Over the last 3-4 years media has been lauded, or rather, media has been lauding itself for the 'brilliant' work it has done in the field of social activism. The role played by media in certain cases has no doubt been exemplary, and all credit must go to all forms of mass media for bringing these issues to the fore, however, sometimes, the boundary which must be drawn is crossed, and some sections of society unfairly get advantage of all the brouhaha created.
Taking the particular example of the Uphaar case, it was undoubtedly great on part of the media to having given voice to the victims' families, however, the circus created by the members (even a welfare body has been created, Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy!), and the kind of support given to them by the members of the media is certainly not a good example of collective action.
Next to none has been written or shown by the media about the defence’s arguments - (which, if i may add, are not that invalid either!) - the reason being that it is very easy to 'go with the flow'. Whoever may be right or wrong, but tagging a group of people as 'faulty', with the system still in the process of passing judgement on the issue, and creating all sorts of propaganda about it, may be collective action, but it isn’t action in the ‘right’ direction.
P.S. These are solely my opinions, and I stand by them, however I'm sorry to all those who I may have hurt with these statements.
Rajat Bhatia, 30029
