IF you ever needed proof, the Aarushi murder case showed up Indian TV channels for what they have become — self-absorbed sensationalists when they are not being reckless gossipmongers.

Was there a news channel that did not ad-lib the police, saying the murdered schoolgirl had a loose character before moving on to naming her grief-stricken father as the killer, and then, inevitably, pointing the finger at a bunch of domestic helps? The federal police was forced to free all the above suspects because — what else? — the real killer was still missing.

Now locate the approach of TRP (Television Rating Point)-driven TV channels within the larger issue of terrorism and how they are covering it. The latest outrage in Delhi saw screaming and hectoring news anchors, including the best ones that a growing swarm of media schools wants their students to emulate.

Did anyone of them try to bring calm or comfort, not to speak of reason and clarity into the frame as they reported the heinous crime? No. They were too busy decoding from yet one more email the alleged terrorists had sent us through goodness knows which media or intelligence unit. The next logical thing the channels did was to give Narendra Modi and a host of similar rightwing rabble-rousers a field day. The truth is that the same journalists would just as easily put on a liberal mask when they need to, the way they powder the nose with blush-on before going on air.

Drowned in gut-wrenching scenes of blood and tears, and sights of utter helplessness of the badly injured, or of those shaken by the sheer act of terror, were voices of sanity and composure. This is a quality that professional newspersons are expected to display at the worst of times but in practice it has become more an exception than the rule. Lost in the mayhem also was a possible lead, or at least a potentially crucial angle, to the running story. A group of concerned citizens, led by the inveterate Mumbai-based teacher Prof Ram Puniyani, has put together a string of leads, which the media has scrupulously ignored, in the form a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

While condemning the atrocities that have left an unacceptable number of civilians dead in a span of weeks, Prof Puniyani asks the prime minister to at least probe a strangely unheeded cluster of events that indicate a different story from the one floated by the media among others.

While the current investigation is totally focussed around the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the hitherto unknown Indian Mujahideen another stark truth is being deliberately sidelined and undermined, says Prof Puniyani. And that relates to the blasts carried out by the Bajrang Dal and the Hindu Jagran Samiti. “We fail to understand as to why the investigation authorities are turning a blind eye to some of the well-established facts,” he asks and makes reference to a few of the ignored cases.

In a major case of blasts in Nanded in Maharashtra, April 2006, two Bajrang Dal workers died when making bombs. Similar bomb blasts were witnessed in other places around that time such as Parabhani, Jalna and Aurangabad in Maharashtra. Most of these happened in front of mosques. The Nanded investigation leads were not followed, including the finding of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad. ATS found fake moustache and pajama kurta, the idea being that the culprits would dress like Muslims to carry out subversion.

Then a bomb blast took place at the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) office at Tenkasi, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu on January 24. After a thorough investigation, the Tamil Nadu police arrested seven, all belonging to RSS outfits. They confessed they indulged in this terror act to instigate local Hindus against Muslims. On further investigation, the Tamil Nadu police arrested Siva, the general secretary of the Hindu Munnani at Kadayanallur, a neighbouring town of Tenkasi.

Formed in 1980, the Hindu Munnani is a frontal organisation of the RSS operating in Tamil Nadu. Siva, who earlier worked in quarries in the neighbouring state of Kerala, had supplied the ammonium nitrate and other raw material for preparing the bombs, the prime minister was told.

Similarly, the bombs, which exploded in Gadkari Rangayatan auditorium in the Thane suburb of Mumbai in June, injured seven people. Again the ATS nabbed the culprits. They were part of the Hindu Janjagaran Samiti (HJS), an outfit of Sanatana Ashram in Panvel. They were also involved in other blasts, in Vashi, Panvel and Ratnagiri, asserts Prof Puniyani who is respected for his documentation. “We have not heard anything about the further tracing of this very important lead.”

On August 24, in Kanpur two Bajrang Dal workers died while making bombs. Rajiv alias Piyush Mishra and Bhupinder Singh were killed while making crude bombs on a Sunday afternoon, which coincided with the festival of Janmashtami. On Aug 25, police recovered some crude hand grenades, lead oxide, red lead, potassium nitrate, bomb pins, timers and batteries from the spot, inside a hostel in the Kalyanpur area of Kanpur, about 80 km from Lucknow. No further investigation was carried out.

“Every time there is a bomb blast immediately the agencies and the media declare that it is done by some Muslim organisation without any proof,” Prof Puniyani points out in the letter to the prime minister which he also emailed to news organisations. “Hundreds of innocent young boys are picked up. What follows are illegal detentions, torture, arrests, harassment of families, forcing the families and victims to sign blank papers. For years these helpless victims are tortured in jails, denied legal aid, even lawyers who try and fight their cases are attacked openly in courts. Their images are tarnished for life. If they are lucky they get let off after years as neither the agencies nor the police have any proof against them.

“The cacophony of stricter laws rises so that a police can extract a confession by third-degree torture and present that as evidence. Through this systematic vilification campaign the process of demonisation of minorities continues unabated. If we look at the timing of the terror attacks it is very clear that one and only one political outfit is gaining from it and that is the Sangh (the RSS-BJP). With their eyes on the central government their agenda of polarising the voter is going ahead successfully. On the other hand, there are constant attacks on minorities on one pretext or another. In Orissa, thousands of Christians have been attacked, rendered homeless, their homes ransacked and looted and burnt down, churches attacked and even orphanages are not left alone.”

Clearly there are two emails in circulation — one bearing the imprint of alleged terrorists, the other representing the voices of the most terrorised. Lamentably, the terrorists seem to have an unassailable lead in TRP ratings.

The writer is Dawn`s correspondent in Delhi.

jawednaqvi@gmail.com