IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL PROFESSIONAL HAZARD?

Some are saying these are professional hazards. I wonder if getting assaulted, beaten up and sitting with broken cameras every other day should be termed and forgotten as ‘professional hazard’. Let us now face the fact that the media persons have turned out to be a ‘soft target’ for all across and beyond the political lineage in and around Kolkata. Take for instance three incidents in last one week.

In the first instance, let us recollect the incident in front of former chief minister Jyoti Basu’s residence, Indira Bhawan. On December 6, the journalists who gathered in front of Basu’s residence to cover football legend Maradona’s visit to him got surprised to know the organizers issued a special invitation card for the press which most of the media houses didn’t receive. Now after an altercation someone from the dais announced that the journalists carrying house press card may enter the function arena. But suddenly the self styled security volunteers, mostly the private security guards clad in commando attire and the CPIM cadres, decided otherwise and started beating up journalists. Interestingly the incident was preceded by the sports minister’s threat to the journalists when asked about the mismanagement in the Maradona’s felicitation programme in Saltlake Stadium, in his own ishtyle English, “I will be compelled to raise my hand.” And Subhas was the main organizer of Maradona’s felicitation function in front of Jyoti Basu’s residence.

In the other incident a group of night shift reporters who went to cover a street accident in Behala, got brutally hit by a group of ‘hooligans’ including a suspended sub-inspector of Kolkata Police. The reason for their anger was not known. But the three police constables who were present there to take the dead body to the morgue, were seen as mute spectators.

And the latest addition to this outrage against the journo was the exhibition of muscle power by Ashok Todi’s musclemen in the city court at the time of Todis’ appearance in court on Friday. The target was the journalists who got assaulted by those private security men in the presence of the policemen!

Fortunately these three incidents were recorded in video camera. But police is yet to take any action.

Now these are a few instances of the many such incidents which get reported or unreported. Some may be annoyed with the media activism or not like the way the media go overboard in covering some issues which don’t go in their favour. But this is not what a professional journalist would expect to happen to him or her every other day. This is no war field. The most dangerous trend is that these culprits go scot free. None takes any action against these hooligans. This sends a wrong signal. People take it for granted that nothing would happen to him if he beats up a media person, even when that is captured on camera. This has started with the emergence of audio visual media in the Kolkata in late nineties. Now it has been happening for last three years consistently. It has happened in Singur. It has happened in Nandigram and it has been happening in every nook and corner of the state.

I don’t think that the situation is this bad for the working journalists in any other state of the country. Nowhere the journalists are put in the receiving end like this. Here in West Bengal the journalists fraternity, no doubt, has been divided over political line due to the policies of the media houses. But this should not stop the professional organizations like Kolkata Press Club in talking tough and take the issue to the higher authorities for the protection of not only the journalists but the journalism as a profession.

WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

Sixty hours of high-voltage drama live on national television has made me numb. I cried within and anger simmered inside me as I saw politicians make the same old speeches. I prayed for those who were trapped and all the hundreds of unknown faces who have been affected by the tragedy. I saluted the heroes who fought the cowards. But at the end of it all I am just perplexed. When will we all stand up?

Six blasts in six months have made us mourn the incidents; the irony is that the latest Mumbai blasts are again a repetition and again we are mourning. Every time we talked of 'intelligence failure' and every time we saw 'tightened' security. On every occasion we got angry with the indifferent politicians and asked them the same question, when will we be safe?

Since 9/11 I have started believing that security is a myth. There cannot be a full-proof security. But that doesn't justify the fact that we will be left with ill-prepared intelligence agencies, ill-equipped security forces, no specialized anti-terror squads and above everything else, worthless politicians whom we have voted to power. I, like many others, got angry and then disgust crept in when I saw the constipated face of the country's home minister, who it seems, reads out the same speech after every blasts or terror attack. I wonder how could he be the home minister, the executive in charge of the country's security forces, without the least presence of dynamism in his appearance.

In the aftermath of the terror attack on Mumbai, the same old political blame game has begun and now the drama of resignations is taking most of the airtime. It frustrates me. At this juncture, why can't we discuss how to overpower global terrorists? or a terror management squad to tackle such situations? Why can't we start strategizing to collect intelligence information? And why can't we think of trauma management mechanisms? I believe we have to be equipped technologically better than the terrorists to take on them.

It is only now that we will think of tightening security in hotels, as we concentrated on banning bicycles after explosive-laden bicycles were used to cause blasts in some other parts of the country. We need a foolproof and sustained plan to tackle terror, we are no more at war with the Pakistan, but are under the radar of the global terrorists.

Still I am perplexed. I don't know what can we do other than raising our voices, that too in sporadic ways, most of which remain unheard.

MONSOON CONNECTION I

Does anything come back to your mind and make you nostalgic when you see the first drop of rains with the monsoon setting in? I know, those who are poetic would certainly refer to some poems and would find a particular association with the nature. I am no exception. But I have association of a few peculiar things with monsoon. Come monsoon and I revisit those, mentally.
Monsoon and the Calcutta Football League is just synonymous to me. I remember when I was in the primary school, how I used to rush home after the classes and switch on the radio to listen to the commentary of the football matches. Those days of Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Md Sporting, Arians, Port Trust, Taltala Sammilani and so many other clubs still come as a flashback in my mind. There were few famous clubs which are now defunct with the decline of the Calcutta Football. I was never a sporting person. I hardly played football except the occasional para or school football in the muddy ground. But I still remember I used to sit on the rooftop and be mesmerized with the movements of the footballers like Babu Mani, Bikash Panji, Krishanu De, Sishir Ghosh, Chima, Emeka, Chibujor, Subrata Bhattacharya, Monoronjan, Bhaskar Ganguly and many others. Though I was fortunate enough to meet some of them and interview later when I joined the profession, but they were my childhood ‘radio’ hero! It is really great to see the live telecast of the League matches is reviving the craze for the football league after a period of slackness. Long live Kolkata football, Long live my childhood monsoon connection!