ചിദംബരാ, ഇവരോ മാവോയിസ്റ്റു ഭീകരര്‍!!

ചിദംബരാ, റെയ്‌ഡ് ചെയ്തു കിട്ടിയ ഈ ‘മാവോയിസ്റ്റു ഭീകരജന്തുവിനെ‘ അങ്ങയുടെ കുട്ടികള്‍   എങ്ങോട്ട് കൊണ്ടുപോകുന്നു? വേവിച്ചുതിന്നാനോ? കുന്തത്തില്‍ കോര്‍ത്ത് തെരുവില്‍ പ്രദര്‍ശിപ്പിക്കാനോ?

ചിത്രം ഇവിടെനിന്ന്.

എന്തായാലും, ‘ഹിന്ദു‘വിന്റെ പത്രാധിപര്‍ക്ക് രണ്ടുപേര്‍ കത്തയച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്. അവരുടെ കത്ത് ഇതാ, ഇവിടെ..

The Editor

The Hindu

Sir

We are shocked to see the photograph featured in The Hindu, dated 17-06-2010, which shows security personnel in West Bengal, carrying the body of a woman killed in a purported raid on a Maoist hideout. The woman's body had been trussed up like the carcass of a dead animal. The photo speaks volumes of how the Indian state views those it considers a threat to the internal security of the nation - as people beneath its contempt and consideration. The photo featured alongside that of the dead woman shows a 'captured' young adivasi man, barely past his adolesence - a face that could stand in for a large number of disenfranchied, poor and desperate tribals, who are being treated as enemies of the state for merely wanting to lead a life of autonomy and diginty. Merely labeling the dead woman and this young man 'Maoist' does not explain the reasons for their disenchantment with the Indian state's policies, both at the regional and national levels - policies which are calculated to deprive them of their right to life and livelihood. Nor does such a labeling take away from the cynical and outrageous disregard and disrespect that these photos represent.

There is a civic decorum that democratic life demands we share, and the media is as much a party to this compact. But when the media presents such photos without comment, and agrees to treat a section of the Indian citizenry as little more than animals to be hunted, one wonders what the democratic contract is all about - perhaps it is a lovely fiction that we all like to invoke when struggles for equality and justice turn violent; and which we allow ourselves to forget when we feel triumphant over our poltiical opponents or when we wish to endorse those who are clearly enemies of the people, as in the Bhopal case.

S. V. Rajadurai

V. Geetha

കടപ്പാട്: വാര്‍ത്തയും കത്തും ശ്രദ്ധയില്‍ കൊണ്ടുവന്ന പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട ദീപക്കിനും സുനില്‍ കൃഷ്ണനും..