Think Otherwise

It is not important to think wise, but seems that people should also learn to think ‘otherwise’. Media, being the major force in the country bears the biggest responsibility
to let know people what is happening around. The biased media has made life difficult for common people who are willing to know the genuine news.

Besides political issues, there are certain strong emotional issues, which when given a wrong projection by the media can easily mislead the public and provoke agitations and unwanted confusions in the society.

1999 – Father Stanes and his two children were burnt alive in Orissa. Dhara Singh was supposed to be the main accused. He was arrested by the police after two years. Firstly, I would like to mention that it was projected by the media that the major suspect was RSS and later after 2 years the accused was arrested and it was found that he has no connection with the RSS.
How many people who know about this incident know about the background of the same?


Think wise….

No doubt that this is such a ruthless act and the accused deserves a severe punishment.

Now, think otherwise….

-What actually drove Dhara Singh to do so?
-Why were the police not able to arrest Dhara Singh immediately?

The media hardly analyzed about these factors. It was found that this incident happened with a great local support. All the people of that village were furious about Stanes since his baptizing act was crossing the tolerable limit. He started interfering in those people’s lives and compelling them to convert to Christianity. He was actually assigned to convert a mass number of people by a Christian missionary and was sent to India for the same reason. The villagers’ customs and traditional activities were greatly disturbed by Father Stanes which irritated the local people and started opposing him. The agitation grew day by day and as a result, Stanes was burnt atlast.

Dhara Singh isn’t a man with great backup or political influence. But yet, the police wasn’t able to arrest him for two long years. Why? He was backed by the local people there. So, it is very clear that this incident has happened not as a personal rivalry between Stanes and Dhara Singh.

Did media care to bring about all these facts to limelight? Why the third dimension is left unexplored? Probably because it may not do good business to them.

I would like to make one thing clear – My idea is definitely not to justify what Dhara Singh did or to back him up. He was undoubtedly very cruel and deserves a severe punishment. At the same time, people should also care to know about all dimensions of the issue and shouldn’t totally go with the media. In this case, Stanes’ crime is over-shadowed by Dhara Singh’s. There are a hell lot of people like Stanes here in India with only one motto – Conversion.

Okay, let me not get carried away here. If I start writing about it, then I’ll not stop. Let’s get back to the topic…. The above said incident is just an example and I want to insist on the fact that the people should always have their own views and opinions and should not blindly react with what the media says. Media is just to let people know about the happenings in and around. Think how was the agitation when that incident happened way back in 1999? Even today, quite a lot of people living in villages are being tortured by such Fathers, but where is the media gone? When the people break out and show their opposition, the media comes into play and project it however they want.