Tehelka Investigation on Gujarat riots evoke no response from Govt or courts

'Media failing in duty to uphold the truth'

by Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
Gulf News, November 09, 2007

Mumbai: The groundbreaking investigation of the Gujarat riots of 2002 by Tehelka, an English weekly newspaper, should have by now evoked some kind of response from the prime minister or the home minister or, still, piqued the media's interest.

"What is sad is that even the courts have not taken cognizance of the tapes on which we have mass murderers talking on camera for the first time," says Harinder Baweja, Editor, News and Investigation, Tehelka.

"There was one MLA who boasted that he had a factory to make bombs and had even succeeded in putting together a rocket launcher. Such terrible disclosures have been made and yet nothing has happened. At one level, we should hang our heads in shame, but Tehelka will carry on its work."

Baweja was speaking at a discussion on "The Media And Quest For Truth, The Tehelka Gujarat Expose" organised by Communalism Combat, a magazine published by Sabrang Communications.

Since Tehelka's tapes are first-hand accounts from the men who plotted and orchestrated the killings in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Sabarkantha, they no longer remained Tehelka's property alone, she said.

"The press and media have to get out of their crazy television rating points game and ensure they stay in the business of seeking out the truth in the public interest," she said.

"If Tehelka can do it, so can other newspapers or television channels."

It is not just financial corruption that has to be tracked down but the media must bear in mind that "our politicians can do anything to subvert the process of justice", she said seeking to remind her audience why mass crimes had gone unpunished in the first place.

Kumar Ketkar, Editor of the Marathi daily Loksatta said that secular-minded journalists, though in the minority, would have to assert themselves.

Former Gujarat Additional Director General of Police R.B. Sreekumar, who had faced discrimination for criticising Chief Minister Narendra Modi's government for its handling of the Gujarat riots, recalled how he had been shunned by his fellow officers at the time.
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