By Firoz.T.Totanawala
The Bangalore Metro Reporter
LET THERE BE PEACE!
THE CLASH OF POLICE, ADVOCATES and MEDIA
The standoff between the Advocates and the media has shown no signs of receding. Both sides are sticking to their rigid stand. The media says that it was brutally attacked and asserts that freedom of press is in danger. It wants the police to arrest all those advocates who were caught on the cameras indulging in physical assaults.
The advocates on their part too are sticking to their stand. They blame the media and the police for assault on the advocates. They have demanded the media to telecast the clippings on the brutalities of the police on the advocates and an unconditional apology by the media which had called them Goondas, Black Coat Talibans, Rowdies et al. They are boycotting the courts and also demanding the resignation of Home Minister Ashoka and transfer of Police Commissioner Jothi Prakash Mirji and DGP Shankar Bidari.
It is another matter that some saner elements have tried to work out a compromise but in vain. In a compromise, there should be an element of give and take, but here, there seems to be no meeting point as both sides have stuck to their stands. Despite the reprimand by the Chief Justice, the Advocates are continuing with their boycott. The advocates are demanding CBI enquiry while the government is bent upon judicial enquiry. The media which too demanded CBI enquiry has lost much steam in the process.
On the day of the incident, the advocates were at the receiving end as news channels abused the advocates by every possible defamatory word. A few hotheads abused the media which in turn abused the entire advocate fraternity with the choicest words. Nobody can condone or support the attack on the media, but the hard fact is that journalism has become a very dangerous profession these days. Over the last one year, more than 100 journalists have laid their life in pursuit of their duties in the world over.
With regard to the standoff between media and the advocates, nobody can deny that there was a resentment after the January 17th incident when the media showed the advocates in a poor light when they held up the traffic in SBM circle for over six hours. The advocates were protesting against the assault of an advocate by two police constables demanding the suspension of the police constables. It was a snap strike and had the police acted diplomatically, the situation would not have precipitated. But the police took their own time and finally the protest was called off after the constables were suspended.
The media carried the road block live for hours together making sarcastic comments on the behaviour of the advocates. They treated the incident as a black mark on the civil society. They condemned the advocates also through ‘callers’ for having held the city to ransom. This negative coverage and publicity made the advocates resent the attitude of the media.
As far as the Friday’s ‘black’ incident is concerned, nobody knows who started it all. Janardhana Reddy was to be produced before the court on that day before CBI court. The police were in full strength anticipating trouble and had they managed the things well, there would not have been any trouble. As the CBI court is located on the ground floor, the police had blocked the entrance and brought Janardhana Reddy directly to the entrance of the court. There were some heated exchanges between media and the advocates in the court when the Judge asked media to go out of the court hall. And at the ground level where the media was in full strength behind the barricade, the trouble started and for some time, there was a free for all situations. Arguably, the Friday incident was the culmination of the ‘distrust’ between media and the advocates. The small incident where the advocates tried to prevent the media men to enter the court premises ignited the clash. The stone pelting, burning of vehicles, assaulting people went on for some time. The media was not prepared to take it lying down and started telecasting the clippings of media men getting assaulted by the advocates. In fact, the policemen also beat the advocates and even general public black and blue, but, such clippings never featured on television.
In protest, the advocates hit back by boycotting the courts. The police acting under the media pressure, booked several cases against advocates and arrested few including the General Secretary of the Advocates Association. Even to this day, the media is demanding the arrest of all those who were on the video clips.
The advocates are demanding the unconditional apology from the media for all the defamation words used by the media. They are demanding action against police personnel who have beaten the advocates black and blue. More than anything, the advocates are demanding the media to telecast the police assault on the advocates inside and outside the court and also the damage caused by the police to their vehicles. In fact, the advocates have in their possession clips of police highhandedness and brutality and want the media to telecast them. The advocates have released CDs containing such scenes.
Whatsoever, the incident of Advocates versus Media Versus police should not occur again, in the interest of sanity in public life. All the three organs are vital to the survival of democracy and a fair and just introspection must be conducted to discover the truth in the incident.
That is all.
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