Ravi Ranjan Sinha / As scams involving members of families of powerful politicians surfaced once again the cry went up that there should be no trial by the media. What spokespersons of the party facing such allegations seemed to forget that the media was not conducting any trial but was just echoing what activists and whistle blowers had been talking about.
To their plea that those making accusations should have gone to the court one could remind them that trials in the infamous fodder scam have yet not concluded mainly powerful involved in those shady deals were able to obstruct judicial proceedings by adopting dilatory tactics like asking for adjournments on one ground or the other.
It was not for the first time that spokespersons of political party have called for stopping what they call media trial..In fact,when one of their tribe appears to be in an inconvenient situation because of either a police inquiry or an expose by some agency and either of the two or both simultaneously finding resonance in the media such arguments come up.They obviously are not worried that there are grave allegations about them but do not want the story to reach the people.They seem to forget that in the modern world information cannot be withheld from the public .
In fact,there are persistent attempts to subvert any system that ensures free flow of information.If the media picks up a story it becomes its duty to keep tracking it at all stages.This leads to layer by layer exposure of their misdeeds which really bothers them.Since they cannot prevent an investigating agency from doing its job unless they are able to bring pressure on it from the higher bureaucracy or the political authority or the organization pursuing the matter the media becomes their target. In fact, charging the media with conducting a trial becomes very convenient for politicians.
Ravi Ranjan Sinha
