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Why the silence, a reader agonises

K. Narayanan

Two recent reports from Chennai and the reactions they produced offer an interesting study.

On April 3, a reader, sounding angry and distraught, called the Readers' Editor's office to narrate how a 16-year-old boy left Chennai on March 24 to join his mother in Kolkata, and never did. Of the anxiety and agony the mother and friends suffered before finally tracing pieces of the boy's body near Bhadrak in Orissa.

As is the normal practice, I forwarded the details to the Chief News Editor with a note that it could be followed up in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar. As this process was on, the Chennai reader phoned again, and this time got through to the reporters. Young Sandhya Soman who took the call was enterprising enough to trace the boy's friends in Kolkata — the mother could not express herself — and piece together a moving story.

The boy died in the train after hitting a post near Bhadrak and the police "disposed of" the body after post-mortem. No one was informed even though the body had a reserved ticket on it. Four family friends from Kolkata, after frantic enquiries at Howrah station, finally located what remained of the body in a wayside bush off Bhadrak.

This story of bureaucratic indifference and callousness, and also of the spirit of service (of the mother's friends), got major play in the paper. All it produced was a Southern Railway comment that it would look into why it was not informed of the death when the reservation details were available.

The reaction it produced in one reader (there was no other) should make everyone ponder. Radha Gopalakrishnan of Chennai was shocked by the lack of any response. "What is wrong with us as a nation, as human beings?" she asked. "When Ganguly had problems a few months ago, there were reports on almost every page. We can agonise over Iraq, worry about Nepal, inform ourselves about the student uprising in France. ... We have reams of information about the most trivial of events but the tragic death and callous and inhuman treatment of the body of a young man inspires no outrage? ... Why are we so much more concerned about a cricketer's woes and turn away from events that should horrify and goad us to protest?"

Was the silence the result of indifference or a feeling of helplessness? The readers of The Hindu are generally prompt in responding to stories of human suffering with offers of help. This happens whether it is an individual or masses of people in difficulty. The tsunami relief appeal by The Hindu evoked a massive response from all over the world.

So a reader asks, why should The Hindu not set up a permanent fund to which readers can contribute whenever they wish and from which the management can offer relief to the needy? The idea may sound good, but a newspaper cannot take on such a function. It does not have the infrastructure to administer a fund or identify the genuinely needy.

That leads me to a query from another reader — you publish advertisements of appeals for funds from people awaiting surgery; how do we know the appeal is genuine? Here again, it is not possible for the paper to undertake a verification process. As the Vice-President, Advertisement-

The Hindu, says, it believes people will not exploit human misery this way and takes the advertisements on faith. Moreover, the appeal generally is for money to be sent to a hospital account.

There was reaction of another kind to a report that appeared in the Chennai City Edition on March 22. CITU activists held a demonstration outside the Madras Export Processing Zone (MEPZ), Special Economic Zone, demanding wages for those rendered jobless by closure of some units, and payment of basic minimum wages by units in the zone.

The report, which detailed the demonstrators' demands, said officials of the zone could not be reached for comment despite several attempts. On March 28, R.K. Shankar, Regional Chairman, MEPZ Manufacturers Association, sent a mail to the Readers' Editor that the reporter had not contacted anyone before filing the report. This was a serious allegation reflecting on a reporter's professional credentials and the newspaper itself, and needed to be followed up. K. Manikandan, who filed the report, told me that on the day of the demonstration, he had tried to contact the Development Commissioner, the chief executive of MEPZ; he was not available. The Joint Development Commissioner, who was reached, asked the reporter to contact the Deputy Commissioner. He too was not available.

I am glad the Readers' Editor was approached, and the complaint was found to be unjustified. A response to the points in the report would have been simpler, and the right thing to do.

Rajasthan Patrika is the first Indian language newspaper to appoint a Readers' Editor. Anand Joshi, a journalist with 30 years' experience and currently Deputy Editor, assumed charge on March 27, 2006. He will also continue to remain in charge of the magazine section of Rajasthan Patrika publications. The Jaipur-based newspaper has 12 editions from Rajasthan; and six editions from Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Surat.

readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

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