in the current scenario but ideally they should. They must. They have no choice. Each of them must find out ways to keep each other distant to begin with. Over a period of time, they might start appearing that they actually two separate entities. Someone must initiate this, be it the government or the college administration, and must follow the genuine process. I sincerely hope the episode of Rohith Vemula's suicide brings a definite change that can change the way the politicians and students deal with each other!
For now, dedicating this 1400th post of mine to all students who were victimized by politicians. Hopping for a better tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment