By TCN News,
Patna: Prominent Human Rights organization Amnesty International expressed its concern over the hypocrisy of Indian media in highlighting and sensationalizing Baba Ramdev incident while avoiding reporting on Forbesganj police firing that killed four including an infant and a pregnant woman.
Govind Acharya, a prominent member of Amnesty International USA writing on his blog on Amnesty website wrote, “In the Delhi police brutality case, in which luckily no one was killed but several people were seriously injured, India’s boisterous media was all over the story, condemning the government and the police for what they did. There was blanket coverage. The central government was put on the defensive and questions yet again arose as to whether the coalition will last the full term before new elections. Unlike this what happened in Forbesganj was reported very little while the incident took four lives including a pregnant woman and a 7 month child. In fact, it was only after the release of a video posted by the online magazine TwoCircles.net that we see a glimpse of the full extent of the tragedy.”
Commenting on judicial inquiry into the incident, he said: “Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar has ordered a “judicial probe” but it remains to be seen if such a probe will lead to indictments of police involved in the shootings.”
He termed both the incidents as a result of lack of training to the police about their responsibility. “These incidents both highlight a troubling problem in India (and South Asia writ large)—police that are politicized or poorly trained to do what they are supposed to do—protect citizens and to facilitate exercise of constitutionally guaranteed rights. There’s a story there for the media of India if they would only make the effort” he said.
Govind Acharya is a member of the South Asia Co-Group for Amnesty International USA . He is a former staffer at the International Secretariat. He was also on the Amnesty USA Board of Directors from 2004 – 2007.
Link:
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/asia/if-six-unarmed-protesters-are-killed-does-india-care/