Why BSF jawan episode has left me disillusioned about Indian media's credibility
BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav, who "pioneered" the practice of Army jawans airing grievances on social media, was recently dismissed from service following a court martial inquiry.
Allegations levelled by him through four videos uploaded on Facebook alleging bad quality of food were found to be false. He was also found guilty of charges such as indulging in an act prejudicial to good order and discipline of the force, not adhering to formal grievance redressal mechanism of the force etc.
The BSF followed the due process of law before taking any action and the individual was accorded all opportunity to defend his case and produce witnesses. The BSF court proceedings were open to public and general public was free to go and witness the proceedings.
Videos uploaded by the jawan in early January had gone viral with the mainstream media lapping them up to paint a black picture of the BSF. The media coverage, it appeared, was designed to give an impression that everything done by the BSF was wrong. It also implied that jawans were not given their due and were forced to do menial jobs. But most importantly, they "decided" that all officers were corrupt.
Efforts by the BSF to take a balanced view on the issue were contemptuously dismissed as "cover-up". The BSF inspector-general of Jammu was criticised for highlighting the past conduct and disciplinary record of the jawan.
A prominent TV journalist was instead trying to dig out the antecedents of the commanding officer of the unit. When confronted with the question by some young officers as to why her TV channel was showing a one-sided story, she said the BSF has "lost the perception war and its credibility. The general sentiment was in favour of the jawan and that is why that angle was being highlighted".
Even the established procedure of transferring the jawan to another location to ensure fair inquiry and prevent possible victimisation was questioned and projected as an unfair move.
These videos apparently had a multiplier effect with many similar videos from other forces — Army, CRPF and CISF — started surfacing, highlighting supposed injustice and corruption. Everything — from the standard of ration, distribution of liquour and quality of clothing and equipment to the sahayak system — came under lens.
Cantankerous debates on TV channels tried their best to show that the "armed forces were fighting a war among themsleves". In fact, one debate on a popular channel, in which I was also one of the panel members, became so acrimonious that ex-chief of Army, General Roy Choudhary, lamented to the anchors that “they couldn’t have slapped the institution of Army harder” or words to that effect.
The anchor alleged that Yadav was not being allowed to talk to his family. But when I pointed out that their channel showed their reporter talking to him during the day for good five minutes in the presence of his family, the anchor refrained from further mentioning it.
Articles calling for a campaign in support of jawans like constable Yadav to stop the so-called atrocities on them started appearing on some news portals.
The Armed forces, which till the other day were beyond reproach and which the neo-nationalists and patriots took refuge at if criticised, was suddenly being questioned on all accounts. Everybody tried to paint a picture where the soldiers were the “proletariat have-nots” (as described by Karl Marx) and subjected to the worst atrocities and exploitation by the elite class of officers.
It never crossed their minds, especially of the electronic media, to soil their boots and sift through the actual facts. Views were articulated based on contents of videos according to their convenience. The fact that another utensil lying close by had a fair sprinkling of condiments was perhaps too inconvenient, hence deliberately ignored. The BSF was condemned by everybody even though it was apparent that the jawan looked fairly healthy and well-attired, which he wouldn’t have been had he been regularly fed poor quality food, as alleged by him.
It also never crossed the minds of journalists to question the motives of Yadav in going public with his grievances, ignoring the robust grievance redressal mechanism that all armed forces have in place (something that enjoys the full faith of a combined strength of 2.3 million defence and armed forces personnel).
I have always believed that at the end of the day everyone has a conscience to answer to and people in any profession try to do their best. But this is an incident in which (and I know this for a fact having been a part of the elite BSF for over 38 years) the media has blatantly distorted the truth. This leaves me disillusioned about the credibility of the institution of the fourth estate.
Alternately, is it possible that the media houses were asked to blow the issue out of proportion because the government wanted public attentionto be diverted from some other important issues? Not to mention how the media failed to highlight several important changes in the Finance Bill in the din of "Gaikwad versus Air India" and the "Anti-Romeo Squad" episodes.